State targets lax medical-pot doctors
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aaa4_bad_government.html#prayer20131128 Don't these government nannies have any REAL problems to solve??? Well other then making life miserable for users of medical marijuana!!!! http://www.mercurynews.com/politics-government/ci_24673821/san-jose-take-new-shot-at-limiting-medical San Jose to take new shot at limiting medical marijuana shops By Mike Rosenberg mrosenberg@mercurynews.com Posted: 12/07/2013 12:00:00 PM PST SAN JOSE -- Bolstered by new legal authority, San Jose leaders are trying again to impose rules that would sharply shrink the number of medical marijuana dispensaries that have proliferated across the city in recent years as officials struggled to regulate them. But even as the San Jose City Council considers new rules Tuesday evening, marijuana advocates are promising once more to collect signatures that would allow voters to overturn them, reigniting a weed war that had been on ice while city leaders awaited key court rulings. The state Supreme Court this spring ruled that cities can regulate medical marijuana shops, prompting the new proposals. Mayor Chuck Reed said there doesn't appear to be support on the council for a complete ban but said the council has a shot at passing rules that block dispensaries near schools, homes and other sensitive areas. 2010: The cannabis processing department at the Harborside Health Center in San Jose. (Gary Reyes/Mercury News) ( Gary Reyes ) "We can't just have a laissez-faire regulation system," said Reed, who suggested that the city get "mean" with problem pot shops. The regulations recommended by City Hall would limit the locations in which the dispensaries could operate to less than 1 percent of all parcels in San Jose. Pot shops would not be able to stay open within 1,000 feet of schools, churches, parks, libraries, day-care centers and community centers; within 150 feet of homes; or within 500 feet of drug rehab centers. That leaves only 1,404 parcels left, most in the industrial north end of the city. The city's pot businesses, now numbering about 80, are spread out around San Jose, mostly in the central part of town. They operate under a legal cloud: The landmark 1996 Proposition 215 Compassionate Use Act made California the first state to legalize pot for the sick, though the state more recently prevented the pot shops from operating within 600 feet of schools. However, federal law still makes medical marijuana illegal, exposing distributors to prosecution. San Jose has not approved zoning for medical marijuana shops, making them technically illegal and subject to closure under city code enforcement. But there are no city laws specifically banning or regulating them. And San Jose voters in 2010 overwhelmingly approved a 10 percent tax on marijuana businesses, pumping $5.4 million a year into a $1 billion city general fund that has struggled with chronic shortfalls. City officials have limited enforcement action against marijuana stores to those that have generated complaints, are located near schools or failed to pay the city tax. In pushing for the new law, city officials cite concerns from neighborhood and law enforcement groups, and a survey that found nearly half of Lincoln High School students got their marijuana from nearby collectives. Angelique Gaeta, assistant to the city manager, said that if the laws are enacted -- as soon as this coming summer -- all businesses operating in the banned zones would be asked to shut down voluntarily. If they ignored that message, the city would take civil -- and possibly even criminal -- action to shut them down. Kris Hermes, a spokesman for Oakland-based medical marijuana advocacy nonprofit Americans for Safe Access, said similar regulations enacted in cities such as San Francisco did not result in a de-facto ban. Rather, the businesses clustered into the few areas where the shops were allowed, creating even bigger problems. "They don't want this sort of dumping ground, if you will, where all the dispensaries are," Hermes said. "And it really doesn't serve the interest of the patients," some of whom hit the streets for drug deals if pot shops are banned in their neighborhoods, he said. Americans for Safe Access says 200 cities and counties in California have banned medical marijuana shops altogether, including about half the cities in Santa Clara County. About 50 other cities have ordinances regulating them. In San Jose, the City Council -- half of which is running for mayor in June -- not only has to deal with the perennial hot-potato issue before them, but whether the law they pass would be upheld by voters. Medical cannabis attorney James Anthony took one look at the proposed map the city published showing the few places where dispensaries could operate and said: "That's absurd; that's not going to work." Rather than causing problems, Anthony said the pot shops have installed increased security systems, raised tax money, provided jobs and supplied local patients with convenient access to their "medicine." He predicted a repeat of the referendum drive he led when San Jose officials tried enacting similar regulations in September 2011. At the time, the council wanted to limit the amount of pot clubs in the city to 10, among other restrictions. But after medical marijuana supporters gathered enough signatures to qualify a referendum allowing voters to overturn the rules, the council early last year withdrew them. City officials put new regulations on hold pending state court decisions on other cities' efforts to regulate pot shops. In May, the Supreme Court ruled that cities can, in fact, ban and regulate pot dispensaries. At the same time, the local U.S. Attorney General's Office issued a memo declaring that federal officials would focus enforcement on pot dispensaries located within 1,000 feet of schools. Reed acknowledged that city leaders' original fear that a huge number of pot shops would overrun the city did not really materialize. Rather, it turns out that a few "bad actors" accused of marketing pot to kids or disturbing neighbors are the city's prime concern, he said. The number of pot clubs has also declined from more than 100 two years ago to 82 as of last week. But Councilman Kansen Chu, of north San Jose's District 4, where most of the pot shops would be allowed to stay under the proposed rules, has proposed even stricter regulations. Chu said he has received "many complaints" about the dispensaries and wants to ban them from doing business within a mile of schools, churches and the like and within a half-mile of homes. It's unclear how many, if any, properties would be left. Contact Mike Rosenberg at 408-920-5705. Follow him at Twitter.com/RosenbergMerc. I am sure Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne, and Maricopa County Attorney will tell you they are all fakers. Of course for the rest of us who don't make our money by destroying the lives of innocent people who use marijuana by locking them in prison will tell you that marijuana is a damn good drug and should be legalized. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/06/us/families-see-colorado-as-new-frontier-on-medical-marijuana.html?hpw&rref=science&_r=0 Families See Colorado as New Frontier on Medical Marijuana By JACK HEALY Published: December 5, 2013 FOUNTAIN, Colo. — As their children cooed from wheelchairs and rocked softly in their arms, the marijuana migrants of Colorado clasped hands, bowed their heads and said a prayer of cautious thanks. Madeleine Lightle’s parents have brought her to Colorado Springs after a neurologist suggested removing part of her brain to stop her seizures. Some say the oil, known as Charlotte’s Web, has relieved their children of severe seizure disorders. Parents like Marisa Kiser, center, snuggling with her son, Ezra, and Cristi Bundukamara and her son Reggie, 14, have become part of a community of families in marijuana-friendly Colorado. They moved to the state to explore an oil derived from marijuana. They thanked God for the dinner of roast turkey and mashed potatoes, for their children and for the marijuana-based serum that has drawn 100 families to Colorado on a desperate pilgrimage to quell the squalls of seizures inside their children’s heads. They have come from Florida and Virginia, South Carolina and New York, lining up to treat their children with a promising but largely untested oil that is considered legal medicine in this cannabis-friendly state. “Thank you for bringing us together,” said Aaron Lightle, whose wife and 9-year-old daughter, Madeleine, moved here after the girl’s neurologists suggested removing part of her brain to stop her relentless seizures. “In crazy ways, maybe. But hey, we’re here.” Amen, they said. Their migration is one of myriad ways that a once-illicit drug is reshaping life here in Colorado, which now stands at the forefront of the national debate over legalizing drugs. While these families are seeking treatment through a medical marijuana system that has existed for years, they are arriving at a time when the drug is becoming a mainstream part of public life, made legal for recreational use in a historic vote last year. The Justice Department has warily allowed Colorado and Washington State, which passed a similar measure, to go ahead with their plans to regulate recreational marijuana, even though it remains illegal under federal law. The first retail marijuana shops in Colorado are poised to open in January. Strains of sativa and indica plants flourish in basements across the state. This week, the Denver City Council moved toward allowing people to smoke marijuana on their property, though smoking in public would still be prohibited. The new arrivals call themselves marijuana refugees. Many have left jobs and family members behind in states where marijuana remains outlawed, or cannot be used to treat children. While some have moved their entire families, others are splintered, paying rent and raising children in two states. During the holidays, they join family gatherings through video chats and swap iPhone pictures of Christmas trees. But as more arrive to register their children as medical-marijuana patients, they have knitted together a random family here, across the suburbs and foothills of Colorado’s Front Range. They are Muslims and conservative Christians, liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans. Now, they cook dinners and babysit for one another. They meet to compare progress and seizure diaries. They discuss the best ways to feed the oil to their children. They wait, and hope for results that mirror the astonishing successes they have seen in television reports and online videos. “I put what fit in my car and drove out here,” said Marisa Kiser, whose 19-month-old son, Ezra, has had seizures since he was 3 days old. The families have hung their hopes on a marijuana oil called Charlotte’s Web, which is made by a medical marijuana dispensary in Colorado Springs. The business, called Indispensary, also sells a variety of highly potent marijuana and edibles. Buyers of the medical marijuana must present certifications from two practicing Colorado doctors. Charlotte’s Web is a rich amber and as thick as cold honey. It smells like marijuana and tastes like raw plants. Joel Stanley, one of five brothers who run the dispensary, says the oil is low in THC, which gets users high, but contains a wealth of a cannabidiol, or CBD, a chemical that provides no buzz, but that marijuana advocates and medical researchers say has a variety of medical uses. A month’s supply of the oil can cost $150 to $250, and some families say they receive financial help from a nonprofit group related to the dispensary called the Realm of Caring Foundation. In a YouTube video produced by Realm of Caring, two mothers describe how their children were transformed after taking the oil for a few months. In one section, Paige Figi recalls how seizures had jolted her daughter Charlotte every 15 minutes, leaving the girl unable to walk or talk. In the next shot, the girl dances in a pink leotard and shouts, “Ballerina!” The other mother featured in the video, Heather Jackson, was so convinced by the potential of CBD that she is now the executive director of the Realm of Caring Foundation. Ms. Jackson said her son, Zaki, who once had 200 seizures a day, still faces a host of developmental disabilities, and will probably need help for the rest of his life. But she said he had gone 14 months without a seizure. A pretreatment recording of electrical activity in his brain showed a heaving chaos of huge spikes and deep troughs. A readout taken several months in showed smoother rises and falls. “It’s really incredible,” Ms. Jackson said in an interview. “For whatever reason, this has put his syndrome into remission.” There is only scattered medical research to substantiate the claims, in large part because marijuana’s outlaw status has kept it off limits for many scientists in the United States. Studies as far back as 1975 have suggested that cannabidiol can prevent spasms in lab animals, and a few researchers in the United States have conducted limited studies on people. Dr. Margaret Gedde, a Colorado physician who has recommended medical marijuana to dozens of families with severely epileptic children, recently conducted a small survey that offered promising results. Of 11 families who treated their children with high-CBD oil, eight reported that their children’s seizures had fallen by 98 to 100 percent. The other families reported smaller but noticeable declines. Dr. Gedde and her co-researcher, Dr. Edward H. Maa, an assistant professor of neurology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, will present their research to the American Epilepsy Society at a meeting next week. But the clinical trials matter little to parents who have watched their children sustain cracked skulls and broken arms during seizures, who have spent holidays in the emergency room, whose toddlers are taking barbiturates. After years of watching their children slowly vanish behind a firestorm of seizures, or the debilitating side effects of powerful prescription drugs, they said marijuana seemed worth a try. The families’ stories have been covered extensively in the local newspaper, The Gazette. “We really didn’t have any other options,” said Annie Koozer, whose family left Tennessee in search of help for their 2-year-old daughter, Piper, who has a rare genetic condition called Aicardi syndrome, in which the structure that connects the two hemispheres of the brain is deformed or missing. Since she was 3 months old, the girl has endured 400 seizures a day. After treatment by five neurologists and nine increasingly debilitating seizure medications, the family moved to Colorado in August. Ms. Koozer’s husband, Justin, called it the family’s last-ditch effort to help Piper. They signed a lease on an apartment and began giving her the oil about a month ago. Waves of seizures still attack her, leaving her parents helpless, worried she will stop breathing. But they said Piper sleeps more, seems more alert and appears to have fewer spasms now — sometimes as few as two or three each day. They do not know what will happen, whether the progress is real or sustainable. But they have decided to keep at it. And they have decided that this place, 1,300 miles away from their extended family, is now home. http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-cia-spies-20131208,0,1187596,full.story#axzz2mtlCE4Yz CIA's anti-terrorism effort called 'colossal flop' By Ken Dilanian December 8, 2013, 6:01 a.m. WASHINGTON — Several years ago, a senior officer in the CIA clandestine service attended a closed-door conference for overseas operatives. Speakers included case officers who were working in the manner Hollywood usually portrays spies — out on their own. Most CIA officers abroad pose as U.S. diplomats. But those given what's called non-official cover are known as NOCs, pronounced "knocks," and they typically pose as business executives. At the forum, the NOCs spoke of their cover jobs, their false identities and measures taken to protect them. Few said much about gathering intelligence. A colleague passed a caustic note to the senior officer. "Lots of business," it read. "Little espionage." Twelve years after the CIA began a major push to get its operatives out of embassy cubicles and into foreign universities, businesses and other local perches to collect intelligence on terrorists and rogue nations, the effort has been a disappointment, current and former U.S. officials say. Along with other parts of the CIA, the budget of the so-called Global Deployment Initiative, which covers the NOC program, is now being cut. "It was a colossal flop," a former senior CIA official said in sentiments echoed by a dozen former colleagues, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a classified program. Spurred by Congress after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the CIA rushed to put its eyes and ears in gritty corners of the globe where Al Qaeda and other adversaries operate or recruit. The risk was considerable: Unlike CIA officers in embassies, NOCs have no diplomatic immunity if caught, and could face imprisonment or worse. The CIA spent at least $3 billion on the program, and the number of specially trained spies grew from dozens to hundreds. The entire clandestine service is believed to total about 5,000 people. But because of inexperience, bureaucratic hurdles, lack of language skills and other problems, only a few of the deep-cover officers recruited useful intelligence sources, several former officers said. Some of the most ambitious efforts were aimed at Iran, former officers said. The CIA created front companies and elaborate fake identities for operatives trying to recruit sources inside Iran's nuclear and missile procurement networks. But Iranian authorities were able to expose American operatives, said two former senior CIA officials. They were transferred back to CIA headquarters in Virginia or other U.S. posts. Sometimes the CIA didn't send the right people with the right cover, said Joseph Wippl, former chief of the CIA's Europe division. Others were posted "a zillion miles from where their targets were located," he said. CIA leaders also were reluctant to put the special spies in harm's way. "There was just a great unwillingness to put NOCs in really, really dangerous places," said another former case officer. "If you're a high-grade agency manager, are you going to sign off on a memo that puts Joe Schmuckatelli in Pyongyang? Whether you are a careerist or not, that is a hard decision for anybody to make." The program also was tainted by financial irregularities, according to a former senior CIA official. The CIA's inspector general found that some NOCs billed the agency for unjustified time and expenses, three former officials said, and it forced a few to repay money. A CIA spokesman, Todd Ebitz, declined to comment about the NOC program, its budget or its problems. "The agency does not discuss publicly any cover techniques that it may employ," he wrote in an email. "The CIA does keep the congressional intelligence oversight committees fully informed of its activities, which are constantly evolving to meet the threats to national security. And, while the details of the agency budget remain properly classified, sequestration and budget cutbacks have affected the entire federal government, including CIA." The best-known NOC was Valerie Plame. In the mid-1990s, while in Brussels, she posed as an energy analyst for a Boston-based firm, Brewster Jennings & Associates, which the CIA later acknowledged was a front company. Plame maintained her false identity after she moved back to CIA headquarters in 1997, traveling frequently to the Middle East and elsewhere to recruit agents who could spy in Iran and elsewhere. Her CIA career ended in 2003 after Bush administration officials leaked her name to the press in an effort to discredit her husband, who had claimed the White House had manipulated intelligence on Iraq. A White House aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was later convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice. Plame's best-selling book on the case, "Fair Game," was turned into a Hollywood film. Masking spies as engineers, consultants or other professions has long been part of the CIA playbook. But the push took on new urgency after the 2001 terrorist attacks exposed the CIA's lack of informants inside Al Qaeda and other terrorist networks. It wasn't that CIA officers were expected to personally infiltrate Al Qaeda. But working outside the embassy might make it easier to recruit local sources in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere who could collect intelligence on terrorist money, aims and intentions. In 2004, then-CIA Director Porter J. Goss announced a new effort to put more officers under deep cover to gain what he called "close-in access to the plans and intentions" of America's adversaries. Soon after, Congress passed legislation permitting undercover CIA officers serving overseas to keep salaries from their civilian cover jobs even if it exceeded their federal paychecks. Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee pressed the CIA to go further. They attached a provision to their 2006 intelligence authorization measure questioning whether the spy service was "committed to doing what is needed to ensure that NOC operations are successful." The agency doubled down. A growing number of recruits at the CIA training facility at Camp Peary, Va., known as the Farm — including the class of 2008, the largest in CIA history — was made up of NOCs, former officials said. Unlike their classmates, they were barred from making cellphone calls or using the Internet in order to hide any ties to the CIA. Later, many would operate in their own names, holding real jobs for multinational companies around the globe. But when it came to penetrating terrorist networks, NOCs suffered the same shortcomings as other CIA officers — too few spoke Urdu, Pashto, Dari or other necessary languages, or could disappear in local cultures, former CIA officers say. In 2008, a former CIA operative's biting memoir, "The Human Factor," was published, describing his 15 years overseas targeting nuclear networks and terrorist groups. He wrote that the CIA had spent at least $3 billion since 2001 to get deep-cover operatives overseas, but only a few had been successfully deployed. "There were only a handful of effective NOCs overseas, and that never changed," the author, who uses the pseudonym Ishmael Jones, said in a telephone interview. In 2010, then-CIA Director Leon E. Panetta gave a speech promising "new approaches to cover." But the vast majority of case officers continue to pose as diplomats, U.S. officials say. John Maguire, who retired from the CIA in 2005, argues that the CIA could help the NOC program by doing more to establish legitimate commerce for the front companies. But that would cause headaches for CIA administrators, he acknowledged. Maguire said he knew only three successful NOCs in his 23 years as a case officer. "They were absolute nightmares for the administrative bureaucracy of the agency," he said. ken.dilanian@latimes.com A government welfare program for sellers of sugar??? http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sugar-protections-prove-easy-to-swallow-for-lawmakers-on-both-sides-of-aisle/2013/12/07/f5959c06-5ac4-11e3-bf7e-f567ee61ae21_story.html?hpid=z1 Sugar protections prove easy to swallow for lawmakers across political spectrum By Peter Wallsten and Tom Hamburger, Published: December 7 E-mail the writers Washington politicians facing a year-end deadline to cut billions in agriculture spending are feuding over the future of food aid for the poor and crop subsidies for farmers. There is, however, one area of agreement in the contentious negotiations: sugar. Lawmakers decided to preserve the decades-old government safety net that boosts profits for a relatively small group of growers and has cost consumers billions through artificially high prices. The special protection is a testament to the enduring Washington clout of one of the country’s wealthiest farming interests, including the politically connected Florida family that controls a substantial share of the world’s sugar market. Sugar makers succeeded by gaining the support of a wildly divergent collection of lawmakers — rural and urban, tea party and liberal — who have little in common other than the presence of sugar operations in their states. The industry doles out generous campaign contributions that outstrip those from other agriculture sectors. Its leaders have forged personal ties with senior lawmakers, congressional staffers and high-ranking officials in the executive branch. A pivotal player is the Fanjul family of Palm Beach, Fla., which commands the world’s biggest refining operation, owns the ubiquitous brands Domino and C&H, and raises millions of dollars for politicians from both parties. Sugar-beet farmers in the upper Midwest, responsible for about half of the country’s sugar production, have also enhanced the industry’s clout, funding political action committees and leaning on home-state lawmakers from a dozen states. House and Senate negotiators, after months of struggling, are rushing to reach a farm-bill deal as early as this coming week. The talks have been stymied by rancor over how deeply to cut food benefits for millions of poor Americans and how to curb subsidies for hundreds of thousands of farmers. Big candymakers and food manufacturers such as Hershey, Mars and Kraft — whose costs rise with sugar prices — waged a lobbying campaign to put sugar on the farm-bill casualty list as well. But sugar has already won. Wide range of support The industry’s power was evident in the unusual alliances that formed in the House and Senate to thwart sugar-related measures over the past two years, turning ideological adversaries such as Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) into teammates operating from the same playbook. “Removing the protections we have for our domestic sugar producers will do nothing but kill an American industry and outsource jobs to our competitors,” Franken said during a Senate floor debate this spring. Rubio, in the same debate, warned colleagues of the “risks to American jobs if reforms to our sugar program were to pass.” The program, which has existed in various forms since the Great Depression, uses an elaborate system of import quotas, price floors and taxpayer-backed loans designed to prop up domestic growers, which number about 4,500. Industry officials and their allies in Congress say the sugar program is needed to protect producers from a world market heavily distorted by subsidies from Brazil, Mexico and other major exporters. Without the program, the industry says, the U.S. economy would lose tens of thousands of jobs and become dependent on foreign sources to meet the nation’s sugar needs. It clearly is in the national interest to defend efficient American farmers against subsidized foreign producers,” said Jack Roney, an economist for the American Sugar Alliance, the Washington trade group whose primary mission is defending the sugar program. Roney said lawmakers have supported the program because of its limited price to taxpayers. The industry has used the slogan “cost-free” as a mantra for years, and sugar backers in Congress frequently adopt it in their floor speeches and conversations with colleagues. Still, the program does come at a cost. Government and academic studies, often disputed by the sugar industry, have estimated that elevated prices have cost foodmakers and consumers at least $1.9 billion a year. In addition, taxpayers are on the hook for government loans that companies can choose to pay back in the form of excess sugar instead of cash and interest if prices drop below a certain point. That happened in fiscal 2013 for the first time in more than a decade, costing taxpayers $278 million in direct expenditures to sugar companies. This year, a well-heeled coalition of sugar-using companies stepped up their lobbying efforts to portray the program as costly to consumers and American workers. Newly elected tea party conservatives vowing to crusade against government meddling in free markets also provided fresh potential support. “You would have thought that this would have been the year for reform,” said Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.), whose state is home to Hershey and who sponsored measures to roll back sugar support. But, he added, “we were up against a force.” Liberal sugar advocates included Franken, whose state is home to a large concentration of sugar-beet farmers, along with Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) and Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), whose home areas include Fanjul-controlled refineries. Nearly the entire Florida delegation — from Rubio, a potential 2016 GOP presidential candidate, to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee — voted to keep sugar protections in place. Strong support has come from House conservatives, as well, including Rep. Michael K. Conaway (R-Tex.), chairman of a key agriculture subcommittee. “The sugar guys win votes because they are better at politics than anyone else,” said one lobbyist who is close to sugar executives and requested anonymity to discuss industry thinking. “What other interest group in town do you know that can consistently draw support from hard-core conservatives, ethnic liberals and cost-conscious moderates?” Campaign spending The industry is tiny in comparison to other agricultural commodities, but it outspends all other crop sectors combined on political-action-committee contributions to federal candidates. Sugar interests have spent $49 million on federal campaign donations and lobbying over the past five years. On average, sugar farmers and employees gave more than five times as much money to members of Congress who sided with the industry than to members who did not, according to an analysis of key votes conducted for The Washington Post by the Center for Responsive Politics. The Fanjuls are the most influential of the growers, according to lawmakers and lobbyists, exerting pressure through political fundraising and personal connections that belie their low public profile. The family patriarchs, José “Pepe” Fanjul and Alfonso “Alfy” Fanjul, built their empire after fleeing the regime of Fidel Castro, which seized the family’s sugar business in Cuba after coming to power in 1959. Now the brothers grow and process cane sugar on 160,000 acres they own in Florida. Their holdings include refineries in Baltimore, New York, Louisiana and California, and plants in Mexico, Belize and Europe. They control much of the Dominican Republic’s sugar production. Executives, lobbyists and lawmakers at the center of efforts to maintain protections for this farming sector. They have also built an unusually broad power base on Capitol Hill. Pepe has donated and raised millions for Republicans; Alfy has done the same for Democrats. “They come to Washington often, meet quietly with individual members, usually without staff present,” said the lobbyist close to industry executives. Their high-level access drew rare public notice in the 1990s when Monica Lewinsky described a phone call to the Oval Office from Alfy during one of her private encounters with President Bill Clinton. Under the George W. Bush administration, White House officials expended effort trying to mollify the Fanjuls, who were personally persuading members of Congress to oppose a free-trade pact with sugar-producing Caribbean nations. Rubio paid tribute to the Fanjuls in his autobiography, crediting Pepe and his wife for a “crown jewel” fundraising event and for hosting a dinner on his boat to introduce Rubio to former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. Pepe Fanjul hosted a series of fundraisers for Rubio in March of this year, including a $10,000-per-person dinner at his Palm Beach estate. Gaston Cantens, a lobbyist for the Fanjuls, said the brothers advocate for their business just as any industry executives would. Political friendships are built over many years, Cantens said, and do not always result in the family getting what it wants. He said the family supported Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), a Cuban American conservative who voted this year to roll back the sugar program. In addition to the Fanjuls, the industry has retained a core of lobbyists, experts and other advocates that could “fill a stadium,” as one lobbyist put it. Former congressman and House Agriculture Committee chairman Larry Combest (R-Tex.) and former committee deputy chief of staff Tom Sell run a lobbying firm that represents sugar interests. Independent cane and beet growers from Louisiana and the Red River Valley of North Dakota and Minnesota fly to Washington regularly to walk the halls of Congress and make the case for sugar, emphasizing that the program helps family-owned farms stay in operation. “These guys are disciplined, they know the arguments, and they are organized,” said Rep. Collin C. Peterson (D-Minn.), the ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee. His district includes the country’s largest concentration of sugar-beet farmers. As a rule, the industry meets with every incoming freshman member of a new Congress. This year the list included Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.), elected in 2012 on a tea party platform. Yoho quickly gained national recognition for, among other things, pressing House Republicans to cut deeply into farm bill programs such as food stamps. But on sugar subsidies, the livestock veterinarian said he has grown to support the industry view. He is sponsoring a sugar-backed resolution that favors giving up the sugar program only when other countries end their subsidies. “I ran on limited government, fiscal responsibility and free enterprise,” Yoho said, “but when you’ve got programs that have been in place and it’s the accepted norm, to just go in there and stop it would be detrimental to our sugar growers.” Alice Crites contributed to this report. If you think the FDA, DEA and other slew of government agencies is going to give you cheaper, better drugs read this. The only cost effective way to get better medical treatment is to get the government out of the medical industry. http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/an-effective-eye-drug-is-available-for-50-but-many-doctors-choose-a-2000-alternative/2013/12/07/1a96628e-55e7-11e3-8304-caf30787c0a9_story.html?hpid=z1 An effective eye drug is available for $50. But many doctors choose a $2,000 alternative. By Peter Whoriskey and Dan Keating, Published: December 7 The two drugs have been declared equivalently miraculous. Tested side by side in six major trials, both prevent blindness in a common old-age affliction. Biologically, they are cousins. They’re even made by the same company. But one holds a clear price advantage. A drugmaker’s tactics may be one reason taxpayers and patients are paying unnecessary billions. Avastin costs about $50 per injection. Lucentis costs about $2,000 per injection. Doctors choose the more expensive drug more than half a million times every year, a choice that costs the Medicare program, the largest single customer, an extra $1 billion or more annually. Spending that much may make little sense for a country burdened by ever- rising health bills, but as is often the case in American health care, there is a certain economic logic: Doctors and drugmakers profit when more-costly treatments are adopted. Genentech, a division of the Roche Group, makes both products but reaps far more profit when it sells the more expensive drug. Although Lucentis is about 40 times as expensive as Avastin to buy, the cost of producing the two drugs is similar, according to scientists familiar with the drugs and the industry. Doctors, meanwhile, may benefit when they choose the more expensive drug. Under Medicare repayment rules for drugs given by physicians, they are reimbursed for the average price of the drug plus 6 percent. That means a drug with a higher price may be easier to sell to doctors than a cheaper one. In addition, Genentech offers rebates to doctors who use large volumes of the more expensive drug. “Genentech continues to maintain that Lucentis is the most appropriate medicine,” the company said in a statement, adding that it costs “significantly” more to make and is tailored for use in the eye. The drug “has made an immense impact.” Many ophthalmologists, however, are skeptical that it provides any added value over the cheaper alternative. “Lucentis is Avastin — it’s the same damn molecule with a few cosmetic changes,” said J. Gregory Rosenthal, a Toledo ophthalmologist who, outraged by the price, co-founded a group called Physicians for Clinical Responsibility to protest its use. “Yet Americans are paying a billion dollars every year for no good reason — unless you count making Genentech rich.” The story of Genentech’s two drugs, Lucentis and Avastin, began with a scientific marvel — a breakthrough in biology that, thanks to the vast budgets of U.S. entitlement programs, has produced enormous financial returns. Those profits have yielded benefits. By paying for such drugs without regard to cost, the Medicare system has helped stimulate investment in medical research that contributes to the development of more lifesaving technologies. But the flow of cash also pushes up the health-care costs that are projected to deplete federal budgets. For while Genentech has aggressively marketed the more expensive drug and sought to restrict the use of the cheaper one, critics say, Medicare has been powerless to do anything but pay up. That’s because over the past seven years, despite pleas from the Food and Drug Administration and doctors groups, Genentech has maintained the barriers that make it harder for doctors to use the cheaper drug. An effective eye drug is available for $50. But many doctors choose a $2,000 alternative. Avastin was not originally intended for use in the eye, and the company has refused encouragement from the FDA to seek official approval for using it to treat eye ailments, according to unpublished internal FDA documents. This forces doctors to use it “off- label,” or in ways not specified on the medicine’s label. The company also packages the drug, which was approved for cancer in 2004, in doses far too big for use in ophthalmology, meaning that the drugs must be repackaged by other companies for use in the eye, raising the risk of contamination. Genentech has argued that Avastin may pose a greater danger of severe side effects than does Lucentis, although independent scientists say such worries are unsupported by the six trials that have been conducted. In a statement, the company said that it has not sought FDA approval of the cheaper drug for use in the eye because it has already developed one drug for the ailment known as wet age- related macular degeneration, or wet AMD. “Genentech continues to maintain that Lucentis is the most appropriate medicine for wet AMD as supported by clinical and other scientific data,” the statement said. “We specifically designed Lucentis for use in the eye and to clear quickly from the bloodstream after leaving the eye to potentially minimize side effects,” the statement said. “The two medicines were designed for different purposes and, we believe, may have different systemic and ocular safety profiles when used in the eye.” Genentech defended its pricing by noting that the Roche Group spends $9 billion annually on research and development. “The price of Lucentis supports the research and development of new potential medicines, including the 92 percent of drugs that never make it to patients,” the company said. “We re-invest a larger portion of our revenue into clinical research than most pharmaceutical companies. Genentech believes it is in the best interest of patients to continue to focus our efforts in ophthalmology on discovering and developing new potential medicines for other serious diseases of the eye.” Most doctors, however, prefer to use the cheaper drug. Despite the company’s position, U.S. doctors have been using Avastin in about 56 percent of such cases, according to Medicare data analyzed by The Washington Post. In the most recent survey by the American Society of Retinal Specialists, about 61 percent of doctors preferred using Avastin for macular degeneration, with the rest of the market split between Lucentis and Eylea, a new drug made by Regeneron that is almost as expensive as Lucentis. Because so many doctors continue to use Lucentis, Genentech has rung up more than $1 billion in U.S. sales of the drug for four years running. Roughly 80 percent of U.S. sales are paid for by Medicare and its beneficiaries. The rising cost of U.S. entitlement programs such as Medicare has prompted outrage in Congress, but it is Congress that has made it difficult in this case and others for Medicare to limit such expenses. To begin with, the Medicare agency is blocked from seeking better drug prices by negotiating directly with the drug companies, as health agencies in other countries do. Authorities in Britain, for example, have negotiated a price of about $1,100 per dose of Lucentis, and in the Netherlands a dose sells for about $1,300. Moreover, in cases in which two equivalent options are available, such as Lucentis and Avastin, Medicare is forbidden from restricting payment to the amount of the less costly alternative. After it sought to do so in 2009, a federal appeals court said it lacked that authority. It’s often difficult, of course, to know when two drugs are equivalent. When the debate over the two drugs and their pricing erupted more than six years ago, Genentech asserted that its more expensive new drug was superior. At the time, it was hard to show otherwise. No one had tested them in side-by-side comparisons. Since then, the six randomized clinical trials involving more than 3,000 patients have found the drugs to be largely equivalent. Yet in 2012, the Medicare program and its beneficiaries spent $1.2 billion on Lucentis, according to The Post’s analysis of Medicare data. Medicare officials said they have no choice but to pay the bill when a doctor prefers to use Lucentis. “We do not have the authority to dictate treatment based on cost,” Tami Holzman, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said in a statement. “Under current law, Medicare must cover treatment that is deemed reasonable and medically necessary by a physician or other provider.” Pharmaceutical firms argue that this is the way it should be. The industry’s main lobbying group, known as PhRMA, opposes allowing the government to negotiate prices with companies — a process it calls “price controls” — and similarly opposes attempts by Medicare to pursue a policy of paying only for the least costly alternative. The industry has spent more than any other in the United States to have its voice heard in Washington. Over the past 15 years, the pharmaceutical industry has far outstripped any other in the money it has devoted to lobbying, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Drug companies spent a total of $2.7 billion over that time. “Proposals to change this system by imposing price controls or only giving patients access to treatments deemed the ‘least costly alternative’ by Medicare would have severe unintended consequences,” Matthew Bennett, a senior vice president at PhRMA, said in a statement. Such proposals could discourage medical progress, he said. Moreover, because every patient responds differently to a treatment, it may be difficult for the government to set rules for coverage. “The cheapest option on average is not always the best option for many patients,” he said. What’s the right price for a miracle? Every year, about 200,000 people in North America are diagnosed with wet age-related macular degeneration, a chronic disease characterized by abnormal blood vessels that leak blood or fluid into the retina. Sufferers lose clarity in the center of their field of vision, and among older people it has long been the leading cause of blindness. Then came Avastin and Lucentis. Both are the outgrowth of pioneering work done by Napoleone Ferrara, a Sicily-born molecular biologist. Ferrara studied at the University of California at San Francisco and joined Genentech in 1988. First assigned to the company’s efforts to develop a hormone called Relaxin, Ferrara devoted his discretionary research to a theory that blood vessel growth could cause cancer and other illnesses. Over several years, Ferrara and his collaborators identified a protein called VEGF that causes blood vessel growth. They then linked that protein to cancer and macular degeneration. Finally, they developed an “anti-VEGF” drug that would attack VEGF, halting the harmful blood vessel growth. The first anti-VEGF drug was Avastin, which won approval from the FDA in 2004 for the treatment of colorectal cancer. Lucentis followed. It is a stripped-down version of the same molecule, and it can likewise attack VEGF and bind more closely to it. It won FDA approval in 2006. “People weren’t sure that VEGF would prove particularly important, but sometimes in science, you just follow your own ideas,” said Ferrara, now a distinguished professor at the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine. “The magnitude of the benefit of these drugs far exceeded our expectations.” The company spent almost $1.4 billion on the development of Lucentis, which included 18 clinical trials, a Genentech vice president testified to Congress in 2011. The company appears to have recovered those costs and quite a bit more. In the first 2 1/2 years, it sold $2.1 billion worth of Lucentis in the United States alone. Another Swiss company, Novartis, in partnership with Genentech, sells billions more overseas. Much of that is profit. The company will not disclose how much it costs to manufacture a dose of Lucentis, saying only that it costs “significantly” more to make than Avastin. But scientists knowledgeable about manufacturing drugs of this kind say that the costs of making Lucentis are not much different from those of making Avastin. Indeed, some scientists said that some aspects of Lucentis make it cheaper to produce. The Avastin process begins with growing a culture from mammalian cells taken from the ovary of the Chinese hamster. The Lucentis process begins with growing cultures of the common bacteria E. coli, and these are easier to produce. The subsequent purification process with bacteria may be more complicated, but “production in bacteria is cheaper than in mammalian cells for several reasons,” said Hervé Watier, a medical professor at the University of Tours in France who has studied the drugs. While there are some “drawbacks” to the bacteria production method, Watier said, “the financial result still remains in favor of bacteria.” “I think the difference in cost in producing them is very modest. They cost almost the same, from what I can tell,” Ferrara said. If so, Genentech is making a lot on each dose. The manufacturing costs may account for 10 percent or less of the price of a Lucentis dose, according to a conservative calculation generated with industry experts. The company declined to reveal how much it is making from Lucentis above the drug’s manufacturing costs. “Lucentis and Avastin are not the same medicine and should not be treated, nor represented, as if they are,” the company said in a statement. After the development of Lucentis in the early 2000s, it was the only drug known to have such effects. It seemed to be in a class by itself and seemed poised to win even more in sales than it gathers today. But then Philip J. Rosenfeld, a Miami ophthalmologist, made a discovery. Rosenfeld was lead investigator on some of the Lucentis trials that Genentech had conducted, and he recognized how effective it could be. After reading the research that some Genentech scientists had published, he realized that Avastin and Lucentis were derived from the same antibody and thus were functionally equivalent. “I realized they would perform in the same way,” he said. Under a university-approved research program, he’d also learned that Avastin, injected into a patient’s arm as is done with cancer patients, had the same effects as Lucentis. The trouble was, since the Avastin was going into the entire body, a large dose was needed, and that could produce dangerous side effects. He calculated that a much smaller dose injected into the eye would be just as effective as Lucentis. In May 2005, Rosenfeld had a patient who was quickly losing her vision. A retired nurse in her 60s, she’d lost the use of one eye already, and none of the available remedies could slow the disease’s progression. Rosenfeld knew that Lucentis could help her, but it would be another year or more before the FDA would approve it. With the patient’s permission, he injected her eye with a small dose of Avastin — one milligram — and ordered her back the next week. “We were astounded by the results,” he said. The billion-dollar drug Lucentis was about to be beaten to market, and by one of Genentech’s own products. In July 2005, Genentech held what amounted to a coming-out party for its new drug. At the annual meeting of the American Society of Retinal Specialists, the company presented several detailed studies showing how effective it was in treating macular degeneration. With hundreds of ophthalmologists crowded into the room, speakers for Genentech described the marvel of Lucentis. “Our jaws were on the floor,” recalled Daniel F. Martin, chairman of the Cole Eye Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. Right after, Rosenfeld presented his Avastin experiment on one patient. “Phil showed one case report — no animal studies, no randomized trials,” Martin said. “But after this meeting, every ophthalmologist on the planet was injecting it. The therapeutic effect was so powerful.” Because Lucentis had yet to win FDA approval and couldn’t be sold, ophthalmologists quickly embraced Avastin, which had been approved the year before, albeit as a cancer remedy. When Lucentis did go on sale, Genentech’s blockbuster drug already had a competitor. How could the company convince doctors and hospitals that Lucentis had any major advantage over Avastin? Over and over again, it sought to discourage the use of Avastin by raising concerns about its safety. They told doctors that Avastin was not approved by the FDA for use in the eye — Lucentis was. They reminded doctors that if the repackaging firms cutting Avastin into smaller doses were careless, infection could be introduced. And despite the lack of conclusive evidence on the point, they said that Avastin patients might suffer more adverse events than Lucentis patients. Sometimes, senior FDA officials said, these warnings stretched the truth. In October 2007, the company announced a move that would severely restrict the supply of Avastin for ophthalmology: It would no longer sell the drug to the repackaging firms that were cutting it into eye-appropriate doses. The company’s president of product development at that time, Susan Desmond-Hellmann, explained in a letter that Lucentis was already available. Moreover, she said that during a routine FDA inspection of the company’s Avastin manufacturing facility, “concerns were raised by inspectors related to the ongoing ocular use of Avastin because it is not designed, manufactured or approved for this use.” An FDA ophthalmology official, Wiley A. Chambers, told colleagues that the company had misconstrued the agency’s position. That routine FDA inspection at a Genentech plant, Chambers told his colleagues, was unrelated to the intrinsic safety of Avastin in ophthalmology. Instead, it showed that Avastin had been contaminated by glass particles, a danger that could have harmed cancer patients or eye patients. “Genentech has found a way to blame FDA for their decision to limit the distribution of Avastin,” Wiley wrote to colleagues in an e-mail. “The manufacturing problem at their facility that resulted in glass in their product would be an issue for either the on-label oncology indications or the off-label ophthalmology indications.” Genentech said in a statement: “We have never sought to restrict the ability of physicians to prescribe Avastin as they see fit for their patients. . . . Genentech did not blame the FDA and took the decision independently.” Eventually, after ophthalmologists and their professional societies strenuously objected to Genentech’s move to limit Avastin sales — they even threatened lawsuits to make sure the flow of Avastin continued — Genentech backed down and continued to provide the drug to the repackaging firms. About the same time, Genentech asked the FDA for permission to change the Avastin label to instruct doctors that it was not to be used for eyes. The FDA said there was no evidence to support such a change to the label. The FDA believed “there was no safety-related basis adequately justifying that labeling change,” according to an internal agency e-mail, and the label was not changed. Today, millions of doses of Avastin have been administered successfully. Six randomized clinical trials around the world, beginning with one called Comparison of AMD Treatments Trials, have found its effectiveness equivalent to that of Lucentis. After the CATT study, the National Institutes of Health issued a news release headlined, “Study finds Avastin and Lucentis are equally effective in treating age-related macular degeneration.” The effort was funded by the NIH because Genentech had refused to test the drugs itself and, in a break from industry custom, had refused to provide the drugs to government researchers. An internal company document described the strategy of not performing a test or contributing the drugs as “in the interests of shareholders and the interests of patients,” according to a Senate Aging Committee investigation memo from 2008. Because it had developed Lucentis, the company said, “there was no need to invest substantial resources and years of clinical development to explore the safety and efficacy of another medicine.” Since the CATT study, five more head-to-head trials have been conducted. They also found Avastin just as effective as Lucentis. “There have now been six randomized clinical studies that show no difference in the major areas of safety concern — deaths, heart attacks and stroke,” said Martin, the Cleveland Clinic doctor who also led the CATT trial. Indeed, Genentech has acknowledged that the drugs are similarly effective. But the company has argued that Avastin may be dangerous when used in eyes. “The emerging data consistently show differences in safety — particularly in systemic serious adverse events — between Lucentis and Avastin,” Anthony P. Adamis, global head of ophthalmology at Genentech, said in an interview. These differences are “biologically plausible,” Adamis said, because studies have shown that Avastin remains in the blood longer. The main basis for Genentech’s safety argument is a finding in the CATT trial that has not reappeared in any of the following five trials and that some scientists involved regard mainly as a curiosity. The incidence of what are known as serious adverse events — a catchall category that includes hospitalizations for any reason — was slightly higher in the Avastin group: 40 percent vs. 32 percent. The adverse events included broken bones and urinary tract infections. “The majority of the adverse events would be difficult to imagine being caused by the drug,” Martin said. Martin noted that while small, probably random effects favored Lucentis in some cases and in others they favored Avastin. Neither should be viewed as conclusively related to the drug, he said. It is very difficult for such trials to detect differences in rare safety events. To do so, a trial might need more than 10,000 patients. Running a trial of that size could cost billions of dollars. To look for effects in large numbers of patients, researchers often turn to Medicare claims records, examining how patients fared on the treatments in question. It is this kind of review that Lesley H. Curtis, a Duke University medical professor, performed, looking at 146,000 patient claims. After fully adjusting for patient and provider characteristics, Curtis and her colleagues found that there was no difference in the safety profiles in the drugs. “In conclusion, we found no evidence of increased risks of mortality, myocardial infarction, bleeding, or stroke,” their research paper said. The other danger to using Avastin, however, has attracted a lot of publicity in recent years. The fact that the drug needs to be repackaged into smaller doses introduces an element of risk because it opens the possibility that the drug could be tainted during the repackaging process. (Genentech says because the FDA has not approved it for use in the eye, the company cannot legally distribute Avastin in doses appropriate for the eye. Indeed, in three cases that made the news — in South Florida, Nashville and Los Angeles — just such a problem has arisen. Several patients reportedly suffered vision loss as a result. “I’ve never used Avastin because of the potential for contamination,” Warren L. Herron Jr., a Pensacola, Fla., ophthalmologist, said after a morning in which he did 11 eye injections. “Is it a rare thing? Yes, it’s a rare thing. But I can’t stand the idea of ever telling my patients that they can no longer see because I used a tainted drug. “Besides,” he said, “I don’t think the extra money being spent for Lucentis is totally wasted because it’s going into research and development.” But as Herron noted, the likelihood of contamination is negligible. Globally, hundreds of thousands of injections are doled out every year without trouble, making the risk of contamination in repackaging smaller than the risks that doctors routinely ignore when deciding on a treatment. Whether a patient gets Avastin, Lucentis or the new drug Eylea depends on an array of factors. Some doctors use only one of the drugs; some let their patients choose; many decisions are guided by whether the patient’s insurance covers the entire cost or just a portion; and some doctors may consider how much they earn with each drug. John Thompson, a Baltimore ophthalmologist who is president of the American Society of Retinal Specialists, noted that most doctors use Avastin and that even more would do so if the company sought FDA approval for using it in eyes and packaged it in appropriate doses. “If Genentech decided to get FDA approval and make Avastin available in small quantities for the eye,” he said, “the American Society of Retinal Specialists would applaud.” Politics is almost always about money and power and is almost never about serving the people our elected officials pretend to serve. The real question in the article is where's the money going???? Usually the corporations in the military industrial complex give bribes, oops, I mean campaign contributions to the members of Congress in exchange for military contracts. The real question is why and how did members of the Russian military industrial complex beat out the members of the American military industrial complex in this deal!!!! http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/12/07/2933553/ap-exclusive-rough-ride-for-us.html AP Exclusive: Rough ride for US-Russia copter deal By RICHARD LARDNER Associated Press December 7, 2013 WASHINGTON — The deal looked sketchy from the start. To outfit Afghanistan's security forces with new helicopters, the Pentagon bypassed U.S. companies and turned instead to Moscow for dozens of Russian Mi-17 rotorcraft at a cost of more than $1 billion. Senior Pentagon officials assured skeptical members of Congress that the Defense Department had made the right call. They repeatedly cited a top-secret 2010 study they said named the Mi-17 as the superior choice. Turns out the study told a very different story, according to unclassified excerpts obtained by The Associated Press. An American-made helicopter, the U.S. Army's workhorse Chinook built by Boeing in Pennsylvania, was found to be "the most cost-effective single platform type fleet for the Afghan Air Force over a twenty year" period, according to the excerpts. Lawmakers who closely had followed the copter deal were stunned. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the Senate's No. 2 GOP leader and one of the most vocal critics of the contract, said the Department of Defense "repeatedly and disingenuously" used the study to prove the necessity of buying Mi-17s. More than two years since the Mi-17 contract was signed, a veil of secrecy still obscures the pact despite its high-dollar value, the potential for fraud and waste, and accusations the Pentagon muffled important information. The unprecedented arms deal also serves as a reminder to a war-weary American public that Afghanistan will remain heavily dependent on U.S. financial support even after its combat troops depart. "So why are we buying Russian helicopters when there are American manufacturers that can meet that very same requirement?" Cornyn asked. "Makes no sense whatsoever and the Department of Defense has steadfastly refused to cooperate with reasonable inquiries into why in the world they continue to persist along this pathway." As recently as September, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter cited the study in a letter to House members defending the decision. Carter left his job this past week. Last year, Frank Kendall, the Pentagon's top acquisition official, and policy chief James Miller pointed to the study in a written response to questions posed by Cornyn. Just a few weeks after the secret study was completed, Army Secretary John McHugh wrote in a 2011 memo "that the Mi-17 stands apart" when compared with other helicopters. The Pentagon denies it misled Congress. A senior department official said the study was focused on long-term requirements and not the immediate needs of the Afghan military, which were best met by the Mi-17. Also, U.S. commanders in Afghanistan wanted the Mi-17 because it is durable, easy-to-operate and the Afghan forces had experience flying it, according to the official, who was not authorized to be identified as the source of the information. The war in Afghanistan, now in its 13th year, has been full of paradoxes. What was once President Barack Obama's "war of necessity" has become a race for the exits. Hopes of eradicating the Taliban and transforming Afghanistan into a viable state have been dialed down. U.S. combat forces are scheduled to depart by the end of next year, leaving the Afghans responsible for ensuring the country doesn't collapse into the pre-Sept. 11 chaos that made it a terrorist haven. There's no dispute that heavy-duty helicopters capable of quickly moving Afghan troops and supplies are essential to accomplishing that mission. But the decision to acquire them from Russia has achieved the rare feat in a deeply divided Congress of finding common ground among Republicans and Democrats. Why, lawmakers from both political parties have demanded, is the U.S. purchasing military gear from Russia? After all, Russia has sold advanced weapons to repressive government in Syria and Iran, sheltered NSA leaker Edward Snowden, and been criticized by the State Department for adopting laws that restrict human rights. On top of all that, corruption is rampant in Russia's defense industry, heightening concerns that crooked government officials and contractors are lining their pockets with American money. "We're not dealing with a corrupt system. Corruption is the system," said Stephen Blank, a Russia expert at the American Foreign Policy Council, a Washington think tank. "This is not a world we're familiar with." Overall, 63 Mi-17s are being acquired through the 2011 contract. It was awarded without competition to Russia's arms export agency, Rosoboronexport, even though the Pentagon condemned the agency after Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces used Russian weapons to "murder Syrian civilians." Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, a high-ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said the arrangement has put American taxpayers in the intolerable position of subsidizing a company complicit in the atrocities occurring in Syria. "The lack of straightforward information from the Pentagon on the ability of American-made helicopters to meet the mission in Afghanistan is but another factor severely undermining their credibility and justification for pursuing this sorely misguided procurement," DeLauro said. No Pentagon official was made available to speak on the record for this story. The AP also requested in late October that the department release unclassified portions of the 2010 study and other records supporting the decision to buy Mi-17s instead of Chinooks or other helicopters. The department provided only a one-page summary of a report that provided no new information. Afghanistan's mountainous terrain demands a helicopter capable of operating in the most rugged conditions at altitudes well in excess of 15,000 feet. The Mi-17 met all these requirements, Carter and other U.S. military officials told lawmakers in correspondence and in testimony. But so could the heavyweight Chinook. The Boeing helicopter is larger than its Russian counterpart, carries up to a 26,000 pound payload, which is twice as much as the Mi-17, and can operate at nearly the same high altitude. The armed Mi-17s being purchased for Afghanistan from Rosoboronexport will replace older and less capable Mi-17s that the U.S. and other countries had purchased from brokers and contractors through the open market and then donated or loaned to the Afghans. The fact that the Afghan forces had years of experience flying the Mi-17 figured prominently in the Pentagon's decision. Carter and other U.S. defense official contended that adding the Boeing helicopter to the mix would unnecessarily burden the Afghans with having to learn how to operate and maintain an unfamiliar helicopter. The 2010 study "specifically analyzed the opportunity for DOD to provide a U.S. alternative to the Mi-17 for Afghanistan," according to the excerpts. It outlined a transitional approach in which Chinooks being retired from the U.S. military's fleet would be available in late 2013 to be refurbished and then replace older Mi-17s in the Afghan fleet, according to the excerpts. A combination of Mi-17s and renovated Chinooks, known in the Army's nomenclature as the CH-47D, could work as well. The 2010 study advised proceeding cautiously. Shifting too quickly away from the Mi-17s already in use could undermine progress made in training the Afghan air force, the excerpts said. But it recommended a plan for converting the Afghan forces from a "pure" Mi-17 fleet to one that uses US helicopters. The Chinook option never materialized. An extensive analysis of both helicopters concluded that a refurbished Chinook would cost about 40 percent more overall to buy and maintain than the Mi-17, said the senior defense official. That's hard to fathom. Boeing executives informed congressional staff during a meeting held in late September that the cost of a refurbished CH-47D would be in the $12 million to $14 million range, according to a person knowledgeable about the discussion but not authorized to be identified as the source of the information. That would make an overhauled Chinook $4 million to $6 million less than what the department is currently paying for Mi-17s, according to figures compiled by the Joint Rapid Acquisition Cell, the Pentagon office that fills urgent requests for equipment from battlefield commanders. Boeing spokesman Andrew Lee referred questions about Chinook costs to the Defense Department The figures also show the average cost of each new Mi-17 has increased with each successive order — from $16.4 million to $18.2 million. The Pentagon has assured Congress that the prices were "fair and reasonable," and in line with what other countries have paid. But an internal Defense Contract Audit Agency document shows that the department could not conduct a comprehensive cost comparison because Rosoboronexport wouldn't allow U.S. auditors to look at its books. Army negotiators omitted a provision standard in government contracts that permits pricing reviews. In examining the contract, the audit agency noted that Rosoboronexport "is arguably an agent or instrumentality of a foreign government, and is therefore exempt from most cost accounting standards." Rosoboronexport's director general, Anatoly Isaykin, said in statement late last month that his agency was "completely transparent" in negotiating Mi-17 prices with the U.S. He provided no details on costs or any examples of transparency. "In our opinion this contract is most acceptable to the U.S. Department of Defense in terms of quality/price ratio," Isaykin said. The roots of Rosoboronexport's involvement reach back to 2010 when the U.S. and Russia were engaged in high-stakes diplomacy aimed at fulfilling Obama's goal to reset relations between the two former Cold War foes. Dmitry Medvedev was Russia's president, not Vladimir Putin, and the talks resulted in agreements to expand cooperation on global security issues and strengthen economic ties. Among the breakthroughs: The U.S. terminated penalties against Rosoboronexport that the Bush White House had imposed in 2006 after the State Department determined the export agency had provided Iran and Syria sensitive military technology. The sanctions had barred the U.S. government from entering into any contracts with Rosoboronexport. Russia agreed to support a U.N. resolution to punish Iran over its nuclear program. Headquartered in Moscow, Rosoboronexport is the only Russian agency authorized to export and import military hardware. The agency is controlled in turn by Russian Technologies, a state holding company that includes the country's top arms manufacturers. The chief executive of Russian Technologies is Sergei Chemezov, a longtime confidant of Putin, who returned to the Russian presidency last year. U.S. officials long have known corruption in Russia's defense industry is widespread. William Burns, then the U.S. ambassador to Russia, wrote in a 2007 classified cable later published by the Wikileaks website that "it is an open secret that the Russian defense industry is an important trough at which senior officials feed, and weapons sales continue to enrich many." Nothing has changed, but figuring out who is personally profiting is nearly impossible, said Russia expert Clifford Gaddy. Only a small circle of investigators close to the Kremlin know who is involved in various schemes. "Since the information they have is one of the most powerful instruments Putin has to control the individuals who run Russia on a day-to-day basis, they protect that information," said Gaddy, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-author of "Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin." With the penalties lifted against Rosoboronexport, Russia's ministry of foreign affairs wasted little time informing U.S. officials that new Mi-17s could be purchased only through the arms export agency because the helicopters were military gear intended for another country's armed forces. After lengthy deliberations, the U.S. agreed. Pentagon officials no longer would permit third parties to acquire Mi-17s. They would deal with Rosoboronexport directly. Last month, the Pentagon changed its mind. After re-evaluating, officials decided to cut 15 copters out of the 78 they had planned to buy from Moscow. Isaykin, Rosoboronexport's director general, said the decision won't hurt the export agency's bottom line. "Rosoboronexport's order book is sufficient to ensure the steady utilization of Russian defense industrial complex's production capacities, especially in the helicopter sector, for the next three-four years," he said. The move was a bittersweet victory for the program's opponents. "There was no redeeming value, no redeeming feature to this sale," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. "An inferior product bought with American taxpayer money from a Russian export agency that was unconscionably selling to Assad. If you made it up, no one would believe it." --- Associated Press writer Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report. Follow Richard Lardner on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rplardner As long as governments slap outrageously high sin taxes on products like cigarettes, booze, marijuana, tobacco, alcohol and drugs we will continue to have problems like this. As usual the cause of the problems are the government and the solution to the problems are less government. http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2013/12/02/law-fails-to-stop-cigarette-flow-from-native-american-tribes/3904503/ Law fails to stop cigarette flow from Native American tribes DAVID B. CARUSO, Associated Press 6 p.m. EST December 7, 2013 NEW YORK – When Congress passed a law in 2009 effectively banning mail-order deliveries of cigarettes, it was expected to snuff out entrepreneurs on New York’s Indian reservations who were selling millions of cartons, tax-free, to consumers in high-tax states. But the law, called the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act, didn’t stop everybody. As recently as last spring, one group of about 20 website operators on Seneca Nation territory was still delivering 1.7 tons of untaxed cigarettes a week to destinations around the U.S., according to shipping records obtained by lawyers for New York City as part of a civil racketeering lawsuit. The city’s efforts are part of a wider legal battle involving the ability of states to tax cigarettes sold on Indian reservations, where tribal leaders have long maintained that the state has no authority to tax anything sold on their territory. Depositions and court documents show that after the new law barred anyone from shipping cigarettes through the Postal Service, and major delivery companies like FedEx and UPS separately agreed to end deliveries, some reservation-based distributors simply turned to new networks of logistics and shipping companies to reach their customers. Buyers still weren’t required to pay taxes. Some sites never asked buyers to prove their age, or even provide a real name. A few retailers proudly advertised that they would help protect tax scofflaws. “NO STATE TAXES, NO REPORTS to anyone EVER and NO Surprise Tax Bills,” boasted one site, Nativeblend.net. “The USA Federal PACT Act is in effect, but we beat it legally.” New York City took the unusual step last month of suing a Virginia-based delivery company, Lasership Inc., that had helped the reservation shops deliver cigarettes into the city without charging consumers the required tax of $5.85 per pack. The suit seeks $80.6 million in penalties. That suit followed an earlier one against a Buffalo company, Regional Integrated Logistics, that helped a consortium of Seneca businesses set up a new distribution network after the PACT act took effect in July of 2010. “We want to make it clear to the entire shipping community that anyone who participates in these illegal delivery sales into New York City will be subject to liabilities,” said Aaron Bloom, one of the attorneys handling the case for New York City’s Law Department. Paul Joyce, a lawyer for Regional Integrated Logistics, said the company “never knowingly violated any law” and had stopped all cigarette deliveries permanently in response to a court injunction last spring. A lawyer for Lasership declined to comment. Those two lawsuits were the latest in a string that have left the once-booming reservation cigarette businesses reeling, and questioning their future. Switch to ‘native’ brands Just a few years ago, an estimated 170 cigarette distributors on New York’s reservations were collectively purchasing many millions of cartons of name-brand cigarettes each year from state-licensed wholesalers, then reselling them to buyers eager to avoid sky-high taxes. But that flow of branded cigarettes such as Newport and Marlboro largely stopped after an earlier round of litigation and a change in state policy forced licensed wholesalers to halt sales of untaxed cigarettes to tribal businesses. Reservation businesses switched to selling “native” brands manufactured in Indian territory, which curtailed demand. And now even those sales are under attack. “They are giving us no room, as a people, to move,” said Ross John, who sits on a Seneca Nation economic development council and also owns a rapidly shrinking business in untaxed cigarettes. “They just keep punching us around.” Pennsylvania’s attorney general sued a Seneca cigarette dealership in Salamanca, N.Y., in June, alleging that it had concocted a scheme that allowed that state’s residents to evade taxes by ordering cartons through a “buyer’s club.” Late last year, New York’s attorney general sued an upstate business, Native Wholesale Supply, claiming the company and an affiliated manufacturer of Seneca brand cigarettes in Canada were breaking the law by shipping vast amounts of untaxed cigarettes to warehouses on Indian territory in the U.S. The suit claimed that in one 15-month period ending last February, Native Wholesale Supply illegally received $221 million worth of cigarettes from Grand River Enterprises Six Nations, located in Ohsweken, Ontario. Investigators estimated that at least 1.5 billion cigarettes were involved in the transactions. A lawyer for Native Wholesale supply, which has also been sued by state officials in Idaho and Oklahoma for supplying banned cigarettes to local tribes, didn’t return phone and email messages. Long-time disputes In addition to those civil cases, federal prosecutors in Kansas City, Mo., brought charges in August against 18 people they said had conspired to deliver 620,000 cartons of untaxed cigarettes to cigarette dealers on reservations in western New York. Businessmen in Florida, Kansas, Missouri, Virginia, Nebraska, Washington and Montreal were charged in the case, which involved $17 million worth of cigarettes purchased from a warehouse run by undercover ATF agents. Lawyers for many of those defendants declined to comment or didn’t return several messages. But an attorney for Keith Stoldt, who operated the Totem Pole Smoke Shop on the Tonawanda Seneca Indian Reservation in Basom, N.Y., and pleaded guilty this year to illegally acquiring $4.1 million in untaxed cigarettes, said the cases are complicated by centuries-old disputes over taxation and sovereignty. “These guys were here first. They have continuously owned and occupied their patch of heaven. They’ve never accepted citizenship,” said Brad Waterman, a former tax counsel to both the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe and the Seneca Nation. “What the Iroquois people would tell you is, ‘We traded with each other a long time before any of you guys got here.’” John, the Seneca entrepreneur, said that cigarettes had created a new class of entrepreneurs among a people who had been impoverished for generations, but that he wouldn’t count on tobacco being part of the tribe’s economic solution for much longer. “They’ve made it very difficult for anyone to supply to you,” he said. “I’m not in a position where it’s even viable for me right now. They’ve turned it into a criminal activity.” While the NSA and CIA are illegally reading your e-mails and listening to your phone calls, from this article they seem to be doing a very lousy job by their standards of protecting the national security. Of course that's not to imply that I think we need any national security. If the American government would quit f*ck with with people around the world we wouldn't have all the enemies we do. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/12/06/us-intelligence-adviser-resigns-after-work-with-chinese-firm-revealed/ US intelligence adviser resigns after work with Chinese firm revealed Published December 06, 2013 Associated Press A longtime adviser to the U.S. Director of National Intelligence has resigned after the government learned he has worked since 2010 as a paid consultant for Huawei Technologies Ltd., the Chinese technology company the U.S. has condemned as an espionage threat, The Associated Press has learned. Theodore H. Moran, a respected expert on China's international investment and professor at Georgetown University, had served since 2007 as adviser to the intelligence director's advisory panel on foreign investment in the United States. Moran also was an adviser to the National Intelligence Council, a group of 18 senior analysts and policy experts who provide U.S. spy agencies with judgments on important international issues. The case highlights the ongoing fractious relationship between the U.S. government and Huawei, China's leading developer of telephone and Internet infrastructure, which has been condemned in the U.S. as a potential national security threat. Huawei has aggressively disputed this, and its chief executive, Ren Zhengfei, has said the company has decided to abandon the U.S. market. Moran, who had a security clearance granting him access to sensitive materials, was forced to withdraw from those roles after Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., complained in September to the intelligence director, James Clapper, that Moran's work on an international advisory council for Huawei "compromises his ability to advise your office." "It is inconceivable how someone serving on Huawei's board would also be allowed to advise the intelligence community on foreign investments in the U.S.," Wolf wrote. Moran, who earlier had declined to discuss the matter, said in a statement Friday to the AP, "I was totally transparent." He said he told the National Intelligence Council in 2010 about his membership on Huawei's advisory panel. "I complied with all conflict of interest reports and procedures of the National Intelligence Council," Moran said. A spokesman for Clapper's office confirmed Friday that Moran was no longer associated with the intelligence council "effective September 2013" but declined to answer further questions, citing the U.S. Privacy Act. Moran's resignation also was confirmed by Wolf and two federal officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly. "If he wants to make a lot of money advising Huawei, that's his prerogative," Wolf told the AP. "But he shouldn't be on a critical advisory board that provides intelligence advice on foreign investments in our country." In a policy paper distributed by Huawei, Moran wrote in May that, "targeting one or two companies on the basis of their national origins does nothing for U.S. security in a world of global supply chains." Moran criticized what he described as "a policy of discrimination and distortion that discourages valuable inward investment from overseas, while providing a precedent for highly damaging copycat practices in other countries." The House Intelligence Committee last year said Huawei and another firm, ZTE, posed a threat that could enable Chinese intelligence services to tamper with American communications networks. The committee said it could not prove wrongdoing but recommended that the companies be barred from doing business in the country. "To the extent these companies are influenced by the state or provide Chinese intelligence services access to telecommunication networks, the opportunity exists for further economic and foreign espionage by a foreign nation-state already known to be a major perpetrator of cyber espionage," the committee wrote in its report. Huawei's vice president for external affairs, William Plummer, declined to discuss Moran's resignation, but said U.S suspicions about Huawei have created "a political smokescreen." He said the controversy amounted to a "political game that's holding Huawei hostage to somehow gain leverage with the Chinese government. Huawei is no threat to U.S. networks and data." Plummer said Moran and other advisers discuss trade, policy and commerce with Huawei's executives. Earlier this year, as a condition of allowing SoftBank Corp. to buy Sprint for $20.1 billion, the Obama administration forced the companies to promise not to use Huawei equipment and seek approval for future vendors. In 2007, Huawei joined with Bain Capital, the private equity firm founded by Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, to buy 3Com Corp., an American computer equipment firm. Romney had left the firm by then. The bid collapsed amid national security concerns cited by Congress and the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an inter-agency panel that scrutinizes financial moves by foreign firms inside the U.S. Last month, two Senate committee chairmen asked Clapper about the potential national security threat posed by Huawei's growing partnership with South Korean telecom firms. The intelligence director's office would not describe Moran's duties for its panel on foreign investment or the National Intelligence Council. It was not immediately clear whether Moran's previous work was being reviewed for possible bias or if the government was investigating whether other intelligence advisers also may have been paid by foreign companies. It also did not explain why Moran was forced to step down now, three years since he had been hired by Huawei and after he had disclosed his affiliation as early as 2011 in biographical material published as part of his participation in a conference in Vienna. Wolf, in a letter to the intelligence director, asked for a list of other members and advisers to the National Intelligence Council and a copy of its conflict-of-interest policy but he never received the information. How do you spell revenue - photo radar bandits!!! http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa/articles/20131125mesa-traffic-cameras-stay-radar-vans-go.html Mesa’s traffic-camera program to stay, radar vans to go By Gary Nelson The Republic | azcentral.com Mon Nov 25, 2013 10:40 AM Mesa’s traffic-camera program survived a long and occasionally tense City Council debate this week, with one exception. The unpopular radar vans, already fewer in number than when the program began seven years ago, will go away entirely. The council also decided, on a 4-2 vote, to continue red-light cameras at key intersections but to thoroughly review that part of the program over the next year to identify and solve problems. Existing school-zone cameras will remain and others may be added. The council also directed that revenue derived from the program be plowed back into traffic-safety efforts, rather than to pad the city’s general fund. The vote also included a five-year contract extension with American Traffic Systems, pushing the life of the camera program to early 2019. If at some point Mesa eliminates the intersection cameras, it would pay a buyout fee to ATS. Those measures amounted, in effect, to a compromise of a compromise. Vice Mayor Alex Finter, who said he has intensely studied traffic-camera issues for two years, wanted to suspend using intersection cameras for a year while school cameras remained in place and the city and ATS studied the system. He was backed by Councilman Chris Glover. Doing so, he said, would give City Council members to be elected in 2014 a say in establishing city policy that would be in place during their terms. Mayor Scott Smith, however, said that restarting the cameras after a year might be difficult. His proposal won support from David Luna, Dennis Kavanaugh and Dave Richins, with Scott Somers absent. Deputy City Manager John Pombier, flanked by Police Chief Frank Milstead and other police officers, was quickly challenged by Finter as he explained why staffers want to retain the program. “We believe there is a reduction of total crashes and serious-injury crashes at all intersections citywide,” Pombier said. Finter said, however, that crashes at non-camera intersections actually have declined slightly more than at monitored intersections. He said other safety efforts could be bigger factors than the cameras. “You can’t make the argument that there’s a big difference statistically between covered intersections and not-covered intersections,” Finter said. Pombier admitted that other safety measures probably have helped. “It’s no one factor,” he said. More efficient police work and better streets also have played a role. Milstead said cameras at some intersections affect driver behavior across the city. “The synergystic effect of people not knowing exactly what intersection is monitored — what is, isn’t — they’re more conscious and they’re more careful about their driving behavior in the city,” Milstead said. Finter said he had no ideological objection to using cameras, but he believes that ATS has failed to fulfill some public-education aspects of its contract. In a pre-meeting interview with The Republic, he also cited cases in which Mesa residents believe they were treated unfairly after receiving camera-generated tickets. Smith said that’s where most problems with the program occur, and he asked Milstead why Mesa doesn’t have ironclad procedures to handle what should be a consistent legal process. Milstead acknowledged the program still has glitches, mentioning a case several weeks ago where a radar van was deployed in violation of established policy. That won’t happen any more, he said, and a new process server has reduced the number of complaints about that part of the system. Kavanaugh was the strongest defender of the photo program during the Nov. 21 debate. “I think it is one of the tools that is helping to improve traffic behavior,” he said. Pombier said the traffic camera produced net losses to the city during its first four years. Since fiscal 2010-11 it has operated in the black, and the net surplus through the past fiscal year was about $2.4 million. “Photo safety is tough when it comes to numbers,” Pombier said. If it loses, people complain, and if it produces revenue people criticize that. “That’s why we have consistently stated that this is about safety,” he said. Food stamps for wealthy Scottsdale and Paradise Valley residents??? http://www.azcentral.com/community/scottsdale/articles/20131203scottsdale-residents-feel-effects-of-cuts-in-food-stamp-benefits.html Scottsdale residents feel effects of cuts in food-stamp benefits By Kirsten Kraklio The Republic | azcentral.com Tue Dec 3, 2013 12:40 PM Nearly 10,000 Scottsdale residents have been affected by last month’s federal cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, state officials said. SNAP, informally known as food stamps, can be used to purchase allowable food items defined by the federal law and regulations. In 2009, the American Reinvestment Act raised SNAP benefits to help households affected by the recession. The raised benefits were rescinded Nov. 1, said state legislative specialist John Bowen. The decreases range from $11 to upwards of $65 per month, depending on family size, according to Bowen. “Any decrease in the food-stamp allotment will obviously have a negative impact on a family or individual,” Bowen said. “Whatever money would have been spent on food, that money will now have to come out of pocket, which means there will be less disposable income for the family to spend on rent, clothes and shoes,” he said. “Since the program is designed for low-income individuals and families, it may be a hardship to come up with the difference.” According to Todd Stone, public records coordinator at the Arizona Department of Economic Security, 11,308 individuals receive assistance in Scottsdale and surrounding cities. In addition to the roughly 10,000 Scottsdale recipients, there are 196 in Paradise Valley; 584 in Fountain Hills; 601 in Cave Creek and 32 in Carefree. Eugenio Munoz-Villafane, human services manager at Scottsdale’s Vista del Camino, which provides assistance to needy residents, said no matter how small the cuts they have an impact. “We’re hearing from people directly that their food stamps are being cut and that’s why they are coming in,” he said. The center provides food boxes with approximately 25 to 35 pounds of food, as well as offering other resources for individuals to help them become more self-sufficient, he said. In the past three years Munoz-Villafane said he has seen the number of households requesting food boxes fluctuate. In November 2011, the center provided 221 households with food boxes. In November 2012, the center provided 237 boxes and this November the center provided 226 boxes. With the employment market on the rise, Munoz-Villafane said fewer people are requesting aid from their career services, but the latest, and possible future, cuts to SNAP make the center’s job more difficult. “We don’t want people to just become dependent on us,” he said. “For people on the fringe of their spending limits, that’s when they start making the tough choices,” he said. He hears stories from seniors who are cutting their medicines in half, avoiding the use of their air-conditioning in summer months, and eating two meals instead of three to make ends meet. Scottsdale resident Tina Vosberg, 44, said her family received aid from Vista del Camino after cuts to her benefits. “Being a single mom, I have been getting assistance for a long time,” she said. “Without it, it would have been hard to survive.” Vosberg said she hit troubled years after her youngest son went through cancer treatment during the same time she was admitted to the hospital for a month after a car accident. In August, she was receiving $360 a month from SNAP. In September, she said her benefits dropped from $360 to $92 after she began receiving disability from injuries suffered in the accident. Then in November, when the cuts took place, she said her benefits dropped to $72 a month. “It’s hard to get out of where you’re at when they take so much away, and then you’re struggling even more; It’s a vicious circle,” she said. “I’ve always been really good at budgeting, but $72 is not enough to stretch,” she said. “It may not seem like a big deal, but it’s a big deal to me,” she said. “Twenty dollars is a lot when you don’t have a lot.” Palma DiPietro, director of Foothills Food Bank in Cave Creek, said the center is seeing a record-breaking number of families and individuals. In October 2012 the food bank served 1,156 individuals, compared with October 2013, when the center served 2,005 individuals, she said. “We’re seeing seniors that are coming to us saying they were on food stamps or that bills have gotten so much more expensive and they found they had to come to us,” she said. According to a recent White House report, House Republicans proposed an additional $40 billion in cuts to SNAP in 2014 which would result in approximately 3.8 million people losing the assistance. The Arizona Public Records law is as worthless as the paper it is printed on. There are NO penalties for government rulers who refuse to obey it. You can call the "cops" to force a government bureaucrat to obey it. Your only recourse it to spend your hard earned money and sue the government asking them to force the government bureaucrat to obey the law. And even if you win, you won't alway get your legal fees and court costs paid by the government bureaucrat that screwed you. The MAIN purpose of the Arizona Public Records law is to falsely make the public think they have a right to public records. Which is bullsh*t that will be discovered by many people who attempt to get public records and are refused access to them. http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/articles/20131207opinion-protects-right-know.html Horne opinion protects right to know By Editorial board The Republic | azcentral.com Sat Dec 7, 2013 5:07 PM This is about you. An opinion issued by Attorney General Tom Horne helps protect your right to know — and that’s the best defense against capricious or malicious government. Arizona’s public-records law is a powerful and practical tool anyone can use to shine a light on government. It helps keep public bodies honest and accountable. The law permits the government to charge copying costs, which is fair. But using charges to discourage research or harass citizens exercising their rights is not. Horne was asked whether a public body can charge a fee even if a person just wants to look at a document. The answer: No. You can’t charge to inspect public documents. Period. This is true even if the government body has to print a copy in order to let you look at it. Horne was also asked whether government can charge a “copying” fee when a person uses a personal scanner, cellphone or camera to make a copy. The answer: No. Government can’t charge for a service it doesn’t provide. It can’t erect barriers between you, your cellphone and your right to find out what’s going on. This opinion, although it does not have the force of law, makes a powerful statement about the proper relationship between government and the governed. It says your government can’t mess with your right to know. http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/articles/20131127irs-should-stay-out-issue.html IRS should keep its mitts off 'political activity' By Editorial board The Republic | azcentral.com Sun Dec 1, 2013 7:15 PM It remains beyond dispute that there is much wrong with American campaign-finance law. So much of the so-called dark money. So little disclosure. Political campaign finances have entered a “black ops” stage in which tens of millions of dollars are being spent each year by faceless organizations. Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, we seem to know little about activist organizations and less about the people cutting the checks. The sum of such ignorance is a terrible weight on the integrity of American elections. How can we possibly know our candidates when we have little clue who is spending money to support them? We can think of just one thing worse than the current state of campaign-finance affairs, and that is having the Internal Revenue Service propose “fixes” to the system. The IRS has created new rules governing “political activity” as they apply to non-profit organizations designated with a 501 (c)(4) status. Among several changes, this “initial guidance” from the tax-collecting agency would forbid certain communications by the non-profits during an election cycle, especially those that identify a certain candidate. In addition, the IRS definitions governing “political activity” would include voter-registration drives, grants to political groups, events touting a certain candidate and distributing material on a candidate’s behalf. There are problems with this. Let’s move from the less obvious ones to the painfully clear ones. However well-intentioned, such rules tread dangerously close to inhibiting free speech, especially as that speech has been defined by the high court in Citizens United. The greater problem, however, is the widespread concern that such rule changes in fact are not well-intentioned but constitute yet another IRS attempt to throttle conservative non-profit groups. The investigations into the IRS’ years-long campaign of harassment of “tea party” non-profits are still ongoing. The entire trail of responsibility for the agency’s malicious behavior has not yet been uncovered — although we know now that it extends far beyond the handful of “front line” personnel in Cincinnati who initially were served up for sacrifice. Perhaps some time in the (likely distant) future, the IRS can claim some neutral ground from which to issue ground rules for non-profit groups conducting political activity. That time is not now. There are threats to the integrity of the American system of elections. And then there are threats. “Dark money” in our elections is a real threat. Even in a world in which ruthless activists use their opponents’ donor lists to harass contributors simply for the “crime” of participating in politics, disclosure is vital. Just as vital, however, is the expectation that the great machinery of the federal government should not be abused from within for partisan advantage. Between 2010 and the 2012 presidential election, a handful of liberal-oriented non-profit groups were briefly inconvenienced by the IRS before being approved and sent along on their happy way. Meanwhile, hundreds of conservative groups were held up for months and years. Some still await IRS approval. Whatever one calls that, it is not the behavior of a politically neutral organization. Neither is it the behavior of an agency that, at this point, should be making rules governing “political activity” of any kind. Phoenix wants to flush your 1st and 2nd Amendment rights down the toilet!!!! http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/20131126phoenix-bus-gun-ad-court.html Ban on Phoenix bus-stop gun ad is back in court By Dustin Gardiner The Republic | azcentral.com Sun Dec 1, 2013 10:53 PM “Guns Save Lives.” Those words, set against the backdrop of a red heart, are the headline of a controversial Phoenix bus-stop advertisement at the center of a three-year legal battle between city officials and civil-liberties advocates. The fight started in 2010 when city officials removed 50 “Guns Save Lives” ads from its bus stops. Phoenix told the man behind the ad, gun-rights activist Alan Korwin, that its message was political and violated the city’s policy against non-commercial advertising on buses and transit stops. Opponents of the ad’s removal say the case, which attorneys will argue in the Arizona Court of Appeals starting Tuesday, could have broad implications for free-speech rights in Arizona and stop the city from arbitrarily censoring public-transit ads. At issue is how Arizona’s Constitution applies to the regulation of speech on government property. If the court sides with Korwin and his supporters, it could open the door for others to argue that cities and other entities cannot ban political or public-service messages from government-owned advertising spaces. That’s a concern for Phoenix, which says that promoting political speech on the city bus system would inevitably create controversy, potentially incite protests, stir accusations of political favoritism, and affect transit-system revenues. The Phoenix-based Goldwater Institute, a conservative government-watchdog group, represents Korwin. And the case has fostered an odd-couple alliance between the institute and the American Civil Liberties Union. Phoenix attorneys have defended their policy by pointing to federal-court rulings concluding that the government can impose reasonable restrictions on speech that appears in a “non-public forum,” such as proprietary advertising sales. But the ACLU filed a brief in the case, saying the city’s policy should be struck down because the Arizona Constitution offers greater free-speech protections in certain areas than the U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted under the First Amendment. James Weinstein, an ACLU advocate and professor at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, said state constitutional language, which grants every person the right to “freely speak, write, and publish on all subjects,” could allow for a more flexible approach to protection of speech on public property than the more “rigid” test developed by the Supreme Court. “Not only would this approach provide greater free-speech rights on government-owned property, it could also more generally increase the rights of free expression in Arizona,” Weinstein said, adding that the case could affirm that the state Constitution provides more expansive free-speech protections in other areas than the First Amendment. The ACLU contends that Arizona courts have never ruled whether content-based restrictions on government advertising space is allowed under the state Constitution or provided a legal test to determine when restrictions can be applied. Last fall, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Mark Brain ruled in the city’s favor, stating the city had created reasonable guidelines for what it will and won’t allow on transit billboards. Korwin and Goldwater are challenging the ruling. Phoenix recently allowed Korwin to post an alternative ad, which reads “Guns Stop Crime” set against the backdrop of a blue heart, on city bus stops. But Korwin and his attorneys say the city’s decision to allow one pro-gun ad while rejecting a similar ad shows the haphazard nature of its “censoring” process. Phoenix attorneys said the city is simply enforcing its policy that prohibits non-commercial advertisements, including those that meld a commercial purpose with political and religious statements. Korwin’s ad contained a reference to a website that links firearm owners to gun-safety training classes. They said the city removed the original pro-gun ads because its smaller print voiced support for the state’s gun laws and didn’t appear to clearly promote a product or service. The city would have allowed Korwin to post an ad with the text “Guns Save Lives” if the ad emphasized the training website, officials said. In court filings, the city calls the ads “political rhetoric in the sheep’s clothing of an ostensible commercial advertisement.” “The city should not be forced into an all-or-nothing approach — allow no advertising or allow all advertising,” Phoenix attorneys wrote. The policy is intended “to maximize revenue and avoid intricate issues of fair balance and equal time by avoiding the appearance that the city is favoring or disfavoring any particular candidate, political view, or side in a debate over contentious issues of the day.” The initial gun ad also included, in large lettering, the words “Arizona Says: Educate Your Kids” and the site “TrainMeAZ.com.” Korwin said he and other gun-rights supporters created the website to promote safety after the state passed a law expanding concealed-carry rights in 2010. Attorneys for the Goldwater Institute have also targeted the city’s policy for reviewing bus-stop ads for being “vague,” suggesting it’s arbitrary and allows for censorship. They pointed to several examples of bus-stop ads the city has permitted, including one that featured the words “Jesus Heals” and bandages in the shape of a cross. “Throughout this litigation, the city has offered a dizzying array of explanations about what the guidelines allow and don’t allow,” Goldwater argues in court filings. “It is literally impossible for a person of ordinary intelligence to determine with any degree of assurance whether a particular advertisement will be accepted or rejected.” David Schwartz, an attorney for Phoenix, said the city screens every ad it receives to determine if it complies with the policy. He said the city allowed the “Jesus Heals” because it included the call letters of a Christian radio station, serving a general commercial purpose. Plus, Schwartz said the Christian radio ad didn’t include text espousing the virtues of religion. On the other hand, he said, Korwin’s ad included smaller print emphasizing his political views on gun laws and didn’t use the statement “Guns Save Lives” to just promote his website. Korwin said he thinks the city singled out his ad for removal because some city officials are apparently liberal-leaning or don’t support gun rights. He said the headline of the ad was intended to grab attention so it would better market his website. “The city should not be in the business of deciding what you can say,” Korwin said. “It’s three years now that our free speech has been censored.” http://www.azcentral.com/thingstodo/celebrities/free/20131202joe-jonas-miley-cyrus-demi-lovato-introduced-me-weed.html Joe Jonas: Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato introduced me to weed Bang Showbiz Mon Dec 2, 2013 6:03 AM Joe Jonas has claimed Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato encouraged him to try marijuana. The squeaky clean star has said his fellow Disney Channel stars - who are both three years younger than him - pressured him into smoking a joint when they were teenagers. Joe, 24, told Vulture magazine: ''The first time I smoked weed was with Demi and Miley. I must have been 17 or 18. They kept saying, 'Try it! Try it!' so I gave it a shot, and it was all right. I don't even smoke weed that often anymore.'' The singer also opened up about his rocky relationship with Demi, claiming the 'X Factor' USA judge - who went to rehab for ''physical and emotional issues'' in 2010 - was actually struggling with full-blown ''drug abuse'' and he only stayed with her because he wanted to help her. Joe recalled: ''I really got to know her and got to see the ins and outs of what she was struggling with, like drug abuse. I felt like I needed to take care of her, but at the same time I was living a lie, because I wasn't happy but felt like I had to stay in it for her, because she needed help. ''I couldn't express any of that, of course, because I had a brand to protect.'' The Jonas Brothers star hinted he lost his virginity to his first ''serious'' girlfriend Ashley Greene, for whom he ditched his purity ring aged 20. Joe - who also dated Taylor Swift as well as Demi - joked he was glad he waited for the right girl and not his ''bats**t crazy'' ex. In the revealing Q&A, he said: ''I lost my virginity when I was 20. I did other stuff before then, but I was sexually active at 20. I'm glad I waited for the right person, because you look back and you go, ''That girl was bats**t crazy. I'm glad I didn't go there.''' Joe's band - also formed of his two brothers Nick and Kevin - split in October. Citizenship for helping the government kill people??? This isn't new!!! One of my friends was given the choice of helping the government kill people in Vietnam or going to jail when he was busted for marijuana. I worked with a guy from Nogales, Mexico who got his American citizenship by coming to the USA and offering to join the Army and help the American people murder people in Vietnam. He lucked out and because he couldn't speak a word of English at the time the Army wouldn't accept him. http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/20131120military-undocumented-relatives-policy.html New policy allows military members to help undocumented relatives By Daniel González The Republic | azcentral.com Sun Dec 1, 2013 11:39 PM As a member of the Arizona Army National Guard, Gabriel Zermeño has been preparing for almost two years to be deployed overseas. But the country he signed up to defend could also one day deport his father. The reason? Zermeño, 21, is a citizen born in the U.S. But his father, Jose Zermeño, 53, is an immigrant from Mexico who has been living in the U.S. illegally for more than 30 years and has faced deportation proceedings. “At any moment, I could be overseas fighting for my country and he could be getting deported by the same country I was supposed to be fighting for,” Zermeño said. Soon, however, Zermeño’s father may be able to legalize his status, possibly within a couple of months, thanks to a new policy issued by President Barack Obama’s administration. The policy, which went into effect last month, allows the undocumented spouses, children and parents of military personnel to be “paroled” into the U.S. Once paroled, undocumented relatives will then be able to apply for green cards without having to first go back to their home countries, where those who entered illegally face bans from returning to the U.S. for up to 10 years. Thousands of military families may benefit, experts say. The policy comes as Obama is under growing pressure from immigration-reform advocates to take steps on his own to protect undocumented immigrants from deportation as immigration reform remains stalled in Congress. The policy has been hailed by military and immigrant advocates. They say the policy will improve military readiness by alleviating some of the stress and distractions of military personnel as they attempt to legalize the status of undocumented relatives. “This has been causing a lot of problems for the military,” said Margaret Stock, an immigration lawyer in Alaska and retired military-police lieutenant colonel. She specializes in immigration cases involving military personnel. In the past, the ability of military personnel to focus on their duties was often being weakened by immigration problems that undocumented relatives faced back home. Stock cited the case of an undocumented woman from Bullhead City that drew media attention in 2012. A sheriff’s deputy stopped the woman in northern Arizona for making an illegal turn and turned her over to immigration authorities for possible deportation. She was later released after immigration authorities determined she was married to a U.S. Army soldier on active duty in Germany. Stock said she has personally handled dozens of cases involving U.S. military personnel trying to legalize the status of parents, spouses and children. Daunting process Immigrants who want to receive green cards through petitions filed by U.S. citizen relatives are required to go back to their home country first if they entered the country illegally. But in what Stock called a catch-22, those who returned home faced being barred from coming back to the U.S. for up to 10 years. Even applying for waivers to avoid the 10-year ban could take many months. As a result, many military personnel with undocumented family members were forced to devote large amounts of time and resources to trying to legalize relatives, which took away from their military duties, Stock said. Or some military personnel were so daunted by the lengthy process and the possibility of a long separation that they simply didn’t apply to legalize family members, leaving their undocumented relatives vulnerable to deportation, Stock said. Now, undocumented relatives of military personnel will be able to apply for parole to remain in the country legally, opening the door to seeking permanent residency, known as green cards. Lt. Cmdr. Nathan Christensen, a Department of Defense spokesman, praised the policy, saying clarifications by the Department of Homeland Security will support the family members of people serving in the armed forces, as well as those who have served. But the new Homeland Security policy could conflict with policies established by some branches of the military that bar people from enlisting if they are married to immigrants without legal status. Those policies are based on administrative and security concerns that prevent immigrant dependents of military personnel from obtaining military ID cards if they lack legal status to be in the U.S., Christensen said. Those policies say “that uniformed service members, family members, or other eligible individuals are required to provide identity documentation in order to be eligible to obtain an ID card,” he said. The Marines and Navy have such policies. The Air Force does not. The Army did not respond to requests for comment. Informal policy In 2010, former Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano began an informal policy granting so called “parole-in-place” to undocumented parents, spouses, and children of active-duty military personnel. But the informal policy was not being followed consistently by immigration field offices across the country. As a result, many military personnel who applied for immigration parole for their undocumented parents, spouses and children were still having their cases denied even though they qualified, Stock said. The new policy issued in a memorandum by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is intended to “reduce the uncertainty” active-duty and retired military personnel face because of the immigration status of their family members, said Peter Boogaard, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security. The policy also will ensure “consistent application” of existing policies, he said. The policy applies to immediate family members of active-duty military personnel, as well as reservists, including the National Guard, and veterans. “Parole-in-place is granted on a discretionary, case-by-case basis, for urgent humanitarian or significant public benefit reasons,” Boogaard said. Threat of deportation Only legal permanent residents and U.S. citizens can join the military. Gabriel Zermeño is the only U.S. citizen in his family. He joined the Arizona Army National Guard after graduating from Apollo High School in Glendale. He has trained as a heavy-equipment mechanic at Fort Benning, Ga., and Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. Zermeño also is preparing to become an officer in the Army through the ROTC program at Arizona State University, where he is studying political science. Meanwhile, his father, José Zermeño, has been facing deportation after he tried applying for legal status and was denied on a technicality, according to his lawyer, Gerald Burns. A judge administratively closed his case in September but the case could be reopened in the future, Burns said. José Zermeño raised Gabriel, along with his two older sisters and brother, as a single father. In June, Jose Zermeño applied for parole to remain in the U.S. legally, citing his son’s service in the armed forces. But at the time, it was unclear if undocumented parents of military personnel qualified for parole. The new written policy specifically spells out that they do, increasing Jose Zermeño’s chances that he will be approved, Burns said. Gabriel’s sisters and brother were all born in Mexico and like Gabriel’s father are in the country illegally. Siblings of military personnel do not qualify for parole under the new policy. But Gabriel’s siblings already have received protection from deportation under Obama’s deferred-action program, which allows young undocumented immigrants to live and work temporarily in the U.S. José Zermeño should learn within the next month or two whether he has been approved for parole, Burns said. The only possible snag could be a misdemeanor DUI that José Zermeño received in the late 1990s, Burns said. For Gabriel Zermeño, knowing his father has legal status would provide some peace of mind. “If he were to get legal status or citizenship,” the son said. “I could perform my (military) duty to the best of my ability instead of having to worry about him.” More marijuana lies from Sheila Polk???? I always thought that the DEA only allowed companies to do research on marijuana if it was going to demonize marijuana. After all the DEA only wants evidence about marijuana which will create more jobs for cops arresting people for the victimless crime of smoking or selling weed. So I assumed that Dr. Gina Mecagni was correct in her letter supporting medical marijuana. On the other hand hell may have frozen over and Sheila Polk may be correct this time. However I suspect this is just another lie from Sheila Polk to justify her war against marijuana. http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/free/20131201busting-medical-pot-study-myth.html Busting medical-pot study myth Sun Dec 1, 2013 7:35 PM Regarding a Nov. 23 column about medical marijuana (“Republic’s readers deserve truth about medical-pot program,” Viewpoints): Dr. Gina Mecagni repeated an urban myth in the debate over marijuana — that the National Institute on Drug Abuse won’t release marijuana “for research that does not specifically address drug abuse.” A visit to NIDA’s website, drugabuse.gov/marijuana-research-nida, should put this myth to bed forever. NIDA funds a wide range of research on marijuana, including “potential therapeutic uses of THC and other cannabinoids in treatment of pain, HIV and addiction.” NIDA contracts with the University of Mississippi to grow marijuana for use in research studies at no cost. Researchers do not need to be funded by the National Institutes of Health to obtain research-grade marijuana. For example, the National Cancer Institute is funding a preclinical study on the potential benefits of cannabinoids for the treatment of breast-cancer-induced bone pain. Readers should also take note that the American Medical Association voted last month to retain their long-standing position that “cannabis is a dangerous drug and as such is a public health concern.” — Sheila Polk, Prescott The writer is the Yavapai County attorney and co-chair of MATForce, the Yavapai County Substance Abuse Coalition. http://www.drugabuse.gov/marijuana-research-nida Marijuana Research at NIDA What kinds of marijuana research does NIDA fund? As part of its mandate to study drug abuse and addiction and other health effects of both legal and illegal drugs, NIDA funds a wide range of research on marijuana (cannabis); its main psychoactive ingredient, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC); and chemicals related to THC (cannabinoids), including: Patterns and trends in marijuana use and attitudes, particularly among adolescents Short- and medium-term effects of THC on the brain and behavior; driving under the influence of cannabis Long-term effects of prenatal and adolescent cannabis exposure on brain development The development and impact of prevention programs on marijuana use Screening and brief assessment for marijuana abuse Medications and behavioral treatments for cannabis use disorder The working of the brain’s cannabinoid system, including its role in pain and HIV Potential therapeutic uses of THC and other cannabinoids in treatment of pain, HIV, and addiction Social, behavioral, and public health impacts of policy changes related to marijuana (i.e., “medical marijuana” and recreational legalization) Does NIDA permit or fund studies on therapeutic benefits of marijuana? Yes. Research suggests that THC and/or other cannabinoids (chemicals that act on the same receptors as THC in the brain and body) may have potential in the treatment of pain, nausea, obesity, wasting disease, addiction, autoimmune disorders, and other conditions. NIDA has provided and continues to provide funding for research related to therapeutic uses of cannabinoids, as it pertains to its mission, including studies on the use of THC and cannabidiol, another chemical constituent of marijuana, for the treatment of pain (as an alternative to opioid pain relievers) and addiction. For example, one currently ongoing study is examining the use of cannabidiol to reduce opioid craving in people with heroin addiction. Research on therapeutic uses of marijuana or other chemicals in the marijuana plant could be supported by any Institute or Center at NIH where the disease, conditions, or affected organs are studied. For instance, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism is supporting a preclinical (animal) study on the use of cannabinoids to reduce neuroinflammation caused by HIV and exacerbated by alcohol use. Similarly, the National Cancer Institute is funding a preclinical study on the potential benefits of cannabinoids for the treatment of breast-cancer induced bone pain. Note that the vast majority of research proposals received and funded by NIH on therapeutic benefits of cannabinoids have examined individual cannabinoid chemicals or, in a few cases, marijuana leaves delivered through some other means than smoking. Various factors make smoked marijuana therapeutically less promising than medications derived from cannabinoids, including the potential harmful health effects both short-lasting (sedation, cognitive and motor impairment) and long lasting (addiction, respiratory effects). Marijuana leaves contain numerous poorly understood or even toxic chemicals besides THC. It is also difficult to standardize dosages of a highly variable herb delivered in cigarettes or food (see NIDA’s fact sheet, “Is Marijuana Medicine”). A few medications derived from THC, however, are now FDA approved for relieving nausea associated with cancer chemotherapy and stimulating appetite in patients with wasting syndrome that often accompanies AIDS. Whether submitted to NIDA or another NIH institute, research proposals to study therapeutic benefits of marijuana or one of its ingredients must meet the same accepted standards of scientific design as any other proposal and, on the basis of peer review, should meet public health significance and Institute priorities and be competitive with other applications that qualify for funding. What is NIDA’s role in providing marijuana for research purposes? In addition to funding research, NIDA also supports a drug supply program, which provides controlled substances (including research-grade marijuana) to researchers for scientific purposes. The marijuana supply program operates pursuant to the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which requires each Nation to designate a single official source of marijuana for medicinal research. In the United States, NIDA has been designated the responsible agency. NIDA contracts with the University of Mississippi to grow marijuana for use in research studies. The University designates a secure plot of land where marijuana crops are grown every few years, depending on demand. The marijuana is grown, harvested, stored, and made into cigarettes of varying THC content for research.[1] NIDA provides this marijuana (at no cost) both for NIH-funded projects and for non-NIH-funded projects that have been deemed scientifically valid by a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) scientific review panel. Researchers do not need to be funded by NIH to obtain research-grade marijuana, but non-NIH-funded proposals must pass the HHS review process. (Applications approved by the HHS panel do not require additional approval from NIDA.) The review process for non-NIH-funded proposals began in 1999, when HHS announced a series of steps to help facilitate research into the medical uses of marijuana and its specific chemical ingredients: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/not99-091.html. To date, 18 applications to obtain marijuana for medical research have been submitted by potential researchers not funded by NIH; of those, 15 received approval to obtain research-grade marijuana from NIH.[2] How can researchers obtain marijuana from NIDA? Studies not funded by NIH must go through the HHS review process. The HHS review committee consists of experts from across the Department of Health and Human Services with backgrounds relevant to the research being proposed. Representatives’ expertise may range from expertise in drug development, to mental health and substance use disorders, to pain management, to alternative medicine (aligned to the goals of the proposal). The final decision as to whether or not to approve a proposal is based on the consensus of the experts on the review committee. NIH-funded studies are not required to go through the HHS committee review, since grant applications already go through a rigorous, three-step NIH review process: (1) the NIH peer review system, which assesses the scientific and technical merit of all grant applications; (2) the Institute’s National Advisory Council, comprising eminent scientists as well as public members from the community; and (3) the Institute Director, who makes the final decision on the merit of an application for funding, based on peer review, public health significance, and Institute priorities. Once an application has been scientifically evaluated and approved (whether through the HHS committee or through the NIH review process), researchers must then complete paperwork necessary for any projects involving both human participants and a Schedule I controlled substance: an Investigational New Drug application from the FDA and a DEA registration number for Schedule I substances. When the above steps have been completed, investigators then contact the NIDA Drug Supply Program to place an order for marijuana with specific THC concentrations. The program official verifies that the application is complete (with all the above-mentioned steps fulfilled), and forwards the order on to the contractor responsible for shipping the marijuana. For further information on this process, go to http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/not99-091.html Does NIDA have an official stand on legalization or decriminalization of marijuana for either recreational or therapeutic use? No. NIDA is a scientific, not a policy-making agency (the same is true for the NIH as a whole). NIDA’s role is to conduct and support scientific research on drugs and drug abuse and to advise the public and policy-makers (such as Congress, the White House Office of the National Drug Control Policy, and the Drug Enforcement Administration) on the results of that research—with the goal of ensuring that the nation’s drug policies are informed by science. That said, NIDA does closely watch legislative changes both nationally and at the state level, in order to anticipate and assess how changing drug policies—for instance laws around recreational or therapeutic use of marijuana—may affect rates of substance use and related public health issues that are our area of concern. The annual NIDA-supported Monitoring the Future survey of adolescent drug use and attitudes, for example, has over the past several years detected increasing use of marijuana by teens associated with a decreasing perception of marijuana’s harmfulness—a trend that may be linked to the public conversation about “medical marijuana” (and in some states legalization advocacy) over the same period of time. NIDA is encouraging its grantees to study effects of changing marijuana legislation, through administrative supplements to existing grant Looks like Tucson's version of light rail is a boondoggle just like Phoenix's version!!! http://ktar.com/22/1681705/Tucson-mulls-loan-to-pay-for-streetcar-project Tucson mulls loan to pay for streetcar project Originally published: Dec 1, 2013 - 12:42 pm TUCSON, Ariz. -- Officials in Tucson are examining whether to take out a $13 million loan to bridge a funding gap in a project to build the city's new streetcar system. The Arizona Daily Star reports that the bulk of the project's $197 million in costs are covered by federal grants and the Regional Transportation Administration. The city's share of costs was penciled in at $26 million, but officials had contended the city might not have to pony up any money for construction because of declining construction costs and potential grant money was available. The new grants never materialized, and costs didn't sink far enough for the city to avoid paying. Councilman Steve Kozachik was rankled by the possibility of taking out a loan. "For the last two years, we've been told that the project is on time and in budget. And I've been saying neither is true," Kozachik said. "The cars are late and now we're told that we have a significant funding gap." Council members are scheduled to decide next week whether to go ahead with pay raises that the council approved last spring for city employees. With city expenses climbing and a list of over $1 billion in unmet needs, the city might not have the capacity to add $8 million annually to its budget to increase employee pay. Mayor Jonathan Rothschild said he's not too concerned about streetcar costs for now. "The city will face additional fiscal challenges in 2015, but if we can sell an adequate number of streetcar passes, that revenue, along with the reserve funds we have at the RTA (Regional Transportation Authority) for operation and maintenance, should keep the financial impact of the streetcar to a minimum," Rothschild said. Unions hope the council doesn't renege on the raises. Jason Winsky, government affairs director for Tucson Police Officers Association, said the council promised it would make compensating employees a priority and they should live up to that. In the end, Winsky believes the council will allow the pay raises to take effect Jan. 1. ___ Information from: Arizona Daily Star, http://www.azstarnet.com http://azstarnet.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/city-needs-to-find-million-to-complete-streetcar-funding/article_3ecd1c00-096a-589c-89f0-c570a3e9d7b3.html City needs to find $13 million to complete streetcar funding December 01, 2013 12:00 am • By Darren DaRonco 47 Tucson’s bill for streetcar construction is coming due. And after years of saying the $197 million project cost was accounted for, the city is now staring at a $13 million funding gap. To cover it, city officials are now looking at taking out a $13 million loan, which has rankled one council member. “For the last two years, we’ve been told that the project is on time and in budget. And I’ve been saying neither is true,” Councilman Steve Kozachik said. “The cars are late and now we’re told that we have a significant funding gap. It’d be nice if staff would start telling us straight so people can believe what they hear when it’s coming from the mouths of government officials.” While the bulk of the $197 million came from federal grants and the Regional Transportation Administration, the city’s share was penciled in at $26 million. City officials contended that with declining construction costs, $3 million from the Gadsden Company and potential grant monies available, the city might not have to pony up any money for construction costs. But new grants never materialized, Gadsden reworked its deal with the city last June and costs didn’t sink far enough for the city to avoid paying. “It wasn’t in the cards for us,” said Tucson’s Sunlink co-manager Andrew Quigley. “And Plan B was always the COP’s money.” Certificates of participation (COP’s) are a type of bonding that doesn’t require voter approval, just a vote by the City Council. Since they don’t go to the voters, loans can’t be paid out of the secondary property tax, the way bonds are. And that means they’re funded out of the city’s already over-burdened general fund. Quigley said the city is still working with the RTA on possible solutions. If nothing changes, he said the city will have to take out the money around February 2014. City officials estimate the annual cost could be around $700,000 to repay it. Quigley said the $13 million amount is actually a testament to how effective the streetcar team was at executing the construction phase of the project. “I think it’s really good news … because it’s about half of what we anticipated,” he said. With the city facing a dire financial forecast next year, Kozachik said it’s imperative that accurate financial information is made available sooner rather than later, so the council can make an informed decision. Impact on pay raises The council is scheduled to decide next week whether to go ahead with pay raises the council approved last spring for city employees. “We’re talking about a compensation package on Monday. If staff was withholding information about a $13 million funding gap, it seems to me a pretty salient piece of information if this council is going to be voting on a pay increase,” said Kozachik, who voted against the pay raises in May. With city expenses climbing and a list of over $1 billion in unmet needs that includes everything from fixing city streets and parks to building a new $50 million city hall, the city might not have the capacity to add $8 million annually to the general fund to increase employee pay. Not everyone thinks the $13 million streetcar payment is a deal breaker for pay raises. “The debt service on this for the remainder of fiscal year 2014 will be about 350,000,” Mayor Jonathan Rothschild wrote in an email. “That is not a basis for not looking at employee salaries.” Rothschild said he’s not too concerned about streetcar costs for now. “The city will face additional fiscal challenges in 2015, but if we can sell an adequate number of streetcar passes, that revenue, along with the reserve funds we have at the RTA for operation and maintenance, should keep the financial impact of the streetcar to a minimum,” Rothschild said. Unions hope the council doesn’t renege on the raises. “It’s been seven years since employees have seen any adjustment in their salary,” said Jason Winsky, government affairs director for Tucson Police Officers Association. “If we don’t do it this year, we are potentially looking at going a decade without a cost of living increase because we all know there are budgetary concerns coming up in 2015.” Winsky said the council promised it would make compensating employees a priority and they should live up to that. “We’ve got to keep our qualified and talented employees here. We don’t want them to leave and go to other cities and municipalities,” he said. If the council fails to pass the pay raises, Winsky foresees employee morale sinking even further. “We’ve got employees across the board that have been waiting for this light at the end of the tunnel. ... And the reality is other municipalities are hiring. And they’re hiring at more competitive wages than we are,” he said. In the end though, Winsky believes the council will allow the pay raises to take effect Jan. 1. “The council has seen this is a priority and that they need to take care of this,” he said. Contact reporter Darren DaRonco at 573-4243 or ddaronco@azstarnet.com. Follow on Twitter @DarrenDaRon http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/11/30/5-jaw-dropping-facts-about-legal-marijuana.aspx 5 Jaw-Dropping Facts About Legal Marijuana By Brian Orelli November 30, 2013 The legal use of marijuana for both medical use and adult recreational use is on the rise. Here are five facts that might just surprise you about the drug. Source: Chuck Coker, Flickr. 1. Marijuana could be the best-selling legal drug. Ever. According to ArcView Market Research, the national market for legalized marijuana could hit $10.2 billion in five years. Pfizer's (NYSE: PFE ) Lipitor currently holds the record for prescription drugs at about $13 billion. If ArcView's prediction is correct, it's not hard to see how marijuana could surpass that record in the following year. It's growing from a base of just $1.44 billion this year. And unlike Pfizer, which saw Lipitor sales crash once generic versions hit the market, there isn't likely to be a cliff that causes sales to drop precipitously, short of having the federal government decide to crack down on state laws. Of course, unlike Lipitor, you can't invest in one company to capture all the revenue. 2. 14 states could join Colorado and Washington legalizing marijuana for recreational use In fact, that's one of the driving forces behind ArcView's growth prediction. The sentiment has shifted recently; a majority of Americans now favor legalization. If they vote the same way they answer poll questions, it's likely that we'll see many more states where marijuana use is legal in the coming five years. The driving force for the states is the potential revenue from taxes. They want to get their cut, which they don't get on illegal sales now. [So like most politics, it's about MONEY, not doing the right thing!!!!] It'll be interesting to watch Colorado and Washington as they try to deal with how to tax what many consider to be a drug to help people -- which are typically not taxed -- compared with a recreational drug, which, like cigarettes and alcohol, are typically highly taxed. 3. The government sends out marijuana cigarettes each month It's part of a study to see if marijuana could help patients with glaucoma. At its peak, there were 30 patients enrolled in the study, which stopped accepting new participants in 1992. Those still enrolled get sent their prescriptions from a special farm on the University of Mississippi campus that provides the drug for medical research. 4. Only 6% of studies on marijuana investigate its potential benefit. According to CNN's Sanjay Gupta, the other 94% investigate its potential harm. The problem, as Gupta points out, is that it's very hard to run clinical trials on marijuana use since it's still illegal at the national level. While the University of Mississippi farm can provide the medication legally for studies, it's apparently not that all that easy to acquire medication from it. Researchers also have to gain approval from the NIH's National Institute on Drug Abuse, which has a mission "to lead the nation in bringing the power of science to bear on drug abuse and addiction." That's not exactly a ringing endorsement for potential benefits of drugs. [Sounds like Sheila Polk lied in her last "letter to the editor" in the Arizona Republic. That letter can be view at: http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/free/20131201busting-medical-pot-study-myth.html ] 5. The receptor that marijuana activates has been an (unsuccessful) drug target Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, one of the active drugs in marijuana, is available as a prescription drug called Marinol, developed by Abbott's drug arm, now called AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV ) , to stimulate appetite and control nausea and vomiting in patients taking chemotherapy. But the drug isn't widely used because it's absorbed by different people at different levels, making it hard to get the right dosage . Sanofi (NYSE: SNY ) tried to do the opposite and block the receptor, thus controlling appetite. While Sanofi's obesity drug, Acomplia, was fairly good at helping patients shed the pounds, it had psychiatric side effects including depression. The FDA never approved the drug, and Sanofi had to remove it from the market in Europe in 2008. http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/5-ways-america-is-building-support-for-the-marijuana-industry.html/?ref=YF 5 Ways America Is Building Support for the Marijuana Industry Dan Ritter Google+ Twitter December 02, 2013 Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/47397744@N04/ It no longer seems like a matter of if, but a matter of when the federal U.S. government will recognize legitimate medical uses for marijuana. Cannabidiol (‘CBD’), a less psychoactive chemical found in the marijuana plant, has a wide range of demonstrated medical applications for conditions such as epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, anxiety, schizophrenia, nausea, and seizures, and has even been used to inhibit the growth of cancer cells. Tetrahydrocannabinol (‘THC’), CBD’s psychoactive big brother, has also been used to address medical conditions such as neuropathic and chronic pain. ProCon.org — an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization – estimates that there are at least 2.4 million medical marijuana patients in the United States. This estimate, extrapolated based off of the number of patients currently in the system, likely understates the true number of people who could use cannabis for a legitimate medical reason. Under federal law (the Controlled Substances Act), cannabis and cannabis resin are Schedule I drugs, putting them in league with LSD, MDMA (aka ecstasy), heroin, and psilocybin. This fact has hamstringed the medical marijuana movement. Patients, doctors, and researchers have been dissuaded from pursuing cannabis as a viable prescription for the myriad maladies and sicknesses that it can help treat because of federal laws and social stigma inspired by misinformation. The medical marijuana debate in its current form really took shape in 1996 when California passed the Compassionate Use Act. The Act ensures, among other things, that “seriously ill Californians have the right to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes where that medical use is deemed appropriate and has been recommended by a physician.” It was the first time a state dodged around the federal position and recognized legitimate medical uses for marijuana, opening the floodgates for 19 more states and the District of Columbia, which have since passed some sort of law or regulation of their own to the same effect. However, this created a conflict of interest between state governments and the federal government. The issue came to a head in 2005 when the U.S. Supreme Court heard Gonzales v. Raich, in which a California producer of marijuana for medical use sued the government for interfering with their right to produce. (By that, we mean the operation was shut down by the Drug Enforcement Agency.) The case addressed the inevitable issue: what happens when the federal government decides to exercise its authority over a conflicting state law? The short answer is: the fed wins. But the tide appears to be changing. America is building a case for medical marijuana with a growing intensity. More and more doctors are recognizing legitimate uses for cannabis and patients are coming forward to tell their stories to advocate marijuana’s ability to increase the quality of life for those who suffer debilitating diseases. Spurred by the rising social tide of support, more and more politicians, public figures, and thought leaders have declared their support for the legalization of medical marijuana — and within it all, an industry that has existed in a legal gray area for decades is stepping into the spotlight. 2. Sanjay Gupta’s change of heart Dr. Sanjay Gupta is CNN‘s chief medical correspondent and, for years, prescribed to the belief that there was no legitimate medical use for cannabis. His position was based off the education he received at the University of Michigan and his experience with professional literature as a neurosurgeon and assistant professor at Emory University School of Medicine. Save Time Make Money! A new stock idea each week for less than the cost of a trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! All told, impressive credentials — Dr. Gupta is an Emmy-award winning correspondent on health-related issues. His coverage of health issues influences the thinking of millions of Americans. In 2009, he wrote an article for Time, which was titled “Why I Would Vote No On Pot.” But in August, Dr. Gupta reversed his position and released a special report exploring marijuana’s medical applications. Just wait, I bet the quality of health care provided by Obamacare or the ACA will be just as high of the quality of the software and hardware on the Federal government website!!!!! I write software and find it amusing whenever someone tries to justify their buggy software by saying it's fast!!!!! Wow!!! Must be nice now you can get wrong answers from the Obamacare website in a matter of minutes rather then the hours it used to take. http://www.azcentral.com/business/consumer/articles/20131129health-law-website-faster-still-buggy.html Health-law website is faster but still buggy By Ken Alltucker The Republic | azcentral.com Mon Dec 2, 2013 11:22 PM The Obama administration this weekend touted technical fixes that will allow the health-insurance-marketplace website to accommodate more than 800,000 visitors each day seeking to purchase coverage. But although the repairs should allow more people to avoid the glitches and delays that prevented most users from browsing for insurance options, federal officials acknowledge that more fixes are needed before the website will offer a seamless experience. A small handful of Arizonans who have attempted to access the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace website before and after the upgrades to software and hardware said they had mixed results. Two people told The Arizona Republic on Monday that they now can navigate the site more freely, but they still stalled because the site received information incorrectly or could not verify identity. A third person couldn’t access the site at all. The clock is ticking for Arizonans who have repeatedly been frustrated by delays and error messages since Healthcare.gov launched Oct. 1. People who want health insurance to start Jan. 1 must sign up by Dec. 23. The enrollment deadline for 2014 is March 31. The Obama administration anticipates a surge of shoppers this month as people attempt to secure coverage. Arizona is one of 36 states on the federal government-run exchange. Enrollment has been smoother in most states that operate their own exchanges, though Oregon and Hawaii had rocky starts. Jeffrey Zients, the Obama administration official appointed to fix the website, described the marketplace’s improvement as “night and day” compared with its initial launch. The website can now accommodate 50,000 users simultaneously and more than 800,000 users over a day with fewer error messages and faster-loading pages, Zients said in a conference call with reporters Sunday. In late October, the website had an average response time of 8 seconds per request. That improved to less than one second over the weekend, Zients said. “The site is now stable and operating at its intended capacity at greatly improved performance,” Zients said. The federal marketplace started at a glacial pace. During its first month, fewer than 27,000 people selected a health plan; in Arizona, just 739 enrolled. Federal officials stressed that consumers eligible for subsidized health insurance could use other methods to apply, such as calling the marketplace’s toll-free number, mailing in paper applications or seeking help from enrollment experts, called navigators. With the website fixes in place, Arizona groups plan more aggressive outreach to people who may be eligible for subsidies. Enroll America, a private, non-profit grass-roots group, will intensify its outreach over the next three weeks through enrollment fairs and stops at public places, according to Pati Urias, communications lead for Enroll America in Arizona. “It’s going to be a busy time between now and the 23rd,” Urias said. But will the website fixes give Arizona residents a better shopping experience? Dwayne Witten, 64, of Phoenix, on Monday decided to log on from his Phoenix home. Since Oct. 1, he has logged onto the marketplace several times and talked to operators and their supervisors over the toll-free number. But nobody has been able to resolve his problem. The marketplace hasn’t been able to verify his identity — a common complaint among users nationwide. He established a profile and provided all appropriate information. He mailed documents to the marketplace on Oct. 27 but does not know if anyone processed the paperwork. He even confirmed his identity with credit bureau Experian, which provides third-party verification services for the marketplace. But when he connected to the website Monday afternoon, he received the same message: Identity verification pending. Witten said his existing health-insurance plan charges a high deductible and makes him order his prescriptions from a Canadian pharmacy. He’d like to replace his coverage with a marketplace plan, but he may stick with his existing plan until he’s eligible for Medicare. “It’s at the point where I’m stuck,” Witten said. “I literally can’t do anything. If I could get ahold of somebody who would just delete my account, I would do that and just start over.” Waiting for answers Elizabeth Arant, 31, was among the flood of users who visited healthcare.gov on Oct. 1. Arant, of Scottsdale, has tried dozens of times day and night to sign up for coverage, without success. She made small strides in her attempts. She set up a profile and provided some personal information to identify herself, but she noticed the federal website stored her Social Security number incorrectly, and she has been unable to correct it. She attempted again on Monday to access the site to request a fix, but she was unable to connect, she said. Arant, a nursing-education student, believes she may qualify for Medicaid. Arizona will expand Medicaid coverage for individuals up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level — or $15,282 for an individual. When Arant was unable to enroll through healthcare.gov, she switched tactics and applied directly to Arizona’s Medicaid program, which is taking applications through the website www.healthearizonaplus.gov. She received a letter that indicated her Medicaid application will be reviewed for coverage beginning next year. So, Arant doesn’t know whether she’ll be eligible or will need to purchase a plan through healthcare.gov. But she is certain that she needs health coverage. She has a chronic condition that triggers severe migraines. She now has COBRA coverage through a former employer and spends about $700 per month on insurance and co-payments for drugs and medical care. “It’s frustrating,” Arant said. “You’re in this holding pattern and you don’t know if or when you’ll get coverage.” Looking for security Gary Nelson, 64, of Tempe, has unsuccessfully attempted to get coverage through the federal website about a half-dozen times. He worries that time’s running out to secure health-insurance coverage that will start Jan. 1. “One time, I got far enough where it started taking my information,” said Nelson, a real-estate consultant. “Then, it went completely dead on me.” Nelson needs coverage because his old insurance plan, through an Arizona high-risk pool called Healthcare Group of Arizona, is ending Dec. 31. About 6,000 Arizonans are enrolled in Healthcare Group, but the Arizona Legislature ended the plan on the theory that people should be able to buy coverage through the federal marketplace. Nelson said he now pays about $900 a month for Healthcare Group insurance that covers both him and his wife. The state-sponsored insurance plan provided coverage when he needed two knee replacements and his wife needed treatment for a blood clot. He’d like to find a comparable health plan through the marketplace. “I can afford to pay for the insurance, I just need to be able to get it,” said Nelson, who added that he and his wife will be eligible for Medicare toward the end of next year. “I don’t want to put me or my wife in a position where we have huge medical bills to pay,” he said. ACA facts Health Insurance Marketplace: healthcare.gov. Arizona’s Medicaid program: www.healthearizonaplus.gov. Key dates: Oct. 1: Health Insurance Marketplace launches. The website is established for people to shop for health-insurance coverage, apply for subsidized coverage and compare insurance plans. Dec. 23: The last day users will be allowed to sign up for a health-insurance plan for coverage that will begin Jan. 1. March 31: Final day of enrollment. Don't these pigs have any real criminals to hunt down???? I guess they could be arresting pot smokers!!!! Oops!!!! That's just as silly, wasteful and stupid as arresting a woman for giving topless haircuts!!! When I said real criminals I meant for crimes that hurt people like robbers, burglars and rapists. Not people that commit victimless drug war crimes!!! http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/free/20131202colorado-topless-barber.html Woman who offered topless haircuts charged Associated Press Mon Dec 2, 2013 11:58 AM LONGMONT, Colo. — A woman who allegedly offered topless hairstyling services in northern Colorado faces criminal charges. But police say the problem isn't cutting hair without a top. It's cutting hair without a license. The Longmont Times-Call reports (http://goo.gl/Hh55PN ) 46-year old Suzette Hall was arrested Wednesday night on suspicion of practicing cosmetology without a license. Hall's former partner says she advertised $45 topless haircuts online. According to the arrest warrant, the former partner called police about the topless styling because she "did not believe this was safe or proper." Police weren't able to turn up any Craigslist ads. Hall's ex-husband told police she set up shop in Loveland and offered services as "Rebel Barber." He told police she applied for "a nude license for hairstylists," but no such license exists. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-delay-obamacare-mandate-edit-20131203,0,7784903.story Obamacare deadline looms in 3 weeks December 3, 2013 Over the weekend, the Obama administration announced that it had met its self-imposed deadline to fix its balky health insurance exchange website for the "vast majority" of users. U.S. Health and Human Services officials issued a graphics-heavy, information-light report that claimed great leaps of progress from the earlier crash-prone website that frustrated most users for weeks. The administration says, Mission (Largely) Accomplished. The feds set the bar low and now claim to have cleared it. Federal officials crowed over the weekend that the website can handle 50,000 users at a time. But many more than that will likely flood in, particularly since they've had their individual policies canceled because of Obamacare mandates and they need coverage by Jan. 1. The deadline to sign up: Dec. 23. Three weeks. Ominous sign that the system still isn't ready for a massive influx of customers: Federal officials are not launching a planned December health care marketing campaign, lest too many users pile into HealthCare.gov and ... bleep, blurp, bloop. We're sorry, the website is currently unavailable. Please try again later. Illinois officials similarly have advised advocacy groups to delay attempts to enroll people through the website until later in December, the Tribune reported over the weekend. The problem isn't just with the sluggish response times to load pages. It's in what happens in what insurers call "the back end" — after a customer chooses a plan and sends the application to the insurance company. Insurers need to verify the data, process the enrollment, send a premium bill. How's that working? Clunkily. No surprise there: Last month, Henry Chao, the HealthCare.gov project manager, startled lawmakers and insurers when he estimated that 30 to 40 percent of the exchange marketplace was still under construction. Result: Insurers say they have been flooded with phone calls from people who believe they have signed up for a health plan, only to find that the company has no record of enrollment, The New York Times reports. Some insurers say they've received inaccurate or incomplete information, leading them on a costly and time-consuming mission to track down more data. They say a key piece of information — the amount of a customer's premium subsidy — is often missing from the information supplied by the government. On Monday, Bloomberg reported the latest underwhelming figures: About 100,000 people signed up via the website in November, still far short of the administration's projections. The administration expected 800,000 would sign up for Obamacare by the end of last month. The next three weeks are crucial. There will be a mad scramble to keep fixing a massively complex computer system while processing millions of sensitive personal documents. That's not just about covering the uninsured. Millions of people who had individual coverage but lost it because of Obamacare need coverage starting Jan. 1. Many of them are still in limbo, their applications lost in the giant federal maze. All the more reason for the administration to delay the mandate that Americans buy insurance or pay a penalty. The White House already has granted businesses a pass on providing employees insurance or paying a fine. Last month, administration officials told state regulators they could allow insurers to extend individual insurance policies into 2014. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois announced Monday that it will allow customers to do that. Last week, the administration postponed for at least a year plans to allow small businesses in many states to use a website to choose health insurance plans for their employees. How about an early Christmas present? Give everyone a pause on Obamacare. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/03/health/as-hospital-costs-soar-single-stitch-tops-500.html?hpw&rref=us As Hospital Prices Soar, a Single Stitch Tops $500 By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL December 2, 2013 SAN FRANCISCO — With blood oozing from deep lacerations, the two patients arrived at California Pacific Medical Center’s tidy emergency room. Deepika Singh, 26, had gashed her knee at a backyard barbecue. Orla Roche, a rambunctious toddler on vacation with her family, had tumbled from a couch, splitting open her forehead on a table. On a quiet Saturday in May, nurses in blue scrubs quickly ushered the two patients into treatment rooms. The wounds were cleaned, numbed and mended in under an hour. “It was great — they had good DVDs, the staff couldn’t have been nicer,” said Emer Duffy, Orla’s mother. Then the bills arrived. Ms. Singh’s three stitches cost $2,229.11. Orla’s forehead was sealed with a dab of skin glue for $1,696. “When I first saw the charge, I said, ‘What could possibly have cost that much?’ ” recalled Ms. Singh. “They billed for everything, every pill.” In a medical system notorious for opaque finances and inflated bills, nothing is more convoluted than hospital pricing, economists say. Hospital charges represent about a third of the $2.7 trillion annual United States health care bill, the biggest single segment, according to government statistics, and are the largest driver of medical inflation, a new study in The Journal of the American Medical Association found. A day spent as an inpatient at an American hospital costs on average more than $4,000, five times the charge in many other developed countries, according to the International Federation of Health Plans, a global network of health insurance industries. The most expensive hospitals charge more than $12,500 a day. And at many of them, including California Pacific Medical Center, emergency rooms are profit centers. That is why one of the simplest and oldest medical procedures — closing a wound with a needle and thread — typically leads to bills of at least $1,500 and often much more. At Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, Daniel Diaz, 29, a public relations executive, was billed $3,355.96 for five stitches on his finger after cutting himself while peeling an avocado. At a hospital in Jacksonville, Fla., Arch Roberts Jr., 56, a former government employee, was charged more than $2,000 for three stitches after being bitten by a dog. At Mercy Hospital in Port Huron, Mich., Chelsea Manning, 22, a student, received bills for close to $3,000 for six stitches after she tripped running up a path. Insurers and patients negotiated lower prices, but those charges were a starting point. Chelsea Manning in St. Clair, Mich., in November. She tripped and fell in the driveway of her home, and needed six stitches for which she was billed close to $3,000.Joshua Lott for The New York Times The main reason for high hospital costs in the United States, economists say, is fiscal, not medical: Hospitals are the most powerful players in a health care system that has little or no price regulation in the private market. Rising costs of drugs, medical equipment and other services, and fees from layers of middlemen, play a significant role in escalating hospital bills, of course. But just as important is that mergers and consolidation have resulted in a couple of hospital chains — like Partners in Boston, or Banner in Phoenix — dominating many parts of the country, allowing them to command high prices from insurers and employers. Sutter Health, California Pacific Medical Center’s parent company, operates more than two dozen community hospitals in Northern California, almost all in middle-class or high-income neighborhoods. Its clout has helped California Pacific Medical Center, the state’s largest private nonprofit hospital, also earn the highest net income in California. Prices for many of the procedures at the San Francisco hospital are among the top 20 percent in the country, according to a New York Times analysis of data released by the federal government. “Sutter is a leader — a pioneer — in figuring out how to amass market power to raise prices and decrease competition,” said Glenn Melnick, a professor of health economics at the University of Southern California. “How do hospitals set prices? They set prices to maximize revenue, and they raise prices as much as they can — all the research supports that.” In other countries, the price of a day in the hospital often includes many basic services. Not here. The “chargemaster,” the price list created by each hospital, typically has more than ten thousand entries, and almost nothing — even an aspirin, a bag of IV fluid, or a visit from a physical therapist to help a patient get out of bed — is free. Those lists are usually secret, but California requires them to be filed with health regulators and disclosed. Inflated Prices California Pacific Medical Center has very high price markups for routine supplies and services. California Pacific Medical Center’s 400-page chargemaster for this year contains some eye-popping figures: from $32,901 for an X-ray study of the heart’s arteries to $25,646.88 for gall bladder removal (doctor’s fees not included) to $5,510 for a simple vaginal delivery (not including $731 for each hour of labor, or $137 for each bag of IV fluid). Even basic supplies or services carry huge markups: $20 for a codeine pill (50 cents at Rite-Aid or Walgreens), $543 for a breast-pump kit ($25 online), $4,495 for a CT scan of the abdomen (about $400 at an outpatient facility nearby). Plenty of other hospitals set similar prices. Dr. Warren Browner, the chief executive officer of California Pacific Medical Center, said that there were good reasons that hospitals charged what they did: They must have highly trained professionals available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They must constantly upgrade to the latest equipment and building standards to meet patients’ expectations and state mandates. They charge paying or well-insured patients more to compensate for others they treat at a loss. “Hospital care is extremely expensive to produce and to have available for everyone in the community,” he said, noting that hospitals needed to have a neurosurgeon on call in case a patient turned up with a blood clot on the brain. “We take every penny of the revenue we earn and use it to build new and better facilities for everyone in the city.” Some health economists say that even though most hospitals are nonprofit, they nonetheless are often flush with revenue and guilty of unnecessary spending. “Hospitals are self-fueling, ever-expanding machines,” said James Robinson, an economist and professor of health policy at the University of California, Berkeley. “There is an infinite amount of stuff to buy — amenities, machines, new wings, higher salaries, more nurses.” “But,” he asked, “to deliver good health care, what do you need?” Few Constraints There is little science to how hospitals determine the prices they print on hospital bills. Orla Roche with her mother, Emer Duffy. Orla, 2, fell and cut her forehead during a family vacation. The visit to the emergency room, where her cut was treated with skin glue, cost $1,696.Fred R. Conrad for The New York Times “Chargemaster prices are basically arbitrary, not connected to underlying costs or market prices,” said Professor Melnick, the economist. Hospitals “can set them at any level they want. There are no market constraints.” Prices for any item or service are set by each hospital and move up and down yearly, and show extraordinary variability, health economists say. The codeine that costs $20 and the bag of IV fluid that costs $137 at California Pacific are charged at $1 and $16 at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center, across town. But U.C.S.F. Medical Center charges $1,600 for an amniocentesis, which costs $687 at California Pacific. After each hospital stay or visit, computer programs and human coders and billers use the chargemaster price list to translate the services rendered into a price. Sutter employs more than 1,300 people at a special center in Roseville, Calif., to perform this and other administrative tasks for its hospitals. Emergency room visits typically include separate charges for doctor’s services and for supplies, as well as a “facility fee” — the charge for walking in the door. Orla Roche’s bill, for example, included $529 for “supplies and devices,” though her mother is perplexed about what those are: Orla left the emergency room with gauze wrapped round her head (under $1 at Internet supply stores), festooned with a pink cartoon sticker. According to the chargemaster price list for California Pacific, a vial of skin glue is billed at $181, a tube of antibiotic cream at $125.84 and a vial of local anesthetic at $79.73. These items can be purchased for $15.99, $36.99 and $5 on the Internet, though hospitals — which buy wholesale and in bulk — pay far less. The bill also included $1,167 for the facility fee, which was classified at Level 3 — the middle of the scale, though Orla’s treatment was one of the most simple emergency room interventions. At Lenox Hill in New York, Daniel Diaz’s unusually detailed bill for his stitches included $1,828 for emergency room services, $628 for repairing the wound, $571.83 for “application of a finger splint,” $97.10 for a tetanus shot, and $311 for someone to give the injection. At Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, Mich., 2-year-old Ben Bellar’s bill for six stitches, more than $2,000, included $145.20 for “pharmacy” — a spoonful of ibuprofen and local anesthetic, his mother said. Economists note that hospitals can bill for emergency room care with relative impunity, since injured patients generally rush to the nearest treatment facility. But worried about high prices, even the sick sometimes shop around. When Jamie Burke, 33, a graduate student in North Carolina, came to after she was knocked out during a soccer game in April, she started searching on her smartphone for an in-network hospital as a friend drove. “It was crazy,” she said, “but luckily I wasn’t unconscious, so I could figure it out.” She is glad she did: Though the hospital billed $5,039, her insurer’s in-network contracted rate was about $2,700. With copays and coinsurance, she owed $600 for the visit. “I don’t think it’s appropriate [for me] to be removed” - Translation - You ain't going to get a fair trial from me, but I have a deserve my job because I am a great guy. http://www.azcentral.com/news/free/20131203judge-says-he-broke-ethics-code-teacher-rape-case.html Judge says he broke ethics code in teacher rape case Associated Press Tue Dec 3, 2013 8:07 PM BILLINGS, Mont. — A Montana judge under fire for commenting that a 14-year-old rape victim appeared “older than her chronological age” said Tuesday that he deserves to be censured but not removed from the bench for the remarks. District Judge G. Todd Baugh told The Associated Press the comments violated judicial ethics rules by failing to promote public confidence in the courts. “I shouldn’t have said that. … I don’t contest that appearance of impropriety,” he said during an interview in his chambers at the Yellowstone County Courthouse in Billings. “I don’t think it’s appropriate to be removed,” he added. The 72-year-old judge repeated his assertion that his comments did not factor into the 30-day sentence handed down in the case, he and said he has no plans to resign in the face of formal complaints filed by advocates for rape victims. Baugh sentenced former teacher Stacey Rambold in August for the 2007 rape of high school freshman Cherice Moralez, who killed herself before the case went to trial. Rambold, a former business teacher, was 47 when prosecutors said he took advantage of the girl and assaulted her three times — in his house, in the back seat of his vehicle, and at school. He was eventually convicted on a single count of sexual intercourse without consent. The office of Montana Attorney General Tim Fox has appealed Rambold’s sentence as illegal and too lenient. He remains free while the appeal is pending before the Montana Supreme Court. The judge defended the sentence in a Nov. 13 letter to the Judicial Standards Commission, despite his earlier acknowledgements that it appeared to be illegal. He said his description of the sentence as “fair” referred to the full 15-year prison term, most of which he suspended. In the letter obtained by the AP, Baugh pointed to what he called the “legally and morally good conduct” of Rambold in the years after he agreed to a deferred prosecution. That 2010 deal allowed Rambold to avoid a conviction until he violated its terms by having unauthorized visits with his relatives’ children and entering a sexual relationship with one or more adult women. A representative of an advocacy group that filed one of seven pending complaints against the judge said the letter shows Baugh still has not taken ownership of his comments. “He’s saying the defendant did the morally right thing. Excuse me, the man raped the girl. What is so morally right about that?” said Marian Bradley, president of the Montana chapter of the National Organization for Women. “He should be removed or he should remove himself.” The victim’s mother, Auliea Hanlon, said after reviewing a copy of Baugh’s letter that she was “highly disappointed” in his response. Baugh also said Tuesday that a member of the state judicial ethics panel told him in October that he would be recommended for censure by the state Supreme Court over his comment. The claim could not be verified because the Montana Judicial Standards Commission typically does not release information about pending cases. Commission chairman Edward McLean, a state district judge in Missoula, said in an email that its policy is not to comment on any matters pending before the commission. Baugh declined to say which member of the five-person panel he had spoken with. “I’m kind of a lightning rod on this and I don’t want somebody collaterally damaged,” he said. Commission Executive Secretary Shelly Nash said the Baugh complaints were still under review. The matter was expected to come before the panel at its next meeting Dec. 10, Nash said. The state argued in court documents filed Friday that Rambold should have served a mandatory minimum of four years behind bars, and that an even longer sentence of 20 years with 10 years suspended was justified. Rambold’s attorney Jay Lansing declined comment. Prosecutors previously said at least two years in prison was required. Yellowstone County Attorney Scott Twito said Tuesday that attorneys for the state decided for the purposes of the appeal to rely on a different section of state sentencing laws. He added that he respected the decision. Twito said the confusion over which statutes to apply underscored the need for the state Supreme Court to clarify which sentences are appropriate in rape cases. “It’s just confusing,” Twito said. “That’s been a struggle all along.” Don't these government nannies have anything useful to do??? http://www.azcentral.com/news/free/20131203oregon-girl-told-she-cant-sell-mistletoe-she-can-beg.html Girl told she can’t sell mistletoe - but she can beg Associated Press Tue Dec 3, 2013 3:27 PM PORTLAND, Ore. — An 11-year-old Lake Oswego girl who went into the holiday greenery business to help pay for her braces but ran into a legal roadblock got some orders and a big donation. Now she has the top row of her braces. Madison Root cut and bagged mistletoe last week at her uncle’s farm in Newberg and took it to Portland’s arts and crafts bazaar, the Saturday Market, to sell at $4 a bag, the Oregonian (http://is.gd/qqaLrb ) reported. She was doing OK, having sold seven bags in half an hour. Then a private security guard for the market told Madison and her father, Ashton Root, that the city code requires a sales permit. Ashton Root said the guard told them that his daughter could beg for money, but she couldn’t sell the mistletoe or even give it away and ask for a donation. The father said there ought to be “some sort of exception.” “We totally understand the rule,” Root said. “But here she was selling mistletoe, and all around her were people playing music for money, or asking for money for pot, or just spare change.” Once word of the sixth-grader’s effort got out, one man ordered 30 bags mistletoe, and the owner of a Christmas tree farm in Estacada, Ken Cook, donated $1,000 to the dental fund. So, she went to the orthodontist Monday. On Dec. 14, she plans to return to the market with plenty of mistletoe for what she’s calling “The Great Kissoff.” The mistletoe may be sold or given away on a “donations accepted” basis, said her father. She said she plans to give a speech. “I feel that I can make a statement and possibly make a difference,” she said. “The city laws are supporting begging and are against working.” How do you spell revenue??? DUI tickets!!! Remember you 100 pound petite woman. After 1 drink you are legally drunk under Arizona's draconian .08 DUI law. If you drive and the cops catch you you will be slapped with a $2,000 fine. I'm one of those heavyweight guys, and at 130 pounds it takes me a whole 2 beers to be legally drunk, before the cops will shake me down for one of those $2,000 revenue producing fines. And remember you medical marijuana patients. Despite the fact that Prop 203 says you can't be busted for DUI because of marijuana metabolites in you system the cops have said "F*ck the Law" and are arresting people with medical marijuana cards for DUI, even when they are stone cold sober so they can shake them down for those $2,000 fines. Well, other then that Merry Christmas, despite the fact I am an atheist! http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/20131203arizona-police-agencies-tout-holiday-dui-enforcement-abrk.html Arizona police agencies tout holiday DUI enforcement By Miguel Otarola The Arizona Republic-12 News Breaking News Team Tue Dec 3, 2013 3:56 PM Representatives of several police departments across Arizona on Tuesday announced their annual statewide holiday DUI enforcement program at the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix. Alberto Gutier, the director for the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, reminded drivers of the dangers of driving under the influence during the holidays. Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery mentioned there are several options for those looking to get home, including taking a taxi, calling a friend or assigning a designated driver. “You literally cannot afford the consequences of driving impaired,” Montgomery said. “You will spend time in jail.” The number of DUI arrests has been on the rise since 2004, with a major jump occurring between 2010 and 2011, from 19,482 to 31,561 arrests. The rise in DUI arrests does not necessarily mean that there was a rise in offenses, but it points toward a police crackdown on DUIs, as the number of traffic stops tripled from 228,146 to 702,921 between 2010 and 2011, officials said. Montgomery’s comments were echoed by many other officials who spoke at the conference, including Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who said there is “plenty of room in the tents.” “I’ve been sheriff 21 years, and we do this every year,” Arpaio said. “It’s still sad that we have a serious DUI problem.” Other officials at the conference congratulated the joint effort of police departments to decrease the number of DUI accidents by issuing citations and arresting drunken drivers. “This is what makes it happen in Arizona,” said Department of Public Safety Director Robert Halliday, pointing at the officers in the crowd. “It takes a family ... to bring us to where we’re at.” Yearly traffic stops and DUI arrests made by law enforcement in Arizona continue to increase, according to the highway safety statistics. So far in 2013, 637,766 traffic stops have been made by officials, with 22,330 DUI arrests. “I am quite confident that a large number of those (vehicular accidents) involved the use of alcohol,” said Phoenix Fire Department Chief Chris Ketterer. The Phoenix Fire Department responded to about 13,000 vehicular accidents in 2012. “We preach prevention - and that’s exactly what this group is doing.” Deputies and officers from various police departments across the state attended the conference, including departments from Tempe, Salt River, Gila County, Nogales and Wickenburg. Also present were statewide anti-impaired driving organizations such as Students Against Drunk Driving and Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Gutier said. Also at the conference was Steven Chucri, the CEO and president of the Arizona Restaurant Association, and Dr. David Manning, a regional administrator for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration The holiday DUI enforcement program started in 1995, Gutier said. Most of the funding for the program comes from grants by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “It’s like parenting,” said Chief Tom Ryff with the Tempe Police Department. Drivers have to constantly be reminded to avoid drinking and driving, he said. House passes bill to renew plastic-gun ban I suspect that gun grabber Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema voted for this unconstitutional law. The article doesn't mention her name, but Kyrsten Sinema has a history of gun grabbing. Kyrsten Sinema when she was a member of the Arizona Senate also introduced a bill to slap a 300 percent tax on medical marijuana. Kyrsten Sinema is pretty well hated by Freedom Fighters and Constitution lovers in the state of Arizona. http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/20131203house-bill-renew-plastic-gun-ban.html House passes bill to renew plastic-gun ban Associated Press Tue Dec 3, 2013 4:11 PM WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives voted Tuesday to renew a 25-year-old prohibition against firearms that can evade metal detectors and X-ray machines just as #-D printers are increasingly able to produce plastic weapons. On a voice vote, the House passed a bill extending the Undetectable Firearms Act for another decade. . The Senate is expected to act on the legislation when it returns from a two-week holiday recess next Monday, a day before the current law expires. Sen. Charles Schumer, a leading Democrat, said he and others will try then to add a new requirement that at least one component of the firing mechanism contain enough metal to be detectable in a magnetometer and also be undetachable. But with the National Rifle Association opposed to any change in the statute and many Democrats eager to avoid a new fight over gun controls going into an election year, the Senate is more likely to just pass the House version unamended. The House bill only requires that a plastic gun have some piece of metal in or on it, but it can be removable and doesn’t have to be used to fire the weapon. “The House bill is better than nothing, but not by much,” Schumer said Tuesday. “…It’s certainly not enough.” Schumer said plastic guns were “the thing of science fiction” when the ban was first passed in 1988 but such weapons are now a worrisome reality. Brian Malte, a director of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said his group’s worries about the availability of plastic guns are “no reason to hold up renewal.” The use of 3-D printers to manufacture guns received heightened attention in May when Cody Wilson, then a University of Texas law student, posted blueprints online for using the printers to make the Liberator pistol, which he says he designed. Wilson, founder of Defense Distributed, a nonprofit that advocates the free distribution of information on 3-D printed weapons, was ordered by the State Department to take down the instructions after two days because of allegedly violating arms export controls, he said. By then, the plans had already been downloaded more than 100,000 times and they remain available on file-sharing websites, he said. “If you want to do this, it’s plainly obvious there’s no one standing between you, your computer and your 3-D printer. Anyone can make this gun,” Wilson said Monday. Lawmakers and law enforcement officials alike have long been concerned that technological advances could allow for the production of guns that don’t have any metal, first passing the ban on such weapons in 1988 under President Ronald Reagan. It has been renewed twice since then. Today 3-D printers can spray repeated, thin layers of plastic or other materials to create objects from toys to automobile parts to medical devices. They are being used increasingly by companies, researchers and hobbyists, and the technology is constantly improving. But printing a gun isn’t cheap. According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said 3-D printers can cost anywhere from $1,000 to $500,000, though they can be rented. A traditional handgun can cost far less. It’s also unclear how effective such a gun can be. ATF tested two plastic guns from different plastics earlier this year, and one of the weapons exploded when it was fired. The second one shot off eight rounds before ATF stopped the test. Among the chief concerns from law enforcement and law makers has been that a 3-D printed gun, made of plastic or other materials, could be easily slipped through metal detector at a courthouse or other such facilities. New technologies being used at airports, including back-scatter X-ray machines, are designed to detect non-metallic anomalies, such as liquids and potentially plastic guns. While the NRA didn’t oppose extending the current law, it has opposed expanding it, including applying the law “to magazines, gun parts, or the development of new technologies.” “We will continue to aggressively fight any expansion … or any other proposal that would infringe on our Second Amendment rights,” NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said in a statement, referring to a provision in the U.S. Constitution that allows Americans to possess weapons. . The conservative Gun Owners of America has opposed even the extension, saying such laws wouldn’t stop criminals intent on printing weapons. President Barack Obama and a host of lawmakers led by Schumer and other Democrats, have repeatedly pushed for changes to the nation’s gun laws, including expanding background checks for gun buyers and other restrictions, since a shooting massacre at a school in Connecticut last Dec. 14. Twenty children and six adults were killed in a shooting carried out by a lone gunman who then shot himself to death. Kind of scary, the cops can forcefully remove you from an airplane if somebody accuses you of being sick???? I am sure that if George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were around today they would consider George Bush and Barack Obama a thousand times worse then King George and calling for the people to get out their guns to remove the evil tyrants!!! http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/20131203passenger-escorted-off-us-airways-flight-phoenix-tests-negative-tb-abrk.html Passenger escorted off US Airways flight in Phoenix tests negative for TB, officials say By Domenico Nicosia, JJ Hensley and Anastasia Reynolds The Arizona Republic-12 News Breaking News Team Tue Dec 3, 2013 12:11 PM A man who was escorted off a US Airways plane at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Saturday tested negative for tuberculosis, county health officials announced Tuesday. Authorities were alerted while the man was on the flight from Austin to Phoenix that he was potentially infected with tuberculosis. He was taken to a hospital for further testing to expedite the process, said Dr. Rebecca Sunenshine, the county health department’s disease-control director. The man had intended to board an international flight in Phoenix, officials said. A physician associated with the passenger first brought the issue to the attention of Texas public-health officials Saturday morning, according to a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC learned about the traveler at about 10 a.m. Saturday from Texas public-health officials, but no one knew where the man was, said Benjamin Haynes, the CDC spokesman. Federal officials learned of the man’s international flight plans about an hour later, Haynes said, but still had no information about his domestic itinerary. At that point, state and federal health officials began going through the process to determine whether the man met the requirements to be included in the “do not board” list, Haynes said. Inclusion on the list requires that passengers be contagious with a serious disease, be non-compliant with public-health recommendations and be at risk of traveling on a commercial flight or internationally. Officials determined the man met the criteria for the do-not-board list and added him to the list shortly after 3 p.m., but by then, his plane was en route to Phoenix. The Phoenix Fire Department unit stationed at Sky Harbor received a call about the passenger shortly before 5 p.m. Saturday and made the decision to bring the plane to the gate but not pull it up to the jetway, said Deputy Chief Chris Ketterer, a Phoenix fire official. Because the man has tested negative for tuberculosis, the man’s name was removed from the do not fly list and he has been cleared to fly. The chances of anyone on the flight contracting the disease if the passenger is infected are minimal, Sunenshine said, particularly because tests have not confirmed the presence of tuberculosis and the passenger was not coughing or behaving in a way that would transmit it. TSA starts PreCheck, faster airport screening for qualified travelers For a $100 fee the TSA thugs will give you some of your Constitutional rights back!!! How nice!!! A few Constitutional rights for a mear $100 fee. F*ck that Bill of Rights thing where EVERYBODY gets Constitutional rights!!! "Global Entry, administered by Customs and Border Protection, costs $100 (nonrefundable even if you’re denied access to the program)" http://www.latimes.com/travel/deals/la-trb-tsa-starts-precheck-faster-airport-screening-20131203,0,740140.story#axzz2mW8wguja TSA starts PreCheck, faster airport screening for qualified travelers By Catharine M. Hamm, Los Angeles Times Travel editor December 3, 2013, 7:30 p.m. If you’re strictly a domestic traveler and want to speed through airport security, the Transportation Security Administration on Wednesday will begin offering you a chance to join its PreCheck program. A center that will administer the TSA program is to open in Los Angeles by the end of the year, although it is not yet known where that will be. Previously, PreCheck was available to elite frequent fliers by invitation of the airline with which they had elite status or through Global Entry, a government program that allows expedited entry back into the country as well as faster airport screening. Global Entry, administered by Customs and Border Protection, costs $100 (nonrefundable even if you’re denied access to the program) and is good for five years. The TSA’s PreCheck program piggybacked onto Global Entry program. But beginning Wednesday, travelers who don’t want or need that reentry perk can apply to TSA for the chance to go through security without removing shoes, belts or jackets. They also will be allowed to keep their liquids and laptops in their bags. To apply, travelers may visit an application center (the first one is in Indianapolis) or begin the process by applying online. They must submit to a background check. The cost is $85 for five years and unlike Global Entry, you do not need a passport to qualify. You do need to be an upstanding citizen. The list of crimes for which you may be disqualified, according to the TSA page outlining them, includes convictions for murder, terrorism, treason and sedition. You also probably will be denied access into the program if you’ve been convicted (or found not guilty by reason of insanity) in the last seven years of bribery, rape, assault, kidnapping and other crimes. If you are approved for the program — that is, you are granted a Known Traveler Number (KTN) — you will no longer have to remove your shoes, jacket or belt, and you may keep your liquids and your laptop in your carry-on luggage. The PreCheck program does not allow travelers to skip security; they still will need to submit to a scanner, and their hand luggage will be screened as well. The list of items that cannot be carried on a plane is still in effect. Other enrollment centers also are to be added in New York City and Washington, D.C., by the end of the year. Not every airport has PreCheck. Of the 450 or so commercial U.S. airports, 102 have the PreCheck program. To learn more, go to the TSA’s PreCheck page. http://www.tsa.gov/tsa-precheck/application-program UC researcher fights feds over 'security risk' tag Innocent till proven guilty. That's what our government masters tell us. But that's a bunch of BS. In the American police state you are routinely considered guilty till you prove your innocence!!! http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_24647424/uc-researcher-fights-feds-over-security-risk-tag UC researcher fights feds over 'security risk' tag By Howard Mintz hmintz@mercurynews.com Posted: 12/04/2013 06:34:42 AM PST | Updated: 76 min. ago When the FBI slapped a mysterious "security risk" label on UC Santa Cruz researcher Haiping Su five years ago, it turned his life upside down. On Thursday, Su, a Chinese national and U.S. citizen, will head to federal court in San Jose, looking to make the federal government pay millions of dollars for publicly revealing his national security status without giving him a chance to clear his name -- costing him his research role at NASA/Ames Research Center in Mountain View. Given his heritage, Su considers himself collateral damage in an era when Chinese nationals often become prime targets of U.S. government efforts to counteract economic espionage, a source of major concern in Silicon Valley. Su likens his case to that of Wen Ho Lee, the Chinese scientist once accused of stealing U.S. nuclear secrets who later settled a privacy case against the federal government and media organizations for $1.6 million. Su's unusual story will unfold before U.S. District Judge Edward Davila, who is conducting the trial without a jury over the next two weeks. Su's suit is simple: He denies being a security threat, stresses that he never conducted security-sensitive research and claims his reputation was ruined when his NASA/Ames bosses revealed to his colleagues that the FBI had identified him as a security threat. Su, through his attorneys, declined to comment. But in a deposition, the 51-year-old with a Ph.D. in agronomy testified that the disclosures clouded his life, leaving people with the impression "this guy must be doing something wrong." "I'm every day been thinking I'm a security-risk person, labeled by people," he testified. "This is huge impact, and hardship to my family." The U.S. Justice Department does not comment on pending trials. But in court papers, federal lawyers deny violating Su's privacy rights, and reject the argument that the disclosures harmed him, noting that he has kept his same job with UC Santa Cruz, securing raises and positive job reviews. The government also argues it had a "significant security interest" in disclosing the information to NASA/Ames officials and colleagues to protect against security breaches at the center. Su began agricultural research for federal projects in 2002, and was part of a NASA/Ames contract awarded to a UC Santa Cruz team in 2005. Court papers show that the FBI interviewed Su as early as 2003, although there is no public account of why he was later deemed a security risk; there are references, however, to Su's ties to China. But the FBI sent a memo to NASA/Ames in 2008 telling Su's bosses that he was a national security threat, prompting the center to strip Su of his security clearance and bar him from the federal job site. This was a year after NASA/Ames honored Su for his work with other researchers aiding firefighters who battled major Southern California wildfires in 2006. Su's case centers on the legal claim that NASA/Ames officials violated his privacy rights when they told dozens of his colleagues that he had been barred from the research center because the FBI declared him a security risk. This included a supervisor's remark, Su claims, that the colleagues should not "take money from a foreign government and then deny it." Earlier in the case, Davila rejected the government's bid to dismiss the privacy claim. "The court is at a loss to understand how Su would not have a legally protected privacy interest in an investigative determination by United States agencies that he is a security risk," the judge wrote in November. "Su's privacy interest appears particularly strong given his Chinese heritage and (the) implication (he) took money from a foreign government." Howard Mintz covers legal affairs. Contact him at 408-286-0236. Follow him at Twitter.com/hmintz. http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/5/5177554/microsoft-plans-server-encryption-against-nsa-snooping Microsoft labels US government a ‘persistent threat' in plan to cut off NSA spying By Tom Warren on December 5, 2013 03:36 am Email @tomwarren Microsoft is unveiling an aggressive plan today to combat government surveillance. Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, says the software giant shares the concerns of its own customers about government surveillance of the internet, and is planning to address them with improved encryption, legal protections, and source code transparency. In a detailed blog post, Smith labels government snooping an "advanced persistent threat," a term generally used to describe teams of hackers that coordinate cyberattacks for foreign governments. Microsoft’s response follows recent revelations that the NSA has been secretly collecting private user data from various tech giants. The Washington Post revealed details of a program, known as MUSCULAR, that the NSA uses to tap into networks owned by Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft to obtain user information. Documents released by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed a number of Microsoft-owned services have been targeted by the NSA, allegations Microsoft says it’s "especially alarmed" at. "Server-to-server encryption planned for end of 2014" The NSA’s methods of targeting weaknesses in encryption between servers and data centers have forced Google and Yahoo to step up their own efforts to prevent NSA snooping. Microsoft is following a similar path, promising to pursue an engineering effort across the firm to strengthen its encryption processes. Smith notes that all of Microsoft’s "key platform, productivity and communications services" will encrypt customer data with strong 2048-bit encryption as it moves between data centers. While Smith doesn’t provide a full list of Microsoft’s key services, Outlook.com, Office 365, SkyDrive, and Windows Azure are all used as examples. Skype is the notable exception from the small list of examples, despite allegations that the communications service had been integrated into an NSA PRISM surveillance program previously. Microsoft says it will also encrypt data moving between its servers and customers by default. The server-to-server and customer encryption plans will both be in place fully by the end of 2014, and Microsoft is also working with competitors to ensure data travelling between services, such as email communications, is protected in future. Some services, such as Office 365 and Outlook.com, already encrypt data travelling between Microsoft and customers, and Microsoft is also encrypting Windows Azure storage as it’s moved between servers as well as most Office 365 workloads. "In other areas we’re accelerating plans to provide encryption," says Smith. While Microsoft’s promises to encrypt data seem like an obvious oversight in hindsight, technology firms have avoided such protections previously due to their complexity and performance impact on server operations. "Microsoft will challenge gag orders in court" Microsoft is also tackling NSA snooping with new legal protections. Smith says Microsoft is "committed to notifying business and government customers if we receive legal orders related to their data." While gag orders prohibit Microsoft from doing this on occasions, Smith notes the company will challenge them in court. "We’ve done this successfully in the past, and we will continue to do so in the future to preserve our ability to alert customers when governments seek to obtain their data." Microsoft is also pushing for government agencies to obtain data directly from its business customers, rather than securing it through requests to access it through the various cloud services the firm operates. While Microsoft has just opened a new Cybercrime Center to allow third-party security researches to work alongside its employees, the software maker is also opening "transparency centers" that will allow foreign governments to inspect the software code Microsoft produces. The centers will be opened in Europe, the Americas, and Asia, allowing third parties to confirm there are no back doors in Microsoft’s software source code. "We all want to live in a world that is safe and secure, but we also want to live in a country that is protected by the Constitution," explains Smith. "We want to ensure that important questions about government access are decided by courts rather than dictated by technological might." F*ck the 4th Amendment - We are the NSA and will do what we feel like!!!!! http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/free/20131204report-nsa-tracks-billions-cellphones-daily.html Report: NSA tracks billions of cellphones daily Associated Press Wed Dec 4, 2013 5:21 PM WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency tracks the locations of nearly 5 billion cellphones every day overseas, including those belonging to Americans abroad, the Washington Post reported Wednesday. The NSA inadvertently gathers the location records of “tens of millions of Americans who travel abroad” annually, along with the billions of other records it collects by tapping into worldwide mobile network cables, the newspaper said in a report on its website. Such data means the NSA can track the movements of almost any cellphone around the world, and map the relationships of the cellphone user. The Post said a powerful analytic computer program called CO-TRAVELER crunches the data of billions of unsuspecting people, building patterns of relationships between them by where their phones go. That can reveal a previously unknown terrorist suspect, in guilt by cellphone-location association, for instance. The program is detailed in documents given to the newspaper by former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden. The Post also quotes anonymous NSA officials explaining the program, saying they spoke with the permission of their agency. Shawn Turner, a spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, declined to comment on the report. The DNI’s general counsel, Robert Litt, has said that NSA does not gather location data on U.S. cellphones inside the U.S. — but NSA Director Keith Alexander testified before Congress his agency ran tests in 2010 and 2011 to see if it was technically possible to gather such U.S. cell-site data. Alexander said that the information was never used for intelligence purposes and that the testing was reported to congressional intelligence committees. But Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat and a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said at the time that Alexander could have explained more. “The intelligence leadership has decided to leave most of the real story secret,” Wyden said, though he would not elaborate on the extent of the program. Wyden is among a bipartisan group of lawmakers who have introduced legislation to trim NSA’s surveillance powers. Alexander and other NSA officials have explained that when U.S. data is gathered “incidentally” overseas, it is “minimized,” meaning that when an NSA analysts realize they are dealing with a U.S. phone number, they limit what can be done with it and how long that data can be kept. Rights activists say those measures fall short of protecting U.S. privacy. “The scale of foreign surveillance has become so vast, the amount of information about Americans ‘incidentally’ captured may itself be approaching mass surveillance levels,’” said Elizabeth Goitein of the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program. “The government should be targeting its surveillance at those suspected of wrongdoing, not assembling massive associational databases that by their very nature record the movements of a huge number of innocent people,” said Catherine Crump, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. More of the old "Do as I say, not as I do" from our crack smoking government masters!!!! http://www.azcentral.com/news/free/20131204court-docs-toronto-mayor-tried-obtaining-tape.html Court docs: Toronto mayor tried obtaining tape Associated Press Wed Dec 4, 2013 4:46 PM TORONTO — New court documents released Wednesday suggest Toronto Mayor Rob Ford may have offered $5,000 and a car to suspected drug dealers in exchange for a tape that appears to show him smoking crack. The information is contained in police wiretaps of gang members who spoke about delivering drugs to Ford and having pictures of him using drugs. One of the gang members is heard talking to another, saying he rejected the offer for the tape and planned to meet the mayor and ask for “150,” meaning $150,000. Ford, who’s become an international media sensation, acknowledged last month that he smoked crack in a “drunken stupor” about a year ago. He has refused to resign as mayor of Canada’s largest city and financial capital, despite mounting pressure after a string of incidents that have embarrassed Canadians, from public drunkenness to appearing in a different video that showed him threatening “murder” in an incoherent rant. Toronto’s city council has stripped him of most of his powers. On one wire tape on April 20 a gang member is heard saying “Rob Ford was smoking his rocks today.” A smiling Ford laughed and ignored questions as he left his office Wednesday. In another summary of interceptions a gang member said he has so many pictures of Ford doing drugs and that they would be worth something. Ford admitted that he smoked crack after police said they had obtained a video that appears to show him puffing on a crack pipe as part of an investigation into a friend. He has also acknowledged binge-drinking, but he says he has quit drinking and adopted a healthier lifestyle. The city council, lacking a way to oust Ford from office unless he’s convicted of a crime and jailed, voted overwhelmingly last month to slash the mayor’s office budget by 60 percent and allow his staff to join the deputy mayor. Probably cause??? We don't need no stinking probable cause to arrest people!!!! Well at least that's how the cops feel about it. For those who don't know the law, the police are required to have either "probable cause" or "reasonable suspicion" before they can arrest or detain a person. They don't seem to have has either of them in this false arrest! http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/free/20131203pennsylvania-ghost-hunters-mistaken-burglars.html Ghost hunters mistaken for burglars Top Weird Stories of 2013 Tue Dec 3, 2013 4:13 PM GETTYSBURG, Pa. — Police in Pennsylvania are investigating a complaint concerning a ghost hunt that went bust after a police officer mistakenly thought it was a burglary in progress. The Gettysburg Times reported Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1bfEf0U ) that the Thanksgiving night ghost tour ended with two tourists and their guide being detained at gunpoint. A patrolman passing a closed store in Gettysburg says he saw flashlights inside, so he went in and handcuffed and searched the three ghost hunters. Police called the owner, who confirmed the tour operator had permission to use the allegedly haunted Civil War-era building. The first Union general killed in the Battle of Gettysburg was brought to the building after being fatally wounded. The owner of the Victorian-style photography studio that occupies the building and permitted the tour has declined to comment. In this article Obama sounds like a socialist who wants to use the force of government to steal money from rich folks and give it to poor people to make America a socialists dream. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/12/04/obama-income-inequality-speech-center-for-american-progress/3867747/ Obama: Income inequality threatens American Dream David Jackson, USA TODAY 3:21 p.m. EST December 4, 2013 WASHINGTON — President Obama sought to revive the issue of growing income equality on Wednesday, saying it restricts economic mobility and threatens to shrink the middle class. "I believe this is the defining challenge of our time," Obama said in a speech at an event hosted by the Center for American Progress, a pro-Obama think tank. "It drives everything I do in this office." The growing gap between rich and poor can be closed by actions ranging from an increase in the minimum wage to better education to following through on his health care plan, Obama said. Basically outlining an agenda for the remaining three years of his presidency — as well as next year's congressional elections — Obama repeated calls for legislation that would strengthen unions, reduce the pay gap between men and women, and make college more affordable. Obama also again proposed creation of government-assisted "Promise Zones" in urban and rural areas that are struggling. While Democratic-Republican and liberal-conservative disputes about the economy won't be resolved any time soon, Obama said that "it is important that we have a serious debate about the issues." Obama gave the speech at a time when his job approval ratings have fallen to around 40%, largely because of problems with the rollout of his health care plan and general anxiety about the direction of the economy. The president and aides designed the income inequality speech as something of a follow-up to one he delivered two years ago in Osawatomie, Kansas — remarks that previewed his 2012 re-election campaign. Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, noted that Obama has been president for nearly five years and said his health care plan and new business regulations have kept the economy down. "The president's economic policies promote government reliance rather than economic mobility," Buck said. "Rather than tackling income inequality by lifting people up, he's been fixated on taxing some down." The 2014 congressional elections are 11 months away. During his speech, Obama said that since 1979 — the year he graduated from high school — the size of the American economy has doubled, but the top 10% of people have half the nation's income. Obama said the average CEO now makes 273 times the income of the average worker. Stagnant incomes for the middle class hurt the ability of Americans to move to better jobs, Obama said. It also breaks down social cohesion as more Americans come to think that the system is rigged against them. "The combined trends of increased inequality and decreasing mobility pose a fundamental threat to the American Dream, our way of life, and what we stand for around the globe," Obama said. The 49-minute speech gave the president the opportunity to mount a defense of government activism, ranging from Abraham Lincoln's championing of land grant colleges to the development of Social Security and Medicare. The modern income gap began growing dramatically in the late 1970s because of several factors, Obama said. Technology and globalization allowed employers to reduce manufacturing jobs, or move them offshore. Politically, Obama cited "a trickle-down ideology" that reduced the power of unions, and led to tax cuts "for the wealthiest, while investments in things that make us all richer, like schools and infrastructure, were allowed to wither." Obama also disputed the notion that income inequality and related problems affect mostly African Americans and Hispanics, saying these issues cut across socioeconomic lines. "The opportunity gap in America is now as much about class as it is about race," Obama said, "and that gap is growing." Reducing inequality should help all Americans, Obama said. "We need to dispel the myth that the goals of growing the economy and reducing inequality are necessarily in conflict." Sorry Clay, I remember reading articles in the ASU State Press about people getting DUI tickets for riding bicycles drunk. Unmotorized bicycles. I don't know if it was in Arizona, but I think I have read articles about people getting DUI tickets for riding horses while drunk. Sadly DUI tickets don't have anything to do with safety and are mostly a way for our government masters to raise money! Basically a super expensive sin tax. Currently DUI tickets will cost you a minimum of $2,000. http://www.azcentral.com/insiders/claythompson/2013/12/05/no-dui-unless-the-horsepower-is-motorized/ Posted on December 5, 2013 12:01 am by Clay Thompson No DUI unless the horsepower is motorized Today’s question: Can you get a DUI while riding a horse? Every now and then one of you people ask me if I make up these questions. No, of course I don’t. Aside from it being unethical, I’m far too lazy for that. I get a dozen or more questions from you people every week, a half or so of which I might use. Why should I bother making them up? Next, I am far too dumb to wonder about the sort of things you people do. I also have a question from a lady who wants to know if lava is more or less dense than “cold rocks.” This is intriguing mostly because she said it came up while she and her family were decorating their Christmas tree. Why in the world such a question might come up while you were decorating the tree is beyond me, but then there is a lot of stuff that is beyond me. Anyway, about today’s question: No, unless the law has changed and I didn’t hear about it, you cannot get a DUI for riding a horse drunk in Arizona. The thing of it is that you have to be operating a motorized vehicle – car, truck, airplane, riding mover, whatever- to get a DUI citation. No motor, no foul. However, this doesn’t mean you can saddle Old Paint and go gallivanting around after you’ve had a snoot-full. You could still be a risk to the public safety, especially if you came anywhere near a public thoroughfare. You could get nabbed for disturbing the peace, endangerment, public intoxication or any number of other offenses, maybe even for being an idiot. Reach Thompson at clay.thompson@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8612. Uncle Sam - F*ck those public records laws!!!!! The public records laws were mostly passed to make you think that you have access to public records. Of course our government masters routinely think they are above the public records laws and refuse to obey them. http://www.azcentral.com/news/arizona/articles/20131205feds-blocked-key-interviews-state-inquiry.html Feds blocked key interviews in state inquiry By JJ Hensley and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez The Republic | azcentral.com Thu Dec 5, 2013 10:09 PM Federal officials blocked state investigators from interviewing members of a second hotshot crew that fought the Yarnell Hill Fire because they feared some of their statements might become publicly disclosed under Arizona’s Public Records Law, according to correspondence released Thursday. Workplace-safety investigators for the Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health released a comprehensive report on the Yarnell Hill Fire on Wednesday that included detailed information about the decisions and factors that contributed to the June 30 deaths of 19 firefighters near Yarnell. Notably absent from the report was input from the surviving Blue Ridge Hotshots, a crew that operates under the supervision of the Coconino National Forest. A letter from the U.S Department of Agriculture, which oversees the U.S. Forest Service and employs hotshot crews around the country, explained that state investigators would not be allowed to interview the Blue Ridge Hotshots because of concerns about public scrutiny. “The United States has been faced with many requests for documents and statements regarding this incident,” said the Oct. 30 letter from a USDA attorney to ADOSH. “It is my understanding from our discussions that any recording or notes of the interviews would be treated as public records (under Arizona law) and releasable to the public. Therefore an interview of Forest Service employees poses a serious risk of inadvertent or inappropriate release of protected private or confidential information.” Federal officials did provide state investigators with redacted statements from the Blue Ridge Hotshots, but “the documents were useless in ADOSH’s investigation,” according to the state investigative report released Wednesday. Representatives from ADOSH were not immediately available Thursday to discuss the matter. The Industrial Commission of Arizona approved the report Wednesday and issued $559,000 in fines and penalties for willful and serious safety violations by the Arizona State Forestry Division during its handling of the fatal blaze. The sanctions were based on a scathing review by workplace-safety investigators, who found multiple infractions. Their report contains strikingly different conclusions from one issued in September by state forestry officials. That report laid no blame for the accident. The federal government’s reluctance to let its seasonal employees speak to state investigators raises questions about the U.S. Forest Service’s commitment to finding the root causes of the Granite Mountain Hotshot deaths, said Dan Barr, an attorney for the First Amendment Coalition of Arizona, which advocates for open government and access to public records. “You would think that they would be more interested in sharing information with the state so people could do a thorough investigation and figure out not only what happened, but what can be done in the future to prevent a tragedy like this from happening (again),” Barr said. “Whether documents would be available for review under the Arizona Public Records Law versus the federal (Freedom of Information Act) would not be a very important factor in that calculus.” The Blue Ridge Hotshots were working near the Granite Mountain crew throughout the day on June 30, until conditions worsened late in the day and the Blue Ridge crew left the area, according to the ADOSH report. The Granite Mountain Hotshots remained. Information from the Blue Ridge Hotshots about communications and other factors that contributed to their decision to leave could have been crucial to investigators who were not only trying to determine what led to the deaths of the Granite Mountain firefighters, but how to prevent similar fatalities in the future, said Jim Furnish, a retired U.S. Forest Service deputy chief who led an investigation into a fatal fire in 2003. That 2003 blaze in Washington state, known as the Thirtymile Fire, killed five wildland firefighters and led to criminal charges against one of the crew bosses, which Furnish said has likely contributed to a less open approach to the federal investigations. “When we did the Thirtymile report, everything went public. Our report used names, titles, everything was wide open. After that, the Forest Service started to kind of slam the door on public material,” Furnish said. “My view was always philosophical: We are a public agency, we manage public lands and our employees are paid by public taxes, and these investigations ought to be wide open.” The U.S. Forest Service released a statement Thursday saying the agency was protecting employee privacy by its actions. However, it also said it acted at the request of the Blue Ridge Hotshots and an air-support crew working the fire by offering written responses to some questions from ADOSH. The Blue Ridge Hotshots appear to have participated in the Arizona State Forestry Division’s investigation of the deaths by speaking to members of a Serious Accident Investigation Team before its report was issued in September. The Forest Service statement Thursday sought to clarify that the ADOSH probe was the product of a workplace regulatory agency, while the Serious Accident Investigation Team report, which contained few of the details revealed by ADOSH, was “a SAFETY and accident investigation.” “While the (state forestry) safety investigators also looked into rule compliance, the focus was concentrated on understanding why the accident happened,” the Forest Service statement said. But Barr said comparing the two reports left him with the opposite conclusion. “The whole supposition that keeping this information secret is important, that it somehow would adversely affect the investigation, is obviously not true because the ADOSH report is far more comprehensive than the (Forestry Division) report,” he said. “And it was done while having to deal with the openness of the Arizona Public Records Law. The whole assumption of this letter is just false.” Most arrests are for victimless drug war crimes!!!! "Police say the teamwork has paid off handsomely with nearly 2,000 arrests for mostly drug and property crime offenses" Hey, it's a lot easier for the cops to make themselves look like heroes by arresting people for victimless drug war crimes then it is for them to hunt down real criminals like robbers and rapists. http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa/articles/20131204mesa-restoring-peace-order.html Restoring peace and order in East Mesa By Jim Walsh The Republic | azcentral.com Thu Dec 5, 2013 10:04 PM For decades, an unincorporated Maricopa County island east of Mesa and a couple of rundown motels nearby within the city limits have been chronic sources of crime with drug use of residents spawning offenses including drug dealing, burglary, prostitution, theft and homicide. In the neighborhood, mobile homes with windows covered by plywood mix with tidy retirement homes. A narrow street jammed up against the Loop 202 freeway is known to police as “crack alley,” even though methamphetamine and heroin are now the drugs of choice. Detectives tracking crime trends in Mesa’s sprawling Superstition District, which covers 69 square miles east of Higley Road, could see that the highest crime areas were near the county’s eastern border. They decided to launch Operation Island Retreat and Operation Mainline, modeled after the successful Dblock campaign in 2012 that targeted a chronic problem neighborhood in central Mesa. Mesa police formed a partnership with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and other agencies in Pinal County to adopt a regional crime-fighting approach, contributing intelligence on the movement of criminals for all agencies to share. Police say the teamwork has paid off handsomely with nearly 2,000 arrests for mostly drug and property crime offenses during the yearlong enforcement projects. Operation Island Retreat, in the area east of Main Street and Ellsworth, has recorded more than 800 arrests while Operation Mainline, near a cluster of hotels between Hig-ley and Power roads, has netted more than 1,000 arrests. “A lot of our players (suspected criminals) from Apache Junction were coming into the county island and into Mesa as well,” said Lt. Dan Butler, who supervised both operations. “That area is getting a heck of a lot of attention. We target the bad people who commit crimes over and over again. We get them off the streets.” Butler said an undercover detective built a case against the owners of the Miles and the Colonade motels, who requested that he supply them with stolen property to outfit their rooms in exchange for free rent. Bojan, Milivoje, Milomirka and Gordan Djordjevich were all charged with trafficking in stolen property and other crimes, according to court records. Crime in the Superstition District, especially near the county island, is down 7 percent while the county island has experienced much steeper declines, including a 61 percent drop in violent crimes, a 25 percent drop in robberies and a 42 percent drop in crimes against persons, Butler said. Detective Ben Alexander credits the newfound alliance with the Sheriff’s Office and other agencies as reasons for the drop in crime. The cooperation is essential, he said, because county islands are patrolled by the Sheriff’s Office and Mesa police rarely focused on them in the past. “That’s the biggest success of this operation. We’re changing the police culture. We are working together,” Alexander said. “There’s no wall between Mesa and Apache Junction. It’s another tool in our bag, having those contacts.” The similarities between Dblock and the two east Mesa operations include a focus on career criminals. In misdemeanor cases, more than 50 defendants have been barred from returning to the Operation Mainline area, where police believe they were coming to buy and sell drugs, as a condition of probation, said Detective Tyler Hyer. An attorney with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office prosecuted all felonies while a prosecutor with the Mesa Prosecutor’s Office handled misdemeanors, giving them an understanding of how a suspect’s actions affect the neighborhoods, he said. “It’s great knowing about the individuals responsible and the problems they are causing,” Deputy Maricopa County Attorney Jeff Kerr said. “We’re finding that very few people are responsible for most of the problems.” The last two nights of high intensity enforcement were Wednesday and Thursday, when officers targeted known drug houses, picked up people on arrest warrants and generally put heat on a long- neglected area. Among those arrested were Mike Orndoff, 45, who was arrested after he left a known drug house near Main Street and Crismon Road, Hyer said. Officials said Orndoff had a 1/2-ounce of methamphetamine, a gram of heroin and a small .22-caliber magnum revolver in his possession and was arrested on suspicion of drug possession. Orndoff said his drug addiction has landed him in prison twice before and he knows he is now headed back, probably for a long time. He said he wishes he had never touched drugs and that Arizona focused more on rehabilitation than imprisonment so that he would have a better shot at breaking the vicious cycle that has ruined his life. “I just lost everything,” he said, hunched over wearing handcuffs. “Me and my girlfriend were supposed to get married on Christmas. That’s not going to happen now. Once you use meth, it grabs a hold on you. There is no letting go.” Later Wednesday night, police found themselves running through the desert with police dogs, searching for three drug suspects who fled during an attempted traffic stop and eventually crashed their pickup truck in the desert near Hawes and McKellips roads, where Mountain Bridge, a large gated community with sprawling custom homes, is under construction. Sgt. Dan Robertson said police eventually tracked down one suspect who was running away and used police dogs to flush out two other suspects hiding in the walls of houses under construction. One surrendered while the other suffered superficial bites when he was taken down by a police dog. “He was claiming he was sleeping inside the house,” Robertson said. http://www.azcentral.com/thingstodo/movies/articles/20131205narco-cultura-movie-review-drug-war.html ‘Narco Cultura,’ 3 stars By Bill Goodykoontz The Republic | azcentral.com Thu Dec 5, 2013 11:36 AM There have been plenty of documentaries and investigative reports about Juarez, about how drug wars between cartels and police have led it to become the murder capital of the world. “Narco Cultura,” Shaul Schwarz’s documentary, tells the familiar story in a new way, through the culture of narcocorridos, songs celebrating drug lords and the gory violence they commit. He focuses mainly on Edgar Quintero, who lives in LA and never has been to most of the places he sings about or met the killers he glorifies in song. (He often scours narcocorridos blogs for ideas.) To outsiders the narcocorridos are an odd mix of extremely violent lyrics and the happy bounce of Mexican folk music. Are they really talking about decapitating their victims or about what good kidnappers they are? Yes. And their audience, both in Mexico and the U.S. (including, as we see, in such places as Seattle and a small town in North Carolina) love it. Quintero is interesting, as far as he goes. A new father, he tries to balance life as a family man with his love for the music and his band, Buknas de Culiacan. It’s hard to know what to think of him, really, or of the music itself. Old bluesmen sang mournful songs about killing a cheating woman or whatever, but without the boastful enthusiasm and glee of the narcocorridos. Schwarz juxtaposes Quintero’s story with that of Richi Soto, a crime-scene investigator who lives in Juarez. Soto is a thoughtful man, sad, well aware of the dangers of his job yet not quite sure why he doesn’t leave it. (At least three of his colleagues have been assassinated, including one shot and killed during the course of making the film.) We follow him to excruciatingly violent crime scenes. Is Schwarz asking us to wonder how anyone could glorify such a thing in song? It’s not entirely clear, though the humble, worried Soto is easier to identify with than Quintero. Both men make journeys. Soto crosses the river into El Paso on a shopping trip. As he drives back across the border home, he is asked how it makes him feel to come home. “Free” is his answer, and it’s both surprising and moving. He worries about making mistakes in the U.S., getting into trouble. He is more comfortable at home, but he does miss the Juarez in which he grew up. Quintero, meanwhile, finally makes the pilgrimage to Culiacan, the city for which his band is named. He is especially moved to visit one area, in which buildings have shot up at a rapid pace the past couple of years, making it look like a small city, with continued growth a certainty. It’s a cemetery, where drug lords and members of the Sinaloa Cartel are buried in expansive mausoleums, some equipped with bulletproof glass. How all this plays into the rise of drug-related violence in Juarez isn’t particularly clear, beyond the obvious: Glorifying the violence and those who commit it isn’t exactly going to stem its spread. Interesting as it is, “Narco Cultura” aims to tell the story of what’s happened in Juarez and in Mexico (and, by virtue of its immense appetite for drugs, the U.S.). Instead, it feels more like a couple of intriguing chapters. Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: twitter.com/goodyk. ‘Narco Cultura’ FAIR: 3 stars. Director: Shaul Schwarz. Cast: Edgar Quintero, Richi Soto. Rating: R for grisly graphic images of disturbing violent content, drug material, language and brief nudity. Now it seems like if you are arrested anywhere for a victimless drug war crime, the cops will used that as justification to get a search warrant for your home. This guy was busted with some pills in a traffic stop in West Phoenix, and the cops used that to justify getting a search warrant for his homes in Tempe and Goodyear!!!! Personally I don't see any reason that the cops would have "probable cause" to look in his homes which were both miles away from where the traffic stop was made. Again you should always refuse to let the police search your car. But more often then not even if you refuse to let the police search your car they will illegally search it, and then lie and say you consented to a search if they find any illegal drugs. http://www.azcentral.com/community/tempe/articles/20131205tempe-ecstasy-pill-factory-near-asu-authorities-say-abrk.html Ecstasy pill ‘factory’ found in apartment near ASU, authorities say Staff and wire reports Thu Dec 5, 2013 11:39 PM Detectives with the Arizona Department of Public Safety say they’ve uncovered an Ecstasy-manufacturing operation inside a student apartment near Arizona State University. Police have arrested five people, including four ASU students, in connection with what authorities are calling an Ecstasy “pill factory.” The bust stemmed from a traffic stop Wednesday on Interstate 17 near Thomas Road in Phoenix for a suspected HOV-lane violation. DPS officials said a search of the vehicle revealed a backpack loaded with Ecstasy pills and cocaine. The discovery led detectives to obtain search warrants for the 20-year-old driver’s home in Goodyear and for his apartment at the Vista del Sol student housing complex at Apache and Rural roads in Tempe. At least one Vista del Sol resident reported hearing police pulling people out of a nearby apartment at about 1 a.m. Thursday. Inside, detectives found 30 pounds of material used to make Ecstasy pills, along with thousands of pills and a motorized pill press, according to DPS officials. Ecstasy, sometimes referred to as Molly, is slang for MDMA, a synthetic drug that acts as both a stimulant and psychedelic. Side effects can include anxiety, confusion, high blood pressure, and kidney and heart failure. Gary Patrone, CEO of ARCpoint Labs of Tempe and an occasional Republic columnist, said Ecstasy use is on the rise. “Molly essentially is the club-drug Ecstasy making a comeback,” Patrone wrote in a September column. “It has been popularized by a number of musical artists who have made it a topic in their music, including Kanye West, Rick Ross, Miley Cyrus and Madonna. ... It is simply the same Ecstasy mixed with other drugs such as heroin, ketamine, K2 (Spice), methamphetamine or even cocaine.” In a report released this year, the national Drug Abuse Warning Network estimated that the number of emergency-room visits involving Ecstasy and people under 21 years old increased 128 percent in a six-year span — to 10,176 visits in 2011 from 4,460 visits in 2005. It was unclear if the “pill factory” found in Tempe was also producing Molly. DPS officials dentified the arrested suspects as Andrew James Gajkowski, 20; Malik Haseem Hooper, 42; Hunter Ault, 20; Edward Ortiz, 19; and Kevin Kimes, 20. Possible charges include possession and/or manufacture for sale of dangerous drugs, conspiracy, and illegal control of an enterprise, officials said. ASU police are assisting the DPS in the ongoing investigation. [Hmmm... Last time I checked the ASU police and the DPS were the same entity. The DPS runs the ASU police department!] Julie Newberg, a university spokeswoman, said any alleged illegal conduct by an ASU student is investigated by the school’s Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities. The office will determine what, if any, sanction is appropriate. Sanctions may include suspension and expulsion from student housing and/or school. http://news.yahoo.com/florida-supreme-court-hears-arguments-over-marijuana-ballot-190740817--finance.html Florida Supreme Court hears arguments over marijuana ballot Reuters By Bill Cotterell TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) - Florida's Supreme Court justices raised concerns on Thursday at a hearing on a proposed constitutional ballot amendment to allow medical use of marijuana, questioning whether its language might mislead voters into legalizing nearly wide-open pot smoking. The hour-long legal presentations by former House Speaker Jon Mills of Gainesville, in defense of the proposed amendment, and state Solicitor General Allen Winsor, who was seeking to block it from the 2014 ballot, focused on two points. By law, the seven justices will not rule on the merits of marijuana legalization, but will decide only if the proposed ballot is specific enough and whether its title and summary sufficiently explain what it does. Winsor said the ballot summary is misleading because it refers to prescribing marijuana "for debilitating diseases," while the amendment itself refers to "debilitating conditions" in the title. "You don't even have to have a disease to get marijuana, the way this amendment is worded," he said. He also argued that the wording is deceptive in saying that nothing in the amendment authorizes violation of federal drug laws. Except in certain tightly controlled research conditions, Winsor said, it is illegal to possess or use marijuana. He said the amendment implies that state authorization of medical marijuana use would somehow trump federal law. [Any legal scholar who understands the 10th Amendment will tell you that it does!!!!] Mills, a former University of Florida law school dean who helped craft the amendment, said the average voter knows the state amendment can't authorize violation of federal law. "But it does," interrupted Justice Charles Canady. "It certainly authorizes conditions under state law that would be a violation of federal law." Chief Justice Ricky Polston asked Mills if "a student stressed out over an exam" might get a marijuana prescription for that "condition." Justice Barbara Pariente said: "If I have chronic back pain, is that a condition or a disease?" [Sounds OK with me!!!!] Mills replied that the amendment imposes a two-part criteria for doctors, requiring them to find that a patient has a debilitating condition and that "the benefits outweigh the risks" of marijuana use. Taken together, he said, those terms would prevent physicians from handing out pot prescriptions to anyone who wants them. [When I was in high school they showed us the movie "Reefer Madness" to document the dangers of marijuana use. In the movie I learned that if a man smokes a marijuana cigarette it will cause him to go out an rape 6 women!!! You know that marijuana is really dangerous stuff:) I wonder if it causes women to do the same thing. And if so where can I find some hot women that smoke pot!!!!] The legal and medical arguments are overshadowed by politics in Florida. Morgan is a major backer of ex-Gov. Charlie Crist, a former Republican who is now a leading Democratic candidate for governor next year. Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican leadership of the legislature, along with Attorney General Pam Bondi, vigorously oppose the marijuana initiative on constitutional grounds. There is also a tactical consideration, in that strategists believe a pot initiative would bring out more young and minority Floridians - who, statistically, don't vote Republican. The seven justices gave no indication when they might rule. People United for Medical Marijuana, the organization sponsoring the amendment, has until February 1 to certify 683,159 voter signatures - 8 percent of the turnout in the past presidential election - to get the amendment on the ballot. John Morgan, the Orlando trial lawyer backing the amendment, sat through the arguments and expressed confidence that the court "understands the issue." He said proponents are handicapped by the 75-word limit on ballot summaries, and could not spell out details of state and federal jurisdiction or define "debilitating" afflictions like AIDS, ALS and cancer. "What is a disease, what is a condition, what is sickness?" asked Morgan after the court recessed, adding that most Americans are familiar with the federal law on marijuana. "If that's going to be the issue that's going to deny compassion to all these people, so be it," he said. (Editing by David Adams and Gunna Dickson) F*ck the Red Chinese and the evil Soviet Union, the biggest threat to the freedom of Americans is OUR government!!! Of course the NSA thugs that illegally read our emails and listen to our phone calls will write me of as a criminals for saying that. http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_24672504/google-facebook-twitter-bolster-digital-defenses-wake-nsa Google, Facebook, Twitter bolster digital defenses in wake of NSA revelations By Brandon Bailey bbailey@mercurynews.com Posted: 12/06/2013 03:30:58 PM PST | Updated: about 16 hours ago In this undated file photo made available by Google shows the campus-network room at a data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. With the cooperation of foreign allies, the NSA is potentially gaining access to every email sent or received abroad, or between people abroad, from Google and Yahoo s email services, as well as anything in Google Docs, Maps or Voice, according to a series of articles in the Washington Post. (AP Photo/Google, Connie Zhou, File) (Connie Zhou) Internet security Cybercrime, hacking and other security coverage. Quietly at first, but more vocally in recent months, Google (GOOG), Facebook and other leading Internet companies have been beefing up their digital defenses in response to reports that the National Security Agency has tracked online communications without the companies' knowledge or cooperation. While Google has led the way in encrypting users' data, privacy advocates say recent moves by other companies are long overdue. And some warn that the companies' efforts may not be a permanent safeguard, as encryption technology continues to evolve. "Computer security is a very fast-moving field," said Kurt Opsahl of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "New vulnerabilities get discovered, even as new and better standards get promulgated." Tech companies initially were circumspect about their encryption efforts in relation to government surveillance, which they viewed as a sensitive topic. Google and Facebook both quietly increased their defenses over the summer, in some cases expediting programs that were already in the works, soon after the first news reports about the NSA's online data-gathering. But more recently, top executives at Google, Microsoft and Yahoo (YHOO) have touted their efforts -- in a reflection of both growing outrage over government surveillance and a desire to convince users that the companies are doing all they can to safeguard information. "We have tightened the security between all of our operations, and we're working hard to make it tighter," Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt said during a recent public appearance in London. "One way to say it is that we're now protected against the Chinese and the NSA." Google first added standard encryption to its web-based Gmail service in 2010; over the years, it has added protections for other kinds of files that users send and receive from Google's servers. But over the summer, the company began expediting a more ambitious plan to add encryption for data sent between computer centers that Google operates around the globe. Tech companies had assumed the transmissions between their computer centers were safe from interception because they are carried on cables the companies own or lease for exclusive use. But NSA had found a way to tap into those transmissions and similar links between Yahoo's computer centers, according to documents revealed by the Washington Post. The report outraged many in the tech industry, since it indicated a surveillance that occurred without the companies' knowledge, and went further than the individual data requests that authorities submitted to the companies under national security laws. Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo and Microsoft have now followed Google in saying they will encrypt links between their computer centers. The NSA has said it only targets overseas subjects, although critics say it invariably collects data involving many U.S.-based Internet users. A Facebook spokesman said the company began work on several encryption efforts before the NSA revelations, but the reports "validated our efforts and encouraged us to press forward." At Yahoo, meanwhile, CEO Marissa Mayer went out of her way to cite reports of NSA surveillance when she announced new encryption programs in mid-November. Similarly, Twitter cited an Electronic Frontier Foundation report about NSA surveillance when announcing that it is implementing an advanced form of encryption called "forward secrecy." Google, Facebook and Microsoft also are adopting the method, which uses a different digital key to encode each transmission -- so even if an outsider manages to obtain one key, it can't be used to decipher other messages. Privacy advocates praise those efforts, but some say they are overdue. Critics say Yahoo, in particular, has lagged other companies in adopting standard encryption. A Yahoo spokeswoman declined to comment. Officials at several companies say implementing encryption can be complicated and costly, both in dollars and performance: It can cause slight delays in transmitting a message, which might frustrate users, so it's often phased in gradually as companies work to reduce those delays. And experts note that encryption can be hacked. That's why most companies are switching from an industry standard known as 1024-bit encryption to one that uses a longer, 2048-bit encryption key, which would require far more time and processing power to decipher. Encryption doesn't stop authorities from invoking national security laws that allow them to demand data from Internet companies, experts add, but it becomes more difficult to conduct mass surveillance without the companies' cooperation. Contact Brandon Bailey at 408-920-5022. Follow him at Twitter.com/BrandonBailey. When fingerprints were invented freedom fighters and constitutional experts said it was a violation of the 5th Amendment to force a person to submit to fingerprint tests. Sadly the courts disagreed and now we have a police state where anybody that gets arrested will have the police take their fingerprints and keep them for life. Sadly the American police state seems headed the same way with DNA testing. http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_24672342/californias-dna-collection-law-key-legal-test California's DNA collection law in key legal test By Howard Mintz hmintz@mercurynews.com Posted: 12/06/2013 02:56:17 PM PST Armed with a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, a federal appeals court on Monday will revisit a controversial legal challenge to California's law allowing collection of DNA samples from anyone arrested for a felony. Whether the Supreme Court's ruling on Maryland's similar -- though narrower -- DNA collection law shoots down an ongoing legal attack on California's four-year-old statute will be the question before a special 11-judge 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel. In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Maryland's law, likening collection of DNA samples to fingerprinting suspects booked into police custody. 2008 file photo: Criminalists Jaime Baxter, left, and Jitendra Mistry process incoming samples in the state DNA laboratory in Richmond, Calif. (Kristopher Skinner/ Contra Costa Newspapers) Civil liberties advocates argue that California's law is a much greater threat to privacy rights because it permits DNA sample collection and preservation from arrested suspects even if they are never charged with a crime. Maryland's law permits DNA collection only from those charged with a serious felony, and after a judge finds probable cause they've committed the crime. California Attorney General Kamala Harris says the differences between the California and Maryland laws are "not constitutionally significant" and has urged the 9th Circuit to uphold the law. The Obama administration has backed California's defense of the law in the appeal, stressing the national importance of DNA collection laws that 28 states have enacted. Before the Supreme Court ruling, the 9th Circuit last year appeared inclined to invalidate California's law, expressing concerns about DNA being collected from individuals who may never be charged in court with a crime. But legal experts say the Supreme Court's ruling in the Maryland case could make it tough for the 9th Circuit to overturn the California law. "The fact they decided to reargue it is a good sign for (groups challenging the law)," said Hank Greely, a Stanford University law professor. "But I still think it's an uphill climb for the plaintiffs." The American Civil Liberties Union in 2009 sued to block enforcement of California's DNA collection law on behalf of an Oakland woman, Elizabeth Haskell, who was arrested during a San Francisco rally against the Iraq War. Haskell was arrested and required to submit to DNA testing but never charged. A divided three-judge 9th Circuit panel upheld the law voters had approved in 2004 to go into effect in 2009, but the court agreed to rehear the case with an 11-judge panel. That panel heard arguments last year, then put the case on hold when the Supreme Court decided to review Maryland's law. Law enforcement officials consider DNA collection a crucial tool in solving crimes. In a recent brief urging the 9th Circuit to uphold the law, the California District Attorneys Association noted that 20,000 hits have led to solving crimes since law enforcement began gathering DNA from arrestees in 2009. But civil liberties advocates say the law comes with a high price and needs to be scaled back to bar DNA collection without a warrant. "Personal privacy interests outweigh California's interests in DNA collection," the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote in its brief. While the 9th Circuit case raises federal legal questions, a similar challenge is unfolding in the California state courts, where the state Supreme Court has also ordered a further look at the issue in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's Maryland decision. In both cases, the issue boils down to whether there is enough difference between the California and Maryland laws to skirt the U.S. Supreme Court's findings that DNA collection can be constitutional. "The question is are there enough distinctions to make a difference," Greely said. "If I had to bet, I'd say the U.S. Supreme Court would say there aren't." Howard Mintz covers legal affairs. Contact him at 408-286-0236 or follow him at Twitter.com/hmintz http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-mexico-former-governor-drug-trafficking-charges-20131206,0,5704425.story#axzz2mnng8ULv Former Mexican governor indicted by U.S. on drug trafficking charges By Tracy Wilkinson December 6, 2013, 3:32 p.m. MEXICO CITY -- He allegedly raked in millions of dollars to give drug traffickers easy access to the United States. The cocaine flowed north, prosecutors say, and the money in his pocket bought him elegant houses and a couple of private jets. Tomas Yarrington, former governor of the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas, has been indicted by U.S. federal prosecutors on a host of drug-trafficking, money-laundering and racketeering charges. He is one of the highest-ranking former Mexican officials whom the United States has attempted to prosecute in many years. And the case could pose yet another touchy problem between the two nations, even as they reassess their relationship after the ascension a year ago of a new, less-U.S.-friendly Mexican administration. The accusations also highlight the deep penetration of drug-cartel corruption in state governments, especially along the border. Tamaulipas touches the southern tip of Texas. Yarrington, who was governor of Tamaulipas from 1999 to 2004 and was also a one-time presidential hopeful, has repeatedly professed his innocence. Similar accusations have dogged him for a year or more and at one point threatened to cloud the electoral campaign of President Enrique Peña Nieto. Peña Nieto, elected last year, and Yarrington both hail from the same Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. In the indictment unsealed Monday, Yarrington is portrayed as an old-style PRI politician, for whom being cozy with drug traffickers was the way to do business. Starting in 1998, “Yarrington received large bribes from major drug traffickers” in Tamaulipas, including the then-dominant Gulf Cartel, the U.S. attorney’s office of southern Texas said in a statement. The bribes began as he campaigned for governor, continued through his six-year term and afterward, the statement says. In return, prosecutors allege, Yarrington “allowed them to operate their large-scale, multi-ton enterprises freely, which included the smuggling of large quantities of drugs to the United States for distribution.” The indictment also alleges that Yarrington, 56, took bribes from local businesses and skimmed public money as well to pad his private accounts. With suspected accomplice Fernando Cano, a builder, Yarrington then acquired numerous “valuable assets,” mostly across Texas, including homes, airplanes, bank accounts, vehicles and other real estate, worth around $7 million, the indictment states. The 11-count indictment was returned in May, but for reasons not explained, was not opened until this week. It says Yarrington eventually became involved in the smuggling of drugs. Like many politicians in Tamaulipas, Yarrington “abetted, enabled and profited from a symbiotic relationship with the Gulf Cartel,” said George Grayson, a Mexico expert at Virginia’s College of William & Mary. Yarrington’s whereabouts are unknown, although his attorneys insisted this week that he is not a fugitive. The U.S. government has not yet formally sought his extradition. Mexican Atty. Gen. Jesus Murillo Karam said: “Whoever they ask us to look for, we will. They have had and will continue to have our cooperation.” In fact, there are already bruised feelings over the release from prison last summer of notorious drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, convicted in the 1985 murder of an American federal agent and suspected in the killings of several other Americans. In addition, Peña Nieto’s PRI government has sought to create distance from its U.S. partners in an effort to portray itself as a more independent and self-reliant administration. Yarrington’s Houston-based attorney, Joel Androphy, said in a news conference this week in Mexico City that the allegations against Yarrington were bogus and based on “false witnesses and testimony” by people attempting to make deals with the prosecution. He refused to disclose Yarrington’s current location, except to repeat that he was in the United States a year ago when asked to leave because his visa had expired. Accusations that Yarrington was receiving drug money first surfaced early last year, in connection with a U.S. case involving an associate, and then in a Mexican investigation. The PRI, in the middle of an election campaign, suspended him. Then-Atty. Gen. Marisela Morales ordered him arrested. But he managed to secure an injunction that left him free, and he threatened to take on the attorney general. Although state governments are thought to be notoriously complicit in drug-trafficking operations, only a handful of officials have been brought to account. In May 2010, Mexico extradited to the United States the former governor of Quintano Roo state, where Cancun is located, on drug-trafficking charges. Mario Villanueva pleaded guilty and is serving a 10-year jail term. Government crime pays very well!!!! So Black guy from the hood in Chicago or New York will get 10 years in prison for the victimless crime of selling a pound of marijuana. However when a government crook steals millions he gets a slap on the wrist like this guy did!!! http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/former-state-department-employee-husband-to-be-sentenced-for-contracting-fraud/2013/12/05/d85ecbda-5c3b-11e3-bc56-c6ca94801fac_story.html?tid=hpModule_13097a0c-868e-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394&hpid=z12 Former State Department worker, husband sentenced for contracting fraud By Matt Zapotosky, Published: December 5 | Updated: Friday, December 6, 5:04 PM E-mail the writer A Stafford, Va., woman who prosecutors say concealed her marriage and used her job at the State Department to funnel tens of millions of dollars in government contracting work to a company she and her husband ran was sentenced to two years in prison Friday. Kathleen D. McGrade, 64, who worked in a management analyst capacity for the State Department, showed very little remorse for the scheme that authorities say allowed her to buy a $73,000 Lexus, a half-million-dollar yacht and nearly $223,000 in jewelry. In a lengthy speech before she was sentenced, McGrade offered various explanations for her misdeeds and told a federal judge in Alexandria that she was in court only because she had “been told that somehow the procurements that took place were illegal.” McGrade eventually told Judge Liam O’Grady that she was “very, very sorry for all of this” and acknowledged that her “judgments were improper” — perhaps sparing herself a longer term. As O’Grady handed down the two-year sentence — far short of the five years and 10 months that federal sentencing guidelines had called for as a minimum — he said McGrade had nearly persuaded him to impose a stiffer penalty. “That was almost a delusional recitation of what has occurred here,” O’Grady said. “To convince yourself that it’s everybody else’s fault is astonishing, given the facts of this case.” The scheme first burst into public view when the Daily Caller, a news and opinion Web site, reported on McGrade and her husband, 47-year-old Brian C. Collinsworth, in 2011. Prosecutors accused the two of fraudulently winning about $53 million in contracts for their company, the Sterling Royale Group, and collecting about $39 million in payments before their scheme was uncovered. Although McGrade and Collinsworth’s company — which supervised subcontractors performing heating and air-conditioning work at U.S. embassies — did the work it was paid for, McGrade and Collinsworth used McGrade’s position at the State Department to unfairly edge out others for the lucrative government business, prosecutors said. By prosecutors’ account, the couple’s scheme hinged on a document that made Sterling Royale Group eligible for the embassy work. McGrade, they said, improperly drafted that document, then persuaded a State Department contracting officer to sign and approve it “without carefully reviewing it.” McGrade disputed that at the sentencing and afterward, saying she was technically herself a “contractor” for the State Department and did not have the authority to approve such a document. She said she also did not trick the contracting officer who approved it. “The contracting officer read everything,” McGrade said in court. “All I know is it was signed.” Prosecutors had also accused McGrade and her husband of concealing their marriage so that they could continue to win the lucrative embassy work. McGrade said they merely failed to disclose it during a background check so as not to agitate Collinsworth’s ex-wife. McGrade and her husband pleaded guilty to major fraud against the U.S. government and related charges in August — a fact that made McGrade’s defiance at the sentencing even more unusual. Collinsworth, by contrast, sobbed as he apologized to a judge in no uncertain terms. “It was wrong, and we shouldn’t have done it,” Collinsworth said. “We’re proud of the work that we did. We’re not proud of the way we got the work.” O’Grady sentenced Collinsworth to a year and a half in prison. McGrade’s and Collinsworth’s defense attorneys argued at the sentencing that their clients deserved some leniency because they did the work for which they were paid, even though they won the contracts through fraud. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jack Hanly said they deserved stiff sentences for subverting the process and unfairly cheating other companies out of work. “The government contracting community needs to be able to trust that procurements like this are run honestly,” Hanly said. O’Grady said he was moved that the work was done, but he also seemed irked by the lavish lifestyle that McGrade and Collinsworth led. At one point, he listed some of the expensive items the couple had bought as he questioned their motives. “You were rocking and rolling until you got caught, weren’t you?” O’Grady said. “Where’s the greed come in here?” http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/free/20131205sinema-staffer-quits-job-fight-mothers-deportation-arizona-cns.html Sinema staffer quits job to fight mother’s deportation in Arizona By Brandon Brown Cronkite News Service Fri Dec 6, 2013 9:44 PM WASHINGTON — Erika Andiola came to Washington in the hope of making a difference in the immigration-reform fight — until the immigration fight hit closer to home. Andiola on Wednesday said she quit her job in the office of Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Phoenix, to go home and focus on contesting the deportation of her mother, Maria Arreola of Mesa. Mother and daughter cried at a news conference in front of the Capitol as Arreola recalled being put in handcuffs and told she was being deported. But they vowed to fight and win the battle to let Arreola stay. Not every Hill resignation is announced at a media event in the shadow of the Capitol, but Andiola’s statement was just the latest in a continuing campaign by reform advocates to keep pressure on Congress. “It’s getting to be pretty surreal at this point,” said Jessica Vaughan, director of the Center of Immigration Studies, who said the rallies, fasts, prayer vigils and news conferences are becoming a normal thing in Washington. Andiola said she was a child when she came to the U.S. illegally with her mother and became active at a young age in her support for immigration reform. She got a work visa and landed her first job as an outreach coordinator in Sinema’s office on Jan. 10 — the same day Arreola was picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and told she would be deported back to Mexico. Andiola said she called every member of Congress she ever met and every pro-reform advocate to help her mom. She said they were able to make enough noise that Arreola’s deportation was delayed, pending a January hearing. Andiola, who has created a website and a petition to keep her mother in the U.S., said she thought working in Washington would let her help all undocumented immigrants, including her mother. But she found it harder than she imagined. “Congress is a very hard place to be,” Andiola said. “It is a place where politics are more important than people.” But Vaughan said being in Washington helped Andiola learn how the system works. “When activists are able to get media coverage on a specific case, ICE usually caves and gives green cards,” Vaughan said. Activists are pushing hard for a House vote on the comprehensive reform bill passed by the Senate in June. But Speaker John Boehner has said repeatedly that, although he wants reform, he wants the House to move at its own pace on smaller measures. Efforts like Andiola’s to keep immigration reform in the conversation are orchestrated, said Tamar Jacoby, president of ImmigrationWorks USA. But she said it is more of a groundswell than a centralized directive. She said the demonstrations matter at some level, but when it comes down to it, the decision to move forward or not will be an “internal decision” in the House. Jacoby predicted that a bill will pass the House eventually, even though for many House Republicans it is “like going to the dentist. … They know they have to do it, but they just keep putting it off.” Sinema on Wednesday pledged to Andiola that Congress will pass an immigration reform bill “that solves this dilemma.” “While I am disappointed to lose Erika as a member of our staff, I understand that she needs to focus 100 percent on her mom’s case,” Sinema said. For Andiola, her frustration with Congress and the threat of having her mom deported made the decision for her. “For me, it is easier to do this from the outside,” she said. More of the old "Do as I say, not as I do" from our government masters. http://www.azcentral.com/community/chandler/articles/20131206probation-officer-arrested-chandler-prostitution-sting-brk.html Probation officer arrested in Chandler More 2013 Chandler mug shots and police calls By Jim Walsh The Republic | azcentral.com Fri Dec 6, 2013 4:21 PM Chandler police say they've arrested a Maricopa County employee on suspicion of running a house of prostitution out of an apartment after a series of undercover operations. Adam Justin Munoz, 30, was arrested on Wednesday and accused of receiving earnings of a prostitute, control of an illegal enterprise, and maintaining a house of prostitution, according to court records. Police arrested Munoz after they say they used a “confidential informant’’ to arrange two messages in which the informant and police officer “verbally pretended’’ to engage in a sex act, according to the court record. In a third instance, an undercover officer met with a female therapist employed by Munoz. The therapist “got naked’’ and offered the officer a different sex act for $200, the documents said. The therapist was arrested immediately “and confessed to working for Munoz’s illegal massage operation.’’ The document said the massage operation was based at an apartment in the 2000 block of N. Nevada Street in Chandler. It identified Munoz as working at the county’s Mesa complex in the 1800 block of West Lewis. Sgt. Joe Favazzo, a police spokesman, said Munoz worked as a juvenile detention officer with the juvenile probation department in Mesa. He said the investigation found that Munoz would receive a cut from each act of prostitution and massage. In two cases, the informant handed Munoz $50 from an overall charge of $150. Favazzo said prostitution cases are very unusual in Chandler and that police are thankful for a tip from the public that alerted them to the operation. More of the old "Do as I say, not as I do" from our government masters!!!! Another article in the Arizona Republic said this guy was a probation officer who works for the government!!! http://eastvalleytribune.com/local/article_8a30963c-5ec0-11e3-aeb2-0019bb2963f4.html Chandler undercover officers bust prostitution ring. Posted: Friday, December 6, 2013 2:50 pm By ABC15.com A Chandler man was arrested Wednesday after an undercover investigation led to the bust of an alleged prostitution ring run out of an apartment, police documents said. Adam Munoz, 30, was arrested on suspicion of illegal control of an enterprise, receiving earnings of prostitute and maintaining a house of prostitution, according to released documents. The Chandler Police Department was notified on Sept. 26, 2013 of an illegal massage business run out of a unit at an apartment complex near Warner Road and Arizona Avenue in Chandler, according to the police documents. In October, two undercover officers conducted a sting operation to see if there was an illegal business being disguised as an at-home massage business at the apartment. The officers discovered through the investigation, patrons would enter Munoz’s apartment, exchange money for a massage and sexual favors from women, police documents said. Munoz would then receive $50. Munoz was arrested, but refused to answer investigators' questions without an attorney present, court documents show. He was later booked into the 4th Avenue Jail. More government liars on Obamacare or ACA!!! Julie Dalton, 46, of Prescott, said she and her husband bought an insurance policy in 2011 for themselves and their three children. The plan had a $375 premium and covered the children until they were 30, she said. In October, Dalton said, they were told that their plan would be eliminated due to federal health-care reform and a new plan would cost $1,180 a month. http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/20131206some-decry-health-law-at-federal-hearing-aj.html Some decry health law at a federal hearing in AJ By Alia Beard Rau The Republic | azcentral.com Fri Dec 6, 2013 10:22 PM Several Arizona residents criticized the Affordable Care Act at a hearing Friday in Apache Junction, telling members of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that they will be forced against their will to change health insurers. Only Republican congressional members took part in the hearing, titled “ObamaCare Implementation, the Broken Promise: If You Like Your Current Plan You Can Keep It.” The only four witnesses invited to testify were residents who said they have been negatively affected by the new federal health-care program. Audience members were not permitted to speak. “This is not a town-hall meeting,” said committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif. “It’s an official congressional hearing.” In addition to Issa, Arizona Reps. Trent Franks, David Schweikert and Paul Gosar participated in the hearing. All oppose the Affordable Care Act. “We are all committed to repealing this onerous law, what I call the Unaffordable Care Act,” Gosar said. The focus was on the four invited witnesses, all of whom said they were not being permitted to keep their current health-care plans, which they liked. “While the president and other authors of the Affordable Care Act repeatedly promised, ‘If you like your health-care plan, you can keep it,’ it simply isn’t true,” Issa said. “No more than those who were told there is oceanfront property here in Arizona.” Julie Dalton, 46, of Prescott, said she and her husband bought an insurance policy in 2011 for themselves and their three children. The plan had a $375 premium and covered the children until they were 30, she said. In October, Dalton said, they were told that their plan would be eliminated due to federal health-care reform and a new plan would cost $1,180 a month. “It means we would have to sell both of our cars, or we could opt to sell our home and move in with my brother-in-law,” Dalton testified tearfully. “We could get a second and third job to pay for health insurance. ... We could drop our insurance altogether and pay the penalty. We have no good options.” Christie Hamman, 55, of Prescott, a self-employed real-estate agent, said she and her husband pay $550 a month to cover themselves, their daughter in college and their 25-year-old son. “I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about a government-run health-care system or a mandate for insurance, but I understood a lot of people in this country could not afford adequate health care,” Hamman said. “I expected our premiums would rise slightly, but I had no idea what was about to happen to our family.” She said they got a cancellation letter in September. Her insurance agent offered them a new, similar plan, but the premium was $1,700 a month. She said she looked into the health-care exchange online and discovered a plan would cost $1,387 a month. “It’s a total game changer for our family,” she said. “This could be the first time in our lives we are left uninsured, or we have to make life-changing decisions.” Dalton and Hamman said they have been allowed to keep their plans through December 2014 but say they don’t know what will happen after that. “There’s a time bomb ticking on our witnesses here today,” Issa said at the end of the hearing. “My goal is to begin offering comprehensive alternatives that are free-market and will hopefully give you the kinds of programs you want. We will hold this president accountable. We will do everything we can to encourage meaningful reform.” Issa said Democratic members of Arizona’s congressional delegation were invited to participate in the hearing and could have added witnesses to the agenda who have had positive experiences. He said none chose to do either. A group of local seniors gathered outside the hearing in support of health-care reform. Dennis Hall, an Arizona Department of Corrections retiree from Apache Junction, said he hadn’t been able to find affordable insurance for his wife, who is prediabetic and has high blood pressure, before the Affordable Care Act. “My income is less than $60,000,” he said. “Through the Affordable Care Act, we can get insurance for less than $349 a month. It is the only hope I have in the world of having health care for my wife.” A handful of state Democratic leaders held a news conference Thursday to share other positive stories. Jo Hafford said he was sexually assaulted in 2004 and contracted HIV. The Affordable Care Act assures he can get insurance despite having a pre-existing condition and keep it without worrying about a lifetime spending limit. “It costs $40,000 a year (for medications) for me to stay alive,” he said. “A lifetime spending limit makes your life a time bomb.” He called Friday’s hearing “fear mongering” and “propaganda.” “The law is not perfect,” he said. “But the GOP has had five years to come up with a better plan. Their plan is to just repeal it.” Hafford and several others said they asked to be included on the witness list for the hearing and were denied. Issa said the committee is interested in hearing from those who have had positive experiences with the Affordable Care Act. He said anyone may submit testimony via e-mail. Government Liars - Hmmm no data was stolen, but 2.4 million people may had their data stolen. Geeze!!!! You can't have it both ways!!! "Gariepy said this week that no arrests have been made and that there is no evidence any data were seen or stolen" "The district hired an independent consultant to review the situation and announced last week that it was notifying 2.4 million people that their personal data, including Social Security numbers and banking details, may have been seen." http://www.azcentral.com/news/arizona/articles/20131206id-breach-may-cost-mcccd-million.html ID breach may cost MCCCD $14 million By Mary Beth Faller The Republic | azcentral.com Fri Dec 6, 2013 10:26 PM A massive data breach at Maricopa Community Colleges was a result of staff errors in the information technology department, and the estimated cost of fixing the problem and aiding victims could rise as high as $14 million. An official with the Maricopa County Community College District said an outside consultant had determined that the April data breach, in which personal information of current and former students and employees may have been exposed, was due to substandard performance of IT workers. “When Maricopa investigated the system, we found vulnerabilities that resulted from employee conduct that did not meet Maricopa’s standards and expectations,” college district spokesman Tom Gariepy said. Gariepy said this week that no arrests have been made and that there is no evidence any data were seen or stolen. He would not identify the workers responsible or say how many IT employees are facing disciplinary action, adding that the outcome will eventually be made public. The breach was revealed on April 29, when the FBI told district officials it had found a website advertising personal information from the community colleges for sale. The district hired an independent consultant to review the situation and announced last week that it was notifying 2.4 million people that their personal data, including Social Security numbers and banking details, may have been seen. The district governing board has approved spending up to $9.1 million for a consultancy firm to conduct a computer forensic analysis, inform people whose personal data may have been revealed, staff a call center and provide a year’s credit monitoring for potential victims. And, on Tuesday, the board is scheduled to vote on approving an additional $600,000, taking the total close to $10 million authorized toward rectifying the problem. That is on top of more than $4 million authorized earlier this year to secure the system itself. The district, which has an annual budget of $1.7 billion, has not addressed how to pay for the costs. Gariepy said he did not know whether they could be covered by insurance. The district did not disclose the problem publicly until late last month. Gariepy said that although the district was notified in April about the problem, the extent was unknown for several months. “People think we knew on April 29 that all of these millions of files were exposed, and we didn’t know that,” he said. “We knew hardly anything except that we had a problem, and we had to find out what it was.” The district’s website was down for several days and was restored in stages. Gariepy said it took months for the consultant and the district to assess the situation, find out which files were affected and find correct addresses for the millions who were affected. They include current employees and students, as well as those going back at least several years, including people who took non-credit courses and high-school students who were dual-enrolled in community- college classes. Gariepy said letters are being mailed in stages to those potentially affected. All the letters should be sent by mid-December. On Friday, he said the district has already received hundreds of phone calls from people, most of whom asked whether the letters they have received about the issue were authentic. “If you got a letter from us, it’s not a scam, and it’s not a sales letter from someone who wants to sell you something,” he said. Work on the technology system, which had been described as outdated, continues. In February, as the governing board was deliberating whether to ask for its second tuition and property-tax increase in three years, the members heard a report on problems with the system. John Webster, interim vice chancellor for IT services, told the board that his department was badly understaffed and that employees needed additional training. He said some software was so old that the vendor no longer supported it. The tuition and property tax increases were approved in the spring, with upgraded technology part of the plan for the money.
State targets lax medical-pot doctors
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2) put in police and drugs
I suspect that since Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, Attorney General Tom Horne and DHS Director Will Humble have failed to flush Prop 203 down the toilet with their frivolous lawsuits they will try to make medical marijuana illegal by putting all the doctors that prescribe or recommend it out of business.
I suspect that if this was 1776 George Washington and Thomas Jefferson would feel the same way about Jan Brewer, and Will Humble that they did about King George
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State targets lax medical-pot doctors By Yvonne Wingett Sanchez The Republic | azcentral.com Fri Nov 8, 2013 10:50 PM Arizona health officials want to collect more-nuanced information about medical-marijuana users who claim they suffer from “chronic pain” when seeking pot recommendations as part of an effort to find physicians improperly recommending pot to their patients. Patients seeking permission to use medical marijuana cited chronic pain as a debilitating condition about 26,500 times from July 2012 through June 2013, representing 73 percent of Arizonans who qualified to use the drug. Will Humble, director of the state Department of Health Services, said he wants to more quickly root out physicians who are improperly recommending medical marijuana, and continue intensive training for doctors who recommend pot in high volumes. A new report by the health department analyzed the second year of the state’s medical marijuana program and found that a small number of physicians write a big share of the pot recommendations Just several hundred physicians appear to specialize in the recommendation of medicinal cannabis, according to the report, which was released Friday. It said 472 physicians certified 36,346 patients from July 2012 through June 2013. The report found that 99 naturopathic physicians, who combine traditional medicine and natural medical approaches in treating patients, certified 27,275 patients. Seventy-five percent of patient certifications were issued by naturopaths, and just 21 naturopaths were responsible for about 72 percent of certifications by such medical professionals. Medical doctors certified 6,434 patients while osteopaths certified 2,587 patients and three homeopathic physicians certified 50 patients. Humble said he was troubled that so few physicians were writing so many marijuana recommendations. Arizona’s medical-marijuana program, narrowly approved by voters in 2010, allows people with certain debilitating medical conditions to use marijuana. They must obtain a recommendation from a physician and register with the state, which issues identification cards to qualified patients and caregivers. Humble reiterated that the numbers raise concerns that patients are seeking recommendations from what he has called “certification mills” instead of primary-care doctors who are generally more well-versed about individual patients’ medical histories. “It’s a problem that all the states (that allow medical-marijuana use) face: Just a handful of physicians write the certifications,” Humble said. “We’ve got to start doing a better job to broaden the base — and I don’t mean writing more certifications — but … have them be written closer to the patients medical home.” Humble said that over the past year, he has lectured at a naturopathic college to help physicians better understand the regulatory process. Regarding a different issue, state health officials could change the way they interpret rules regarding the distance patients must live from medical-marijuana dispensaries in order to grow their own pot. Over time, the vast majority of patients who live within 25 miles of dispensaries have lost permission to legally cultivate pot as dispensaries have opened statewide. The Arizona Department of Health Services, which oversees the program, issues cards that allow patients to use medical marijuana, grow it or both. Those cards must be renewed each year, and those who live within 25 miles of an operating dispensary cannot, in most cases, be allowed to grow the plant. But how the distance is calculated, whether it’s “as the crow flies” or “as the car drives,” is a key point of controversy. State health officials interpret the rule as the area within a 25-mile radius of a dispensary. Many patients and advocates, however, say the rule should be interpreted as driving distance — actual mileage measured on an odometer driving from one location to another. They argue that the state’s interpretation unfairly covers too much ground and bans too many people from growing in their homes.
Bill Montgomery Is Prosecuting a Medical-Pot Patient for One Piece of THC-Infused Candy
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2) put in police and drugs
Sadly the "war on drugs" is nothing more then a jobs program for cops, prosecutors, probation officers, jail guards, public defenders and other folks involved in the criminal injustice system. And of course Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery is doing the best he can to stop that jobs program for himself and his minions by ending by falsely arresting and prosecuting medical marijuana patients on bogus charge.
If this was 1776 I am sure that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson would consider Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery a tyrant just like King George.
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Bill Montgomery Is Prosecuting a Medical-Pot Patient for One Piece of THC-Infused Candy By Ray Stern Thursday, Nov 7 2013 Medical-marijuana users were warned. And now Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery is carrying out his plan to harass qualified medical users for resin-infused edibles. Montgomery repeatedly has refused to say whether he is prosecuting patients for possession of marijuana concentrates who otherwise are acting within the boundaries of the 2010 Arizona Medical Marijuana Act. New Times has learned that his office is moving forward with at least one such case, a felony prosecution of a medical-marijuana patient for possession of a single piece of infused candy. The patient, a Phoenix resident who asked not to be named out of fear it would affect his employment, provided New Times with a letter from the County Attorney's Office saying it intended to prosecute him and a copy of his valid medical-marijuana card. Court records show he is scheduled to appear in court in mid-November to face one felony "narcotic violation" charge. As mentioned in New Times' October 10 cover story, "Half Baked," the issue of marijuana "edibles" and extracts was brought into sharp focus this summer because of a warning by the Arizona Department of Health Services about the questionable legal status of concentrates such as hashish, kief, hash oil, and cannabutter. Montgomery and several other county prosecutors in Arizona theorize that the voter-approved Medical Marijuana Act did not legalize extracts for qualified users to possess or for dispensaries to sell. Because of the threat of prosecution, Jennifer and Jacob Welton, a Mesa couple, cannot give their 5-year-old epileptic son the medicine he needs — oil infused with a marijuana strain rich in cannabidiol, which doesn't produce psychoactive effects like the better-known component of the plant, THC. Last week, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in Maricopa County Superior Court on behalf of the Weltons asking a judge to declare that extracts are protected under the medical-pot law and to prevent Montgomery from taking legal action based on his theory that extracted resin is an illegal "narcotic." The debate hinges on the fact that the 2010 law makes "usable marijuana" legal for medical users and dispensaries, and that's defined as "the dried flowers of the marijuana plant and any mixture or preparation thereof." Yet Arizona statutes also contain a decades-old unscientific definition of something called "cannabis," which is defined as "the resin extracted from any part of the plant . . . and every compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of such plant, its seeds, or its resin." The piece of soft candy found in the Phoenix man's car on the night of December 20 was infused with resin extracted from a "preparation" of buds. Its active ingredient was THC, the same as in the buds used to make the candy. As the man explained to New Times, he uses marijuana for back pain but can't smoke because of previous lung surgery. He's had two cases of spontaneous pneumothorax (collapsed lungs) in the past few years. The condition isn't related to smoking, he says — he's never been a cigarette smoker and previously smoked pot only occasionally. During his last surgery in June 2011, doctors "snipped off a piece of lung" during a procedure known as a mechanical pleurodesis, in which the outside of the lung is attached to the inside of the lung cavity. Chances of another collapse since the surgery are "really low," he says, but as a qualified medical-marijuana user, he'd prefer to ingest the plant. His back pain? The 30-year-old says he has compressed vertebrae from an old injury. New Times wasn't privy to his medical records, but he did provide a copy of his medical-marijuana card — issued October 31, 2012 and expired November 1, 2013. This covers the time of his December 20 arrest for DUI by a Mesa police officer in Scottsdale. According to a Mesa police report, the man said he drank one 22-ounce Blue Moon while at now-closed Saddle Ranch Chop House. The officer pulled him over at 11:30 p.m. for making two wide right turns near the restaurant, then said he smelled pot in the car and liquor on the driver's breath. A blood test showed the medical-marijuana patient had a .056 blood-alcohol content — he ended up paying a fine for impaired driving. The crime lab apparently didn't test for the presence of pot metabolites, the report shows. During a search of the man's Ford Mustang, the officer found a "marijuana pipe and a piece of cannabis candy in the center console," the report says. The items were seized. Possession of the pipe, ostensibly as paraphernalia for the use of medical-marijuana, was protected by his state-approved patient status. But not the candy. The man says he bought the Tootsie Roll-like candy at a compassion club. Since then, his public defender has told him that a crime lab determined it contained no "usable marijuana," only the resin of marijuana — what state law defines confusingly as "cannabis." Deputy County Attorney Sean Kelly sent the man a letter in July informing him that he had two options: potential conviction of a felony, for which he could receive up to 3.75 years in prison or a drug diversion program that would cost him more than $3,000. Montgomery's office did not respond to a request for comment about the case. The medical-pot cardholder plans to continue fighting prosecutors. "I'm not going to be a victim," he says. "The new law is supposed to supersede old law." Jennifer and Jacob Welton, it seems, are correct to worry about the legal risks of providing the wrong preparation of marijuana to their seizure-prone son. As for the 41,765 Arizonans approved to legally use marijuana in Arizona as of October 2 — beware of extracts, at least in Maricopa County. Other elected prosecutors around the state aren't taking as hard a line as Montgomery. Yet, anyway. Several state-approved medical-marijuana kitchens in counties other than Maricopa are using expensive botanical extractor machines to make edibles sold at legal dispensaries, and they haven't been raided by authorities. Amelia Cramer, chief deputy for Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall, told a reporter recently that patients could be prosecuted under the "narcotic" statute for something as innocuous as making tea from pot leaves. However, LaWall told New Times last month that she thought it would be a waste of time to send medical-marijuana edibles to the busy crime lab for testing. The focus on a technical loophole in the medical-marijuana law by Montgomery, an up-and-coming socially conservative politician, can be viewed with justified cynicism. Creating marijuana-infused butter for brownies, oil, and tinctures (and even hashish, which is nothing more than purified, compressed plant material) is within the spirit of the 2010 law. Montgomery has been fighting the law since voters passed it, claiming he's concerned about the conflict between state and federal statutes. He's appealing a pro-Prop 203 ruling by a trial court in a civil suit between a would-be Sun City dispensary and the county. The Arizona Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear oral argument on the case on November 27. The ACLU's fresh lawsuit on the concentrates issue, though, probably won't be settled in time for the patient with the infused candy or for other patients who could be facing prosecution by Montgomery's office for "cannabis."
Former Phoenix councilwoman’s death likely drug overdose.
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Former Phoenix councilwoman’s death likely drug overdose.
I suspect our elected officials abuse drugs just as much as the serfs they rule over, but they rarely get prosecuted for illegal drug use.
While Phoenix Councilwoman Jessica Florez did die of a drug overdose the article didn't say the drugs were obtained illegally.
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Former Phoenix councilwoman’s death likely accidental poisoning from pain drug By Dustin Gardiner The Republic | azcentral.com Fri Nov 8, 2013 2:50 PM Former Phoenix Councilwoman Jessica Florez’s death last summer was likely the result of an accidental poisoning of the pain drug Tramadol, according to an autopsy report from the Maricopa County Medical Examiner. Florez, 39, died in her sleep, but the exact cause of her death had been unknown. Family members had said Florez fell down the stairs and suffered a concussion the day before her death on June 1. She also had been seeking medical treatment for an infected laceration on her leg. The medical examiner’s report states that, in his opinion, Florez “died of an acute Tramadol toxicity, and that chronic ethanolism (alcohol abuse) was a contributory factor.” Her cause of death was deemed an accident. Florez was appointed to the City Council in 2003 after Phil Gordon resigned from the District 4 seat to run for mayor. She served for less than a year, losing the seat to Tom Simplot by a razor-thin margin of 57 votes in a special election. Last summer, family and friends, including several well-known city leaders, said Florez will be remembered for her tough, energetic personality that led her to volunteer on many political campaigns and promote charitable causes, such as college outreach for low-income students. “She was a powerhouse,” Mayor Greg Stanton said of Florez. “She’s someone very, very special to me throughout the years. She loved this city.” During her career, Florez also worked as a top adviser to Mayor Skip Rimsza, helped launch a Latino advertising firm and raised money as an advocate for Maricopa Community Colleges’ scholarship program for at-risk students.
Pew poll shows Obama’s approval hits new low
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Pew poll shows Obama’s approval hits new low By Aamer Madhani USA Today Fri Nov 8, 2013 2:52 PM A majority of Americans now disapprove of the way President Obama is handling his job, while Americans’ assessment of the way he is handling the economy has hit a nadir for his nearly 5-year-old presidency, according to a new Pew Research Center poll published Friday. Forty-one percent of those polled approve of how he’s handling his job, while 53 perent disapprove. That’s a 14-point drop since December, according to Pew. Obama’s job ratings on the economy have been underwater for more than four years, but the current measure is the worst of his presidency -- 31 percent approve of the way Obama is handling the economy, and 65 percent disapprove. The Pew survey, which was conducted Oct. 30-Nov. 6, found that majorities disapprove of the way the president is handling five of six issues tested. Terrorism was the lone exception, with 51 percent approving of his performance, and 44 percent disapproving. But even on terrorism, his ratings are lower than they were earlier this year, according to the poll. Obama’s slump resembles the trajectory of George W. Bush, who saw approval of his job performance rating tumble 12 points, from 48 percent in December 2004 to 36 percent at the same point in his presidency, according to Pew. Also notable was Obama’s considerable slide in the poll among those who identify themselves as independents. Only 32 percent of independents approve of his job performance, while 61 percent disapprove. In December, 53 percent approved and 39 percent ) disapproved. Like Bush, Obama retains broad support among members of his own party, though the share of Democrats who give him a positive job rating has fallen 10 points over the past year, from 88 percent to 78 percent . Obama’s job rating among Republicans, extremely low last December at 12 percent, has changed little since then. The president, who has been battling the fallout from problems with the rollout of his signature health care law, received negative ratings on health care policy, with 37 percent approving of his performance and 59 percent disapproving. The poll, which has margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, was completed before Obama apologized in an NBC News interview Thursday that some Americans are losing their health insurance plans as a result of the Affordable Care Act, despite his repeated assurances over the past four years that Americans could keep their plan if they like them.
State backs DUI law that harms the innocent
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State backs DUI law that harms the innocent State officials were at the Arizona Supreme Court this week to defend a law that punishes innocent people. Welcome to Arizona! Or, if you’ve lived here a long time, like me: So what else is new? Under Arizona’s DUI law, a person is guilty of impaired driving if he has any metabolite of marijuana in his system. However, the compounds left in a person’s system after smoking marijuana are not all the same. One of them makes a person high and lasts for a few hours. Another is not “psychoactive,” meaning it does not cause impairment. But it can linger in a person’s system for up to a month. What this means, essentially, is that a person could be guilty of impaired driving for having smoked marijuana three or four weeks ago. Imagine the impact such a statute could have on the thousands of individuals in the state who are legal holders of medical marijuana cards. They risk getting busted each time they get behind a wheel even if they haven’t used their legally obtained drug for weeks. The case heard by the court goes back to 2010, when a man named Hrach Shilgevorkyan was pulled over by police for speeding and making an unsafe lane change. A blood test showed marijuana’s inactive metabolite in his system, but he was charged with DUI. His case is being handled by attorney Michael Alarid III. He made the argument this week before the state Supreme Court. “It felt like it went well,” he told me. “There were difficult questions for both sides, but I believe the judges are seriously considering our case. That’s a good thing.” Even if the justices believe the law is wrong they could rule against Alarid’s client. “They (the justices) understand the problem but they’re a court and courts are always concerned about overstepping their bounds, so, well see,” he said. Alarid won the case in a lower court. The charges against his client were dismissed after it was shown that the marijuana chemicals found in his blood were inactive. The Arizona Appeals Court overturned that decision. In its ruling on the case the Appeals Court said, “We determined that the legislative ban extends to all substances, whether capable of causing impairment or not.” Impaired logic trumps non-impaired drivers. Some states have acted to correct similar problems with their DUI laws. They now test only for marijuana’s active ingredient. It’s a common sense approach. Unfortunately, common sense sped past Arizona’s legislators a long time ago. We can’t even see its dust from here. When I first wrote about this, back in March, Alarid told me, “A person from Arizona could go on a snowboarding trip to Colorado or Washington State, where marijuana is legal for recreational use. And then a month later he could be driving in Arizona, get stopped and be convicted of DUI.” The same danger faces visitors to Arizona from those states. Not exactly something officials want on a tourist brochure, is it? At the Supreme Court hearing this week the lawyer arguing for the state (Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery’s office is handling the case), told the justices, “I understand the people’s position when they say, ‘Gee, it’s not fair that someone driving 30 days later has carboxy (the inactive ingredient) in their system.’ But that’s up to the legislature to decide (to change the law).” A while back I asked Montgomery if he believed, out of fairness, that state law should differentiate between metabolites that cause impairment and those that don’t. He told me, “No. We do not want to create an incentive to ‘game’ how long it takes for any given metabolite to leave a driver’s system. Nice try, Ed.” At one point during the oral arguments before the court Chief Justice Rebecca Berch asked the state’s attorney, “Does there come a point where the statute lacks a rational basis?” I’m no lawyer, but near as I can tell we passed that point way, way back. (Column for Nov. 8, 2013, Arizona Republic)
Toronto mayor admits he smoked crack
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More of the old "Do as I say, not as I do" from our government masters!!!!
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Toronto mayor admits he smoked crack Associated Press Tue Nov 5, 2013 3:33 PM TORONTO — Rob Ford said Tuesday he loves his job and will stay on as mayor of Toronto despite admitting for the first time that he smoked crack. Ford earlier acknowledged he smoked crack “probably a year ago” when he was in a “drunken stupor,” but balked at growing pressure on him to resign. “I was elected to do a job and that’s exactly what I’m going to continue doing,” Ford said. “On Oct. 27 of 2014, I want the people of this great city to decide whether they want Rob Ford to be their mayor.” The allegations that the mayor of Canada’s largest city had been caught on video smoking crack surfaced in news reports in May. Ford initially insisted the video didn’t exist, sidestepped questions about whether he had ever smoked crack and rebuffed growing calls on him to step down. The mayor was forced to backtrack after police said last week they had obtained a copy of the video in the course of a drug investigation against a friend of Ford’s. “Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine,” Ford told reporters earlier outside his office. “There have been times when I’ve been in a drunken stupor. That’s why I want to see the tape. I want everyone in the city to see this tape. I don’t even recall there being a tape or video. I want to see the state that I was in.” Police have said the video, which has not been released publicly, does not constitute enough evidence to charge the mayor with a crime. Police spokesman Mark Pugush said Ford’s acknowledgement of crack use will be passed on to investigators. Several Toronto city councilors called on Ford to step down and Canada’s justice minister urged him to get help. Ford, 44, earlier walked out of his office and asked reporters to ask him the question they first asked him in May. He then acknowledged he smoked crack but said: “Am I an addict? No. Have I tried it, probably in one of my drunken stupors a year ago.” Municipal law makes no provision for the mayor’s forced removal from office unless he’s convicted and jailed for a criminal offense. City Councilor Denzil Minnan-Wong, a member of Ford’s executive committee, said he would put forward a motion asking Ford to take a leave of absence. “My first reaction was ‘Wow’,” Minnan-Wong said. Councilor Jaye Robinson said the mayor needs to step aside and address his problems. “We have become a laughing stock of North America, if not the world,” Robinson said. Canada’s Justice Minister Peter MacKay said it was “a sad day for the city of Toronto.” “As a human being, I think the mayor of Toronto needs to get help,” MacKay said. Ford later told the Toronto Sun newspaper that he is not stepping down or taking a leave of absence. “I feel like I got 1,000 pounds off my back,” Ford told the paper, which is sympathetic to the mayor. “I felt like I had to say it. It is what it is. I feel two inches high right now but I needed to deal with it. I am not going to quit or take a leave.” The populist Ford has been dogged by allegations of bad behavior since becoming mayor three years ago, promising to end what he called wasteful spending at city hall. His campaign galvanized conservatives in Toronto’s outlying suburbs, where initiatives like downtown bike lanes were considered excessive and elitist. The crack episode is not the first time Ford has been forced to admit drug use. During the campaign, Ford acknowledged after repeated denials that he was busted for marijuana possession in Florida in 1999. Ford apologized over the weekend for excessive drinking. He said he shouldn’t have been drunk in public when he appeared at a street festival in August, calling it “pure stupidity.” He also said he got “a little out of control” after St. Patrick’s Day in 2012, when city hall security guards said they witnessed a “very intoxicated’ Ford having trouble walking and swearing at aides. Ford said he was “hammered” at that street festival this summer. The mayor has also been accused of make an obscene gesture from his car and texting while driving. In 2011, Ford angered the city’s gay community by declining to attend Toronto’s gay pride parade, breaking with tradition that three previous mayors had kept up. Earlier this year, the mayor was fired from his cherished side-job as a volunteer high school football coach after he made disparaging remarks to a TV network about parents and their kids. On Tuesday, Ford’s brother, Doug, criticized Police Chief Bill Blair for saying he was “disappointed” in the mayor after police recovered the tape last week. Doug Ford called the chief’s comments “inappropriate” and “biased” and said Blair should step aside. “We have the most political police chief we have ever seen,” said Doug Ford, an influential city councilor. “The police chief believes he’s the judge, the jury and the executioner.” Blair says he responded honestly when asked about his feelings after watching the video. The allegations about Ford smoking crack surfaced when two reporters with the Toronto Star and one from the U.S. website Gawker said they saw the video but they did not obtain a copy. Ford vilified the Toronto Star, accusing the paper of trying to take him down. The mayor has called on the police to release the tape, but police said they are prohibited from doing so because it is evidence before the courts. Police said the video will come out when Ford’s associate and occasional driver, Alexander Lisi, goes to trial on drug and extortion charges. Lisi is accused of threatening two alleged gang members who had been trying to sell the video to the media. Police have said they want to talk to the mayor, but his lawyer so far has declined.
MCSO push for drones stirs privacy concerns
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I wonder when Sheriff Joe will start using drones to murder suspected drug dealers and destroy suspected crack houses???
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MCSO push for drones stirs privacy concerns By JJ Hensley The Republic | azcentral.com Wed Nov 6, 2013 10:03 AM Cameras affixed to traffic signals at intersections are now commonplace. A decade ago, law-enforcement agencies began mounting special cameras on patrol cars capable of reading hundreds of license plates a minute. And Phoenix police have been flying a plane capable of conducting surveillance from 9,000 feet since 2010. None of those potentially invasive police technologies has struck a nerve like the notion of an unmanned aircraft stealthily flying above Valley streets. But Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio thrust himself into the forefront of that conversation last week when he touted the idea at a news conference, and media outlets around the world picked up on the story and ran with it. “A place in Russia said I have a fleet of drones,” Arpaio said Monday. “A fleet. I don’t even have one yet.” Arpaio could have an unmanned aircraft at his disposal within a year, according to aides. And as more police agencies across the country begin to toy with the idea of using the remote-controlled planes and helicopters outfitted with cameras, experts say, the public can help define how the technology will be used in the future. The idea, predictably, does not sit well with privacy advocates, who point out that Arpaio’s office has already have been found to have violated constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. Trusting Arpaio’s agency to legally operate one of the unmanned aircraft, on the heels of a federal court ruling that found his deputies discriminated against Latino residents while attempting to enforce immigration laws, can be a scary proposition, said Dan Pochoda, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona. But the attendant publicity Arpaio generated last week with the drone talk could turn into a blessing for those who hope that increasing awareness will lead to an awakening about the powerful little aircraft and their inherent potential for abuse. “Arpaio tries to say, ‘Who cares about the privacy, we’re only after criminals?’ as if you know when the thing takes off that it’s only going to be looking at criminals,” Pochoda said. “As usual, it’s round ’em up first and sort ’em out later. It’s been a concern of residents around the country, particularly now that a lot of the NSA (National Security Agency) stuff has fallen on fertile ground with people’s concerns. This could be even more invasive than that.” Implementation In western Colorado, the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office expected resistance when administrators there first talked about getting an unmanned aircraft in 2009, so deputies went on something of a promotional tour, sharing information about the system with the media and the public at every opportunity, said Heather Benjamin, a sheriff’s spokeswoman. “You don’t hide it. You start at the beginning and tell them, ‘We’re looking into this, we’re doing research,’ ” Benjamin said. “When you get it, you do town-hall meetings, you open the door to your citizens and media and say, ‘Look, we cannot attach missiles to a 3-pound miniature helicopter.’ “You never hide it. The one time you hide it, people will never trust you, and they’ll always question what you’re doing with it.” Since it started flying in 2010, the office has since expanded the program to include two unmanned aircraft — a 3-pound helicopter and a 9-pound fixed-wing plane — and has flown about 35 missions, the majority of which are for search and rescue and identifying hotspots for fire crews, Benjamin said. The concerns Mesa County residents now have with the program center on its costs, Benjamin said — which are minimal because the aircraft, which can cost $25,000 to $50,000, were donated and operating costs are about $25 per hour. Arpaio has said that he plans to cover the costs of any unmanned aircraft with money seized through racketeering investigations and that he foresees two primary uses for the drones: conducting surveillance sweeps on the perimeter of jail facilities, including Tent City in Phoenix, and performing search-and-rescue missions in the desert. Performing those basic operations are about the only reliable uses police have found for unmanned aircraft because of limitations with the technology and Federal Aviation Administration regulations, said Tim Adelman, a Maryland attorney specializing in regulatory issues related to unmanned aircraft. The battery-powered aircraft can usually stay in the air for no more than 30 minutes, and the FAA requires operators to file flight plans before every launch and maintain a “line of sight” with the aircraft for the duration of its flight, Adelman said. The flight plan includes a defined area where operators will fly the aircraft, he said. “You’re not using this thing for routine patrol; you have to be in a ‘defined-incident parameter,’ like a building or a particular field,” Adelman said. “You couldn’t say, ‘Our defined-incident parameter is the entire city.’ The idea that you’re going to have one up for 30 minutes over a city is just not practical.” Legal concerns A host of specific legal concerns lies beyond the practical limitations the unmanned aircraft pose. The technology will surely advance, civil libertarians say, but the laws and policies put in place now can help dictate how the aircraft are used as they become more practical to fly over neighborhoods in search of criminal activity. In recent years, eight states have introduced legislation that limits how footage collected through unmanned flights can be used, with most of the legislation requiring police to have a warrant before the images can be used in a criminal investigation. State Rep. Jeff Dial, R-Chandler, introduced similar legislation in Arizona’s last session, but the measure failed to move out of a committee. Dial did not respond to requests for comment. Pochoda said the bill was so watered down that the ACLU could not support the final version. The legislation enacted in other places throughout the country, which requires a search warrant to use footage collected through unmanned flights, is well-intentioned but misguided, Adelman said. Case law already dictates how police can use information they gather from areas where there is an expectation of privacy, he said, but the public’s larger concern should be with how long the footage is stored after a flight is completed and who has access to the information. Phoenix police have collected nearly 2 million license-plate numbers through plate readers affixed to patrol cars, and police keep those records for three years, raising the possibility that law-enforcement agencies could go back and track a car’s movements years later if the desire arose. Investigators must go through the department’s auto-theft detail to access the license-plate records, and unauthorized access could lead to discipline for violating office policy or criminal charges, according to a police spokesman. That program, along with the city’s 2010 purchase of a plane capable of conducting surveillance, has drawn little public scrutiny, so far. Police have long had the capability to record activity from helicopters and the department’s aging fleet of fixed-wing planes, but buying a Pilatus PC-12 capable of recording at 9,000 feet has allowed investigators to operate without concerns about disrupting take-offs and landings at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, said Sgt. Trent Crump, a Police Department spokesman. The plane’s cameras are sensitive enough for officers to determine a suspect’s shirt color or gather details about a vehicle from more than 11/2 miles in the air. The recordings must be authorized by a detective working an active criminal case, and the footage is kept with the department’s report on the investigation, Crump said. But if officers observe unrelated criminal activity from the air, it’s fair game, he said. “If we see something that’s unlawful, we have that manned by a police-officer pilot and a camera operator who is also a police officer. If it’s in open view and it was obtained in that realm, certainly we would use it,” Crump said. “The fence is privacy for a homeowner, but it doesn’t give someone a reasonable expectation to commit a crime and not be noticed.” Policies and procedures work only when an agency’s employees follow them, Pochoda said, and the Sheriff’s Office could not avoid constitutional violations in its quest to drive illegal immigrants out of Maricopa County. A sheriff’s spokesman said that “Fourth Amendment issues will be respected” because deputies would need to explain to a judge why they gathered the video footage for a criminal prosecution and what types of urgent circumstances existed if they did so without a warrant. But Pochoda said Arpaio’s track record when it comes to constitutional violations should raise concerns about his use of unmanned aircraft among even his most ardent supporters if they are also adherents to Arizona’s conservative, libertarian tradition. “I think with some further publicity, the average Arizonan, while we may differ on many issues, would be very opposed to this type of intrusion,” Pochoda said.
Anti-war veterans decry parade snub
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Phoenix says NO to free speech for anti-war veterns???
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Anti-war veterans decry parade snub By Eugene Scott The Republic | azcentral.com Wed Nov 6, 2013 12:55 PM A veterans group denied a spot in Monday’s Veterans Day Parade plans to protest the decision outside Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton’s office today. Richard A. Smith, spokesman for the Winter Soldier Chapter (Phoenix) of Veterans for Peace, an international non-profit that promotes alternatives to war and often opposes military action, said his group’s application was denied by Honoring Arizona’s Veterans, the parade’s presenting sponsor, because it did not approve of a quote the group wanted read during the event. The quote is: “Members of Veterans for Peace use their military experience to testify to the brutal consequences of war and seek peaceful and effective alternatives. As veterans, they embrace a heightened sense of responsibility to serve the cause of peace through non-violence as exemplified by Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez.” Honoring Arizona’s Veterans also requires participants to sign a waiver releasing Phoenix from responsibility if anything were to go wrong. Phoenix does not sponsor the parade, but the city provides support, such as police, traffic control, street sweeping and other staffing related to street closures and traffic control, said David Urbinato, spokesman for the Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department. Veterans for Peace submitted its application with the waiver blacked out, said Katherine Brooks, chairwoman of Honoring Arizona’s Veterans. “They were not willing to meet the guidelines of the parade when they submitted the application,” she said. The group denied Veterans for Peace’s application, she said, “because, just like any other organization whose applications are accompanied by threats and demands, deem themselves ineligible to participate.” Brooks would not share details of the demands and threats, saying “that’s a private matter between us and Veterans for Peace.” Smith filed a complaint with the Phoenix office of the American Civil Liberties Union in October, accusing Honoring Arizona’s Veterans of violating Veterans for Peace’s free-speech rights. Smith, an attorney, said his group will sue Honoring Arizona’s Veterans and Phoenix if they are not allowed to march in the parade. “We’ve told them on several occasions we’re going to be in the parade one way or another. We’re entitled to be in the parade,” Smith said. Brooks said Veterans for Peace’s forcing their way into the parade is a violation of Honoring Arizona’s Veteran’s rights. “The First Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees that as a private entity, we have the right to determine who is going to be a part of our parade,” she said. Because Phoenix provides taxpayer-funded services at the parade, Smith said, he considers Phoenix a co-sponsor. “I told the mayor and City Council if they don’t immediately repudiate and denounce Honoring Arizona’s Veterans for the comments that they made about us, that we will conclude that the city of Phoenix agrees with them,” he said. Representatives from Veterans for Peace spoke at last week’s City Council meeting and asked Stanton and the council to force Honoring Arizona’s Veterans to allow the group in the parade. Because the group’s request was during the public-comment section, the mayor and council members could not respond. Brooks said Veterans for Peace is mischaracterizing the city’s involvement with the parade. “The city has done nothing for our organization, which is a privately funded non-profit, other than what they normally do in line with the responsibilities they have to make sure it is a safe event,” she said. Urbinato later told The Arizona Republic that the city has no power to intervene in Honoring Arizona’s Veterans’ decision. “We’re not a sponsor, so the event producer maintains control over the entries into their event, which is true of all privately produced parades and events on city streets,” he said. Regarding the waiver that parade participants must sign, Urbinato said all private-event producers, including Honoring Arizona’s Veterans, sign Letters of Understanding that clarify that the city is not a sponsor/co-sponsor of their events and assumes no responsibility or liability for their event. The city provides public-safety services and traffic control for any privately produced parade on city streets, he said. According to city documents, Phoenix will spend up to $85,000 a year for logistical support. The city spent $38,000 in police overtime staffing for last year’s APS Electric Light Parade, Urbinato said. He said he could not estimate the total cost for the Veterans Day Parade.
Prayer before public meetings divisive topic among Arizonans
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Prayer before public meetings divisive topic among Arizonans By Alia Beard Rau The Republic | azcentral.com Sat Nov 2, 2013 8:48 PM The Arizona House and Senate each begins its day’s work with a prayer during the legislative session. But a New York lawsuit headed to the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday could force them to stop. In the Town of Greece v. Galloway case, a lower court ruled that opening a town council meeting with a prayer violates the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause because the content of the prayers give the impression that the government endorses Christianity. Supporters of the practice argue that rules governing the separation of church and state have become too strict and prayer should be allowed as long as it doesn’t coerce someone to follow a certain religion. The high court’s ruling in the case will likely impact prayer at all levels of government, from town councils to state legislatures to Congress. In Arizona, prayer has been a part of state government’s regular activities for more than 100 years. There was a prayer on the first day of the Arizona Constitutional Convention in 1910. The state House and Senate have opened work with a prayer since statehood in 1912. “It’s part of our history and decorum,” said Donna Kafer, who has served as the state’s volunteer legislative chaplain for 15 years and said she believes the daily prayer has a calming effect on lawmakers. “It sets the tone for what they’re there to do.” Lawmakers take turns leading the prayer and occasionally bring in Kafer or other local religious leaders. Jewish, Native American and Muslim leaders have given the prayer. But the prayer has a decidedly Christian bent — invoking God or Jesus and seeking their guidance as the Legislature goes about the state’s business. Arizona, via Attorney General Tom Horne, has officially supported prayer at government meetings. Horne joined attorneys general from 17 other states in filing a brief with the Supreme Court arguing that prayers should be allowed to continue. “A prayer does not necessarily proselytize or ‘aggressively advocate’ a particular faith merely by making a few distinctly Christian references,” their brief states. Several state officials have also weighed in on the case. Senate President Andy Biggs, R-Gilbert, and House Speaker Andy Tobin, R-Paulden, filed a legal brief in the case. “The practice is not an ancient tradition that blindly presumes religious uniformity,” their brief states. “From the Founding, legislative prayer has provided shared moments of solemnization by individuals of different faiths.” Arizona Republican Reps. Matt Salmon and Trent Franks joined 47 other members of Congress in filing a legal brief arguing that “legislative prayer jurisprudence has gone seriously awry.” Like the attorneys for the town of Greece, N.Y., their brief advocates for a more lenient interpretation of the Establishment Clause that allows the intermingling of church and state as long as government does not coerce participation in any specific religion or create a state religion. The conservative Center for Arizona Policy advocates for religious issues at the Legislature. Legal counsel Josh Kredit said the Supreme Court settled the issue 30 years ago, when it allowed prayer before government meetings. “This is in the tradition of the United States, and Americans today should be as free as the Founders were to pray,” he said. “We think it’s a great thing that the Legislature seeks divine guidance before beginning to craft laws.” Kafer has a similar position. “I think there’s ... a lot of misunderstanding about church and state and what it really means,” she said. “We are not trying to say you have to believe this way. It just allows members to have access to faith, whatever their particular faith might be.” But the Secular Coalition for Arizona said the Arizona Legislature’s daily prayers are too Christian-focused. They hope the Supreme Court will end the practice of legislative prayer, or at least require that it be more inclusive. “Our Legislature has a very sectarian prayer regularly,” group member Seráh Blain said. She said it gives non-Christian Arizonans the feeling that they have no legislative representation. “While everybody ought to have the freedom to express their religion, there should not be the perception that the government is endorsing one particular religion to the exclusion of others,” she said. In Arizona, the daily legislative prayer has sparked controversy in recent years. In 2004, former Republican Rep. Doug Quelland read a prayer calling homosexuality a perversion and describing welfare recipients as lazy. Democrats issued a statement calling the prayer a hateful, mean-spirited, pandering political statement. In May, Rep. Juan Mendez, D-Tempe, an atheist, used his turn at the daily prayer to ask representatives not to bow their heads but to look around at the others in the room dedicated to improving the lives of Arizonans. The next day, Rep. Steve Smith, R-Maricopa, offered an extra prayer in “repentance” for not having one the day before. In February, some conservative bloggers criticized state lawmakers for allowing the chairman of the Arizona chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations to offer the day’s prayer and read from the Quran. Blain cited some of those examples to argue that the daily prayer is more divisive than unifying. “It’s very alienating to Arizonans who don’t share that particular Christian perspective,” she said. “It’s really hard to be marginalized in that way by their government.”
Peacenik vets earned right to march
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Posted on November 6, 2013 1:20 pm by EJ Montini Peacenik vets earned right to march Veterans can be irritating. At least to the people running the local Veterans Day parade. And perhaps to Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton. One group of vets, the local chapter of Veterans for Peace, apparently is so annoying they’re not being allowed to march in this year’s parade in Phoenix. (Although they’ve marched numerous times before.) “Do I think it is a disgrace? Yes,” said Richard Smith, spokesperson for the Winter Soldier Chapter of Veterans for Peace. “We were hoping to appeal to Mayor Stanton’s sense of fair play but instead the city turned over control to a private group and is trying to act like an innocent bystander. We are veterans. We are just like everybody else participating.” They’re veterans, yes. But not like everyone else. Smith’s group has a mission statement that begins, “Members of Veterans for Peace use their military experience to testify to the brutal consequences of war and seek peaceful and effective alternatives…” They are peace activists. They have carried flag-draped coffins in honor of fallen comrades. They speak out on issues like suicide among veterans. Not everyone likes that. “The organization running the parade (Honoring Arizona’s Veterans) doesn’t appreciate our point of view,” Smith said. “They think that gives them the right to exclude us.” Organizers say there are other reasons. They say Veterans for Peace hasn’t complied with all the parade rules or completed the paperwork required of participants, among other things. Then again, the group has marched in the past. I’ve heard from several members of Veterans for Peace. For example, Paul Cox, who describes himself as “a Vietnam veteran, USMC grunt 1968-1972, and a proud member of Veterans for Peace.” He sent a note to parade organizers and to the city that reads in part, “Most combat veterans I know, no matter what their political persuasion or position on the current wars, tell me that every veteran longs for peace. Those of us in Veterans for Peace have come to the conclusion that longing for peace is not enough; you have to talk about it and work for it. … But HAV (Honoring Arizona’s Veterans) seems to have determined that talking about peace violates some kind of taboo… “ I also heard from retired Lt. Colonel John Henry, another member of the group, who wrote, “I served for 28 years, in combat, received five Bronze Stars, one for valor, Army Commendations, one for valor among other citations and awards. Everyone I know in the Veterans for Peace served bravely, with distinction and with honor.” A number of dignitaries are participating in the parade, including Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton. I’ve asked the mayor’s office if Stanton believes Veterans for Peace should be included in the parade and if he would participate if they are not. His office sent me this statement from the mayor: “The Phoenix Veterans Day Parade is possible due to the efforts of Honoring Arizona’s Veterans, a private nonprofit organization, and I am honored that they have asked me to serve as one of this year’s parade Grand Marshals. As the sponsor, HAV decides how the parade will be run, just like every other private organization that presents parades in our city. Were it up to me, I would have included the Veterans for Peace among the parade entries, and I was hopeful that that would happen. But that is neither my nor the City’s decision to make.” Not his decision? Not technically, I suppose. But the mayor could have taken a stronger stand. He could have told parade organizers, for instance, that if Veterans for Peace are excluded then he would not participate either. Or is the Phoenix parade only open to certain types of veterans? “I wonder sometimes if people in our country understand how many people fought in wars to preserve their right to think as individuals,” Smith said. Veterans for Peace have some nerve, don’t they? They seem to believe that serving their country gives them the right to deviate from the norm. They seem to believe that Americans in uniform have died defending our natural born inclination to disagree … on just about everything. Except maybe this: Veterans deserve respect. They deserve equal treatment. They deserve to march.
Scottsdale again votes to move forward on low-income apartment buildings
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Scottsdale rulers trade votes for dirt cheep housing
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Scottsdale again votes to move forward on low-income apartment buildings By Beth Duckett The Republic | azcentral.com Fri Nov 1, 2013 5:37 PM Scottsdale will move forward on a $637,000 project to rebuild two apartment buildings, furthering the city’s goals to provide low-income housing and help revitalize a struggling area of south Scottsdale. The Scottsdale City Council upheld a $636,966 construction contract to Habitat for Humanity of Central Arizona to reconstruct the aging fourplex apartment buildings for low-income residents at 7220 and 7224 E. Belleview St., which is south of McDowell and east of Scottsdale roads. The decision to move ahead on construction allows the city to avoid paying $825,000 to the federal government. Mayor Jim Lane and two council members have opposed Scottsdale’s involvement in the project. The rehabilitation project will cost Scottsdale more than $1million and forces the city to assume control and liability of the housing for at least five years. The neighborhood, south of SkySong, the Arizona State University Innovation Center, has been an area of concern for residents, Scottsdale police and code enforcement, according to the city. Rebuilding and occupying the city-owned properties will coincide with the efforts of nearby agencies, such as Family Promise of Greater Phoenix, a non-profit that helps families move from homelessness to self-sufficiency. “Generally speaking, when a neighborhood or homes in a neighborhood are improved, the residents feel better about their neighborhood,” said Sgt. Mark Clark, a Scottsdale police spokesman. “That translates, for police, to a neighborhood that is more willing to get involved in their community safety.” Scottsdale initially passed along the $825,000 in federal money to the non-profit Community Services of Arizona to buy the two buildings on Belleview and others nearby to develop affordable housing. The funds were from a Community Development Block Grant, a program of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. But Community Services of Arizona was unable to get financing for the project in the recession and lost the property to foreclosure. A third party bought the apartments at a public auction in February for $330,000. Later, after threat of condemnation, Scottsdale bought the apartment buildings from the owner for $275,000, according to a city report. The federal housing department had asked Scottsdale to repay $825,000 in federal grant money or show that the structures had been rebuilt andoccupied as affordable housing. The city learned later that it had another option. Lane called for a special meeting, held Friday, to reconsider an earlier vote to move ahead with rehabilitating the buildings. Rather than repaying the federal government $825,000, city officials found out that Scottsdale could spend the money locally, under a federal program, on other eligible projects for housing and housing rehabilitation, economic development and infrastructure work. Investing in city-owned public housing “is the reverse of a path that many cities have been taking in the past few years,” Lane said, adding that “there isn’t any way in the world this property is worth that kind of money.” Arizona Republic calculations indicate the city’s investment in the housing project is more than $1million, including the $275,000 Scottsdale spent to buy the properties, the $637,000 construction contract, and $150,000 the city earmarked for asbestos abatement and other work. It was unclear if the full $150,000 was spent. But a majority of council members rejected the alternative on Friday, effectively moving ahead with the rehabilitation project. “It is an objective that was established by the city some years ago for affordable housing,” Councilwoman Suzanne Klapp said. Councilman Dennis Robbins said the neighborhood “is one which needs some assistance from the city.” Scottsdale has a worthy project that meets the requirements from the federal government, said Councilwoman Linda Milhaven, who called the matter “a tangled mess.” “This course of action has an opportunity for program income and the opportunity forthe city to get repaid,” she said. Scottsdale must have the buildings occupied by late March and operate them as affordable housing for at least five years. Bill Murphy, Scottsdale’s executive director of community services, said the city could decide to sell the property after five years, after which a portion of the funds could be returned to the city. Scottsdale will pay a company to manage the properties. Leftover revenue from rent would go toward other projects eligible for community development under a federal program, according to a city report.
White House, lawmakers: no clemency for Snowden
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2) put in drugs, crime, anti-war, snowden and NSA
While none of the government criminals at the NSA who illegally violated our 4th Amendment rights will be placed in jail for their crimes the government wants to jail Edward Snowden who exposed these government crimes!!!
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White House, lawmakers: no clemency for Snowden Associated Press Mon Nov 4, 2013 7:26 AM WASHINGTON — The White House and the leaders of the intelligence committee in Congress are rejecting National Security Agency-contractor Edward Snowden's plea for clemency. "Mr. Snowden violated U.S. law," White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer said Sunday about the former systems-analyst-turned-fugitive who has temporary asylum in Russia. "He should return to the U.S. and face justice," Pfeiffer said, adding when pressed that no offers for clemency were being discussed. Snowden made the plea in a letter given to a German politician and released Friday. In his one-page typed letter, he asks for clemency for charges over allegedly leaking classified information about the NSA to the news media. "''Speaking the truth is not a crime," Snowden wrote. Snowden's revelations, including allegations that the U.S. has eavesdropped on allies including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, have led to calls by allies to cease such spying, and moves by Congress to overhaul U.S. surveillance laws and curb the agency's powers. But head of the Senate Intelligence Committee said if Snowden had been a true whistle-blower, he could have reported it to her committee privately. "That didn't happen, and now he's done this enormous disservice to our country," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. "I think the answer is no clemency." The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Rogers, called clemency for Snowden a "terrible idea." "He needs to come back and own up," said Rogers, R-Mich. "If he believes there's vulnerabilities in the systems he'd like to disclose, you don't do it by committing a crime that actually puts soldiers' lives at risk in places like Afghanistan." Rogers contended that Snowden's revelations had caused three terrorist organizations to change how they communicate. Both lawmakers addressed word that President Barack Obama did not realize Merkel's personal phone was being tapped. Rogers implied that he didn't believe the president, or European leaders who claimed they were shocked by Snowden's allegations. "I think there's going to be some best actor awards coming out of the White House this year and best supporting actor awards coming out of the European Union," he said "Some notion that ... some people just didn't have an understanding about how we collect information to protect the United States to me is wrong." Feinstein said she didn't know what the president knew, but said she intended to conduct a review of all intelligence programs to see if they were going too far. "Where allies are close, tapping private phones of theirs ... has much more political liability than probably intelligence viability," she said. Feinstein and Rogers have taken grief for defending the NSA. Feinstein's committee produced a bill last week that she says increases congressional oversight and limits some NSA powers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Privacy advocates say the measure codifies the agency's rights to scoop up millions of American's telephone records. Former NSA and CIA director Mike Hayden said it was possible Obama did not know about the alleged Merkel phone tapping. But he said it was "impossible" that Obama's top staffers were unaware. "The fact that they didn't rush in to tell the president this was going on points out what I think is a fundamental fact: This wasn't exceptional. This is what we were expected to do." Hayden's defense of the president comes days after he reportedly criticized the White House's handling of NSA revelations, when a former Democratic political operative tweeted snatches of Hayden's phone conversation, overheard on an Amtrak train. Pfeiffer appeared on ABC's "This Week," while Rogers, Feinstein and Hayden were interviewed on CBS' "Face the Nation."
Limited choice of health-care plans under ‘Obamacare’ is truly absurd
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Bend over, Obamacare is here!!!!!
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Limited choice of health-care plans under ‘Obamacare’ is truly absurd Sun Nov 3, 2013 7:28 PM Regarding the recently publicized facts about “Obamacare” that all health-care plans will be the same for all exchange enrollees except for the amount of the deductibles and the size of co-pays: This is like declaring that everybody in the U.S. has to wear size 10 shoes because it’s the “ideal size” and this will protect all U.S. citizens from “substandard sizes offered by bad-apple shoemakers.” The feds say you can choose from four colors and you can also have shoes with or without laces. Yes, the Obamacare concept is as absurd as this. — Jim Maglisceau, Scottsdale http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/free/20131103price-of-phony-morality-is-steep.html Price of phony morality is steep Sun Nov 3, 2013 7:17 PM So now I’m immoral if I don’t like government health care? A reader said, “Health care is too basic a need to be trusted to profit-oriented providers.” Let’s look at the motivation of the two groups. Profit-oriented providers find out what potential clients want. They design products to fit those needs and price them to get a share of the business they want. To be competitive, they must be efficient or they will go out of business. The successful ones make profits on which they pay taxes. The motivation of government providers is to provide what bureaucrats perceive to be the best product, and grow the bureaucracy to deliver it, with little regard for cost. The government-provided products will cost more, the users will pay more taxes, and the taxes collected from those immoral profit-oriented providers will go away. What a huge price to pay for a phony morality. — Roger Damm, Phoenix More on "Bend over, Obamacare is here" http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/free/20131107i-dont-need-anymore-insurance.html I don’t need any more insurance Thu Nov 7, 2013 6:37 PM Help, I’m being insured to death! In 1983, Arizona made automobile insurance mandatory. Now, once a month, I send money to Flo or the General or that lizard, and they send me a piece of paper I can carry in my wallet. The lease on my apartment ran out in September. The manager told me that if I wanted to sign a new lease, I would first have to buy a $100,000 personal-liability insurance policy. They even suggested a “partner agency.” (Can you say kickback?) My new policy insures that if my friend Daisy should accidentally trip over my doorstep and injure her knee, I will have the resources to send her lawyer’s kids to a good school. And along comes “Obamacare.” If I don’t sign up for medical insurance by the first of the year, they will bill me anyway. My first premium will exceed my medical bills for the last 30 years. I will make you a deal. If and when I am no longer able to pay my own medical expenses, I will go somewhere and die quietly. Snoopy has my burial expenses covered. I “daa’ble-checked.” — Stuart Wulze, Phoenix
Toronto mayor ‘considering’ rehab, lawyer says
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2) put in drugs and police
When us serfs use drugs we get prison. When the mayor snorts coke he gets cushy rehab???
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Toronto mayor ‘considering’ rehab, lawyer says Associated Press Fri Nov 8, 2013 10:44 AM TORONTO — Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s lawyer said Friday the mayor is “considering” rehab, a day after saying he was embarrassed by a new video showing him in a rambling rage, threatening to “murder” someone. Dennis Morris told The Associated Press on Friday that Ford is “considering his options,” including treatment. But he said “it’s best we hear from his lips.” Morris said Ford needs to say he what he plans to do himself because “when you go left, he goes right.” Morris said Thursday was a defining day for the mayor of Canada’s largest city. The mayor said he was “extremely, extremely inebriated” in the video and “embarrassed” by it. Ford admitted in a stunning confession Tuesday that he smoked crack in a “drunken stupor” about a year ago. Police said last week they have a video of him that appears to show him smoking crack. The mayor’s travails were taking their toll on his supporters. Canada’s finance minister became emotional when asked about Ford, a longtime friend. His mother and sister appeared on television. His mother defended him Thursday, saying she has advised him to work on his “huge weight problem” as well as his drinking problem, and watch the company he keeps. But she insisted that her son, who has acknowledged that he smoked crack about a year ago in a “drunken stupor,” is not an addict and did not need to enter rehab. Critics and allies alike renewed their claims that Ford is not fit to lead North America’s fourth largest city after the new video surfaced showing the mayor in a rambling rage. The context of the video is unknown, and it’s unclear who the target of Ford’s wrath is. The video appeared at length on the Toronto Star’s website. City councilors, meanwhile, moved ahead in efforts to force Ford out of office, although there is no clear legal path for doing so. The controversy surrounding Ford escalated last week when police announced they had obtained a different, long-sought video that appears to show Ford smoking crack. After months of evading the question, Ford admitted Tuesday to smoking crack in a stunning confession to reporters. He also admitted to a drinking problem on his Sunday radio show. Despite immense pressure, the mayor has refused to resign or take a leave of absence. The 44-year-old Ford, who is married with two school-age children, said Thursday he made mistakes and “all I can do is reassure the people. I don’t know what to say.” “It’s extremely embarrassing. The whole world is going to see it,” he said. In the blurry, shaky new video, Ford paces around, waves his arms and rolls up his sleeves as he says he’ll “make sure” the unknown person is dead. Ford tells another person in the room that he wants to “kill” someone. “Cause I’m going to kill that (expletive) guy,” Ford says. “No holds barred, brother. He dies or I die.” The Toronto Star said that it bought the video for $5,000 from “a source who filmed it from someone else’s computer.” The newspaper said it was told “the person with the computer was there in the room.” Earlier on Thursday, Morris said he was in talks with the police for Ford to view the video that appears show the mayor smoking crack. Morris said Ford would not answer questions. Police obtained that video during a drug investigation into the mayor’s friend and occasional driver, and they have said they are prohibited from releasing the video because it is evidence before the courts. Police have not charged Ford, saying the video doesn’t provide enough evidence against him. Municipal law makes no provision for the mayor’s forced removal from office unless he’s convicted and jailed for a criminal offence.
Arpaio is “Narcissist of the Year’
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2) put in police, drugs and sheriff joe
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Arpaio is “Narcissist of the Year’ Sun Nov 3, 2013 7:21 PM Have you noticed about once a month, the new kinder, gentler Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio comes out with a new initiative that gets him more face time on the news? This month, it’s surveillance drones. Last month, it was meatless meals for the inmates. I can’t wait for his next grand idea. If they ever give an award for “Narcissist of the Year,” he’ll win it hands down. — Doug Hopkins, Chandler
Obama says he’s sorry Americans losing insurance
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2) put on Emperor Obama
OK, Obama stolen your money for Obamacare and is now giving
your cash out to the special interest groups that helped him pass
this unconstitutional law.
Hey, Obama's sorry for it. But don't count on getting your money back!!!
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Obama says he’s sorry Americans losing insurance Associated Press Thu Nov 7, 2013 7:58 PM WASHINGTON — Seeking to calm a growing furor, President Barack Obama said Thursday he's sorry Americans are losing health insurance plans he repeatedly said they could keep under his signature health care law. But the president stopped short of apologizing for making those promises in the first place. "I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me," he said in an interview with NBC News. Signaling possible tweaks to the law, Obama said his administration was working to close "some of the holes and gaps" that were causing millions of Americans to get cancellation letters. Officials said he was referring to fixes the administration can make on its own, not legislative options some congressional lawmakers have proposed. "We've got to work hard to make sure that they know we hear them, and we are going to do everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough position as a consequence of this," Obama said. The president's apology comes as the White House tries to combat a cascade of troubles surrounding the rollout of the health care law often referred to as "Obamacare." The healthcare.gov website that was supposed to be an easy portal for Americans to purchase insurance has been riddled by technical issues. And with at least 3.5 million Americans receiving cancellation notices from their insurance companies, there's new scrutiny aimed at the way the president tried to sell the law to the public in the first place. In Thursday's interview, Obama took broader responsibility for the health care woes than in his previous comments about the rollout, declaring that if the law isn't working "it's my job to get it fixed." "When you've got a health care rollout that is as important to the country and to me as this is and it doesn't work like a charm, that's my fault," he said. Some Republicans, who remain fierce opponents of the law three years after it won congressional approval, appeared unmoved by Obama's mea culpa. "If the president is truly sorry for breaking his promises to the American people, he'll do more than just issue a half-hearted apology on TV," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement. In recent days, focus has intensified on the president's promise that Americans who liked their insurance coverage would be able to keep it. He repeated the line often, both as the bill was being debated in Congress and after it was signed into law. But the health care law itself made that promise almost impossible to keep. It mandated that insurance coverage must meet certain standards and that policies falling short of those standards would no longer be valid unless they were grandfathered, meaning some policies were always expected to disappear. The White House says under those guidelines, fewer than 5 percent of Americans will have to change their coverage. But in a nation of more than 300 million people, 5 percent is about 15 million people. Officials argue that those forced to change plans will end up with better coverage and that subsidies offered by the government will help offset any increased costs. "We weren't as clear as we needed to be in terms of the changes that were taking place," Obama told NBC. "And I want to do everything we can to make sure that people are finding themselves in a good position, a better position than they were before this law happened." The president's critics have accused him of misleading the public about changes that were coming under the law, which remains unpopular with many Americans. Obama dismissed those accusations, insisting the White House was operating in "good faith." He acknowledged that the administration "didn't do a good enough job in terms of how we crafted the law" but did not specify what changes the administration might make. The White House has not formally taken a position on a variety of proposals from Congress to address issues that have arisen since the insurance sign-ups launched on Oct. 1. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., has proposed requiring insurance companies to reinstate canceled plans, and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is supporting a measure to delay for a year the penalties for going without insurance. Another Democrat, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, is asking Obama to extend the open enrollment period for insurance exchanges because of the widespread problems with the website. On Wednesday, Obama met at the White House with Senate Democrats facing re-election next year to try to ease their concerns about the impact the rough health care rollout might have on their races. Many senators in the meeting asked for the enrollment period to be extended but the White House said it doesn't that that will be necessary. The six-month sign-up window ends March 31. Unless Americans have enrolled in a plan by then, they'll face a penalty. Obama said he remains confident that anyone who wants to buy insurance will be able to do so. "Keep in mind that the open enrollment period, the period during which you can buy health insurance, is available all the way until March 31," he said. "And we're only five weeks into it." Administration officials say they expect the website to be working for the vast majority of users by the end of November.
Stop targeting public-meeting prayer
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2) put in religion and AU
Kristine Reardon sounds like a Christian who switched to being an atheist or agnostic for the time it took her to write this letter.
I know Seráh Blain and she is certainly isn't against Christianity any more then I am. She, like me demands that the government honor both the Arizona and US Constitutions and keep religion out of government.
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Stop targeting public-meeting prayer Thu Nov 7, 2013 6:27 PM I am a 42-year-old independent female who also happens to have no religion and is agnostic. Regarding prayer before public meetings, I have to take exception with comments made by the Secular Coalition for Arizona and Seráh Blain in Sunday’s article “Prayer before public meetings divisive topic among Arizonans” (Valley & State). It appears to me that they aren’t against prayer, per se; they are against Christianity. It’s been made clear there are guest speakers from diverse religious perspectives giving the prayer before meetings, but the fact is, the majority of those in office, who have a religion, lean Christian. Therefore, the prayers will lean that way, too. I do not share that particular Christian perspective, yet I manage to not feel alienated in the least, nor do I feel marginalized. Instead of focusing so much faux concern on people exercising their First Amendment rights, how about focusing on things that matter and need the attention: jobs, immigration reform, taxes, etc. Prayer is a non-issue. Call it vocal meditation if it makes you feel better. — Kristine Reardon, Goodyear
Audit: Schools spent in excess
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2) put in schools
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Audit: Schools spent in excess By Yvonne Wingett Sanchez The Republic | azcentral.com Thu Nov 7, 2013 11:17 PM Officials with the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind improperly charged nearly $10,000 in excessive lodging, transportation, meals and other expenses over more than two years. Most of the charges were made by Superintendent Robert Hill, between July 1, 2010 and March 31, a new state audit concluded. Of the agency’s 76 payments for Hill’s travel, auditors identified 73 payments had inadequate documentation to verify it complied with state policies. Hill was placed on leave in late October, according to documents on the schools’ website. He was unavailable for comment, a school employee told The Arizona Republic. The Office of the Auditor General recommended the schools research past charges “and seek legal counsel to help identify and collect any required reimbursements.” Auditors also suggested schools officials improve travel planning, train employees on state policies and have expenses approved by an official with expertise on the policies. In a letter Tuesday to Auditor General Debra Davenport, schools Assistant Superintendent William Koehler said he agreed with the findings. Koehler did not return a call seeking comment. The Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind is a state agency overseen by a board of directors appointed by the Governor’s Office. The audit comes during a tumultuous time for the agency, which serves about 2,200 students from preschool to high school and has campuses in Phoenix and Tuscon, as well as other programs. Hill has faced accusations of sexual harassment, disability discrimination, wrongful termination and retaliation. The issues have in recent months thrown the school system into disarray, drawing in the governing board, several state agencies and Gov. Jan Brewer. Auditors found $4,023 in excessive lodging costs, including one instance in which Hill stayed an extra night in Hawaii and spent another night in Phoenix upon returning from the islands at an additional cost to the schools of $277. The lodging was tied to Hill’s attendance at the Conference of Educational Administrators of Schools and Programs for the Deaf but auditors determined a “legitimate state business purpose” for the additional travel days in Hawaii and Phoenix was not well documented and violated state travel policy. The audit found the schools “often” paid for lodging in excess of maximum daily rates without documenting legitimate reasons for doing so. The schools also paid for $3,825 in “unnecessary transportation costs” that violated state policy. Auditors found the school “often paid for car rentals and taxi fares” even though the hotel or conference offered free shuttles or cheaper transportation to and from the airport, hotel and conference center. In one instance, Hill attended a conference in Austin and was reimbursed $315 for renting a car and $60 for parking fees “when the conference center, hotel and restaurants were within easy walking distance from one another,” the report said. Auditors also found the schools paid extra money to travel to restaurants even though meals were available at the hotel or conference center. And the schools should not have paid for some of those meals, the report concluded. Auditors found $755 in ineligible meals between July 1, 2010, and March 31 of this year. The schools often picked up meal costs when a conference or hotel included meals at no additional charge. Auditors also found $1,023 in “other” travel costs that violated the state’s travel policy. The schools paid $550 in late registration fees for one conference, for example, and reimbursed employees for fuel purchases even through the state’s fuel card was available. Brewer’s spokesman, Andrew Wilder, said the governor hopes all students have the resources to graduate with skills to succeed. “Achieving that requires school resources to be spent appropriately,” Wilder wrote in an e-mail. “Consequently, we share the concern over excessive and non-compliant costs to the school and we support efforts to seek reimbursement.”
New rule requires equal treatment for mental illness
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2) put on a page by it's self
Whoppie!!! With Obamacare I will get free treatment for my mental illness!!!! I wonder if it's mandatory!!!!!
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New rule requires equal treatment for mental illness USA Today Fri Nov 8, 2013 10:54 AM WASHINGTON — Five years after the passage of a groundbreaking law establishing equality between mental health care and other medical treatments, the Obama administration announced its final rule Friday defining how that treatment must be provided. The rule requires insurers to charge similar co-payments for mental health treatment as they would for physical ailments and also makes clear deductible and visit limits are generally not more restrictive for mental health and substance abuse care. "This final rule breaks down barriers that stand in the way of treatment and recovery services for millions of Americans," said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. "Building on these rules, the Affordable Care Act is expanding mental health and substance use disorder benefits and parity protections to 62 million Americans. This historic expansion will help make treatment more affordable and accessible." HHS says the rule also includes several other consumer protections, including ensuring parity is applied to care received in residential treatment and intensive outpatient settings, and clarifying that parity applies to all health care plan standards, including geographic limits and facility-type limits. About 26% of Americans 18 and older have a diagnosable mental disorder every year, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. "The rule will really dictate how parity gets implemented," said former representative Patrick Kennedy, who worked with his father, late senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, on the Mental Health Parity Act. "We need to, most importantly, have the attitudes in the right places that this is something that's really going to revolutionize care." In 2008, Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed into law the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Act, which demands that mental illnesses be treated the same as other illnesses. Those who have cancer are not denied care after 10 visits if they are not healthy; those with depression should also not be denied care if they are not healthy. The announcement came as Sebelius attended a mental health conference at the Carter Center in Atlanta. Former first lady Rosalynn Carter has long been a proponent of mental health parity and was heavily involved in lobbying for the law. The rule change announcement was made jointly by HHS and the Treasury Department. "Americans deserve access to coverage for mental health and substance use disorders that is on par with medical and surgical care," said Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. "These rules mark an important step in ending the disparities that exist in insurance plans, and will provide families nationwide with critical coverage and protections that fulfill their health needs." Insurers, including the insurance industry trade group America's Health Insurance Plans, have argued that it's too difficult to compare physical illnesses to psychological illnesses in an apples-to-apples way, and they have insisted upon evidence-based guidelines. Mental health experts say they can do that. The industry also has said the rules could cause premiums to go up. USA TODAY reported Wednesday that there may be an influx of young people diagnosed with mental health issues as they finally gain access to treatment. However, Kennedy and other mental health experts said, catching those illnesses early may lead to lower costs in the long-term. Kennedy, who suffers from mental illness, said he expects that the law will help employers save money, because workers will be more productive, and that young people dealing with depression or substance-abuse disorders may get the help they need to allow them to make them productive early-life career decisions. Also, Kennedy said, improved mental health care will allow mentally ill people with other chronic issues to take better care of themselves. "I don't think my liberal mind and bleeding heart will be the reason that this gets implemented," Kennedy told USA TODAY. "I believe it will be economics." But he said everyone in the health system will need to change behaviors to make parity work. Primary-care physicians must ask questions to gain knowledge about a person's mental health, and then they must understand how to get that person further help. Mental health providers may need to start taking insurance to ensure people have access to care. And insurers will need to be transparent about mental health coverage. "Doctors check cholesterol and blood pressure, but the notion that in this day and age, they ignore a check-up from the neck up that could make all the difference in all the rest of our health is hard to believe," Kennedy said. "We're still stuck in a time warp."
1) put in police 2) link to main page Don't these pigs have any real criminals to hunt down??? http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/11/07/missouri-police-stun-stepdad-trying-to-save-son-from-fire-1637542212/ Missouri man trying to save stepson from fire hit with stun gun by police Published November 07, 2013 FoxNews.com The family of a 3-year-old killed in a northern Missouri house fire early Oct. 31 says it is outraged after police used a stun gun to subdue the boy's stepfather as he tried to run back into the burning house to rescue the boy. Riley Miller, the boy, died in the fire at the home in the town of Louisiana. A city police officer fired his stun gun at the stepfather, Ryan Miller, as he tried to re-enter the burning home. Authorities at the scene reportedly determined it was too dangerous to make an attempt to save the boy. Lori Miller, the boy's grandmother, says she witnessed two officers use the stun gun three times, twice after Ryan Miller had been handcuffed. Miller suffered chest burns and was later released from the city jail without being charged. City Administrator Bob Jenne called the police response a "judgment call.” A firefighter tried unsuccessfully to enter the home and it was deemed too hot for the stepfather to enter. KSDK.com reports that Ryan Miller, who was dressed in pajamas at the time, pulled his shirt over his head and tried to kick in the front door. Jenne told the station police had no choice but to Taser the stepfather. Connecttristates.com reports that the town is expecting a lawsuit from the family. "He was my best friend," Ryan Miller told The Louisiana Press-Journal. "He was everybody's best friend. If you would have met him, you would have loved him. He was the joy of my life." The scene was intense. When firefighters arrived, flames were shooting out of the two-story house. The Press-Journal reports that the boy's mother and stepfather were able to exit the backdoor of the house after an unsuccessful attempt to get to the boy sleeping in another room. In all, it reportedly took firefighters eight hours to put out the fire. Investigators do not suspect any foul play.
1) link to main page 2) put in police and drugs Judge gets 18 months for heroin & weapons charges!!! More of the old "Do as I say, not as I do" from our government masters!!!! http://www.bnd.com/2013/11/08/2891572/former-judge-expected-to-change.html Cook to plead guilty to heroin and weapon charges Former judge Cook agrees to do 18 months for heroin, weapons charges Published: November 8, 2013 Updated By BETH HUNDSDORFER — News-Democrat EAST ST. LOUIS — Former St. Clair County Circuit Judge Mike Cook stood before another judge on Friday and admitted he used heroin and possessed guns while using the drug. "I knowingly and unlawfully possessed heroin," Cook told U.S. District Judge Joe McDade, who accepted Cook's guilty plea. In most ways it was a routine guilty plea in federal court. But at one point, McDade asked Cook if he knew what a jury trial was. Cook, 43, was elected as a St. Clair County circuit judge in November 2011. He presided over 24 jury trials. "Yes, your Honor," Cook responded. Cook entered into a plea agreement with federal prosecutors. In exchange for Cook's guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to recommend an 18-month prison sentence for the former judge. Cook was told repeatedly that McDade did not have to accept the terms of the agreement and that McDade could impose a longer or shorter prison term. McDade reserved his acceptance of the plea agreement until he reviewed a report by the U.S. probation office into Cook's history. Even if McDade decided not to accept the terms of the plea agreement at Cook's sentencing hearing on Jan. 17, Cook is barred from withdrawing his guilty plea. In addition to pleading guilty to the weapons and drug charges, Cook agreed to surrender guns and ammunition. The list of 45 firearms that must be forfeit included 16 rifles, 17 shotguns and 12 handguns. One rifle is a .50-caliber AR50A1 sniper rifle with an accurate range of 1,000 yards and a cost of about $3,500. Also included were hundreds of rounds of ammunition, holsters and telescopic rifle and shotgun sights. Cook didn't have a gun on him or with him when he was arrested, his lawyers have said. Federal sentencing guidelines are used by federal judges to determine appropriate sentencing in criminal cases. The guidelines were once mandatory but are used by judges in an advisory capacity. Those guidelines found Cook was eligible for probation, or a sentence of up to six months and a fine of $1,000 to $5,000. Cook's father, Bruce Cook, a prominent plaintiff's attorney and Democratic Party supporter, attended the hearing with other Cook family members. Cook stood at a podium before McDade's bench and answered his questions with "Your Honor." Cook, his family and attorney left the hearing with his attorney Thomas Q. Keefe declining to comment. During the hearing, more details were made public about the night Cook was arrested outside a house on North 38th Street in Belleville where his friend, former client and drug dealer Sean McGilvery stayed. Federal agents were at the house with a search warrant when Cook was there to pick up heroin. "Officers executing the search warrant saw (Cook) drop something to the ground when they approached," the court document stated. The agents later discovered Cook dropped a user amount of heroin or less than a gram. McGilvery told federal agents that Cook purchased heroin from him on a nearly daily basis. McGilvery, 34, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute heroin. He is expected to be sentenced to 10 years in prison. McGilvery's co-conspirators, Deborah Perkins, and her son, Douglas Oliver, also pleaded guilty. Perkins and Oliver are scheduled to be sentenced in December. McGilvery is scheduled to be sentenced in January. On Wednesday, former St. Clair County probation officer James Fogarty, 46, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute cocaine. Fogarty told FBI agent Joe Murphy that he sold Cook and Joe Christ, a new associate judge and longtime prosecutor, an eighth of an ounce of cocaine days before Christ died around March 10 from cocaine toxicity at Cook's Pike County hunting cabin. The judges paid $280 for the coke. U.S. District Judge Michael Reagan told Fogarty that he would not accept a plea bargain that would send Fogarty to prison for five years if it could be shown that the eight ball of cocaine sold to the judges led to Christ's death. U.S. Attorney Steve Wigginton told reporters after Cook's hearing on Friday that the federal investigation has already yielded nine defendants, Fogarty, Perkins, Oliver, Cook, McGilvery, Augustus Stacker, Joe L. Mitchell, who are charged with selling cocaine to Fogarty. Eric Beckley and Harold Gardner are accused of selling heroin for Perkins and Oliver. Gardner is Perkins' son, Wigginton said. "The investigation is ongoing, but it is becoming narrower and narrower," Wigginton said. After his arrest on May 22, Cook spent a night in jail, then was released so he could get drug treatment at a private Minnesota facility. On Friday, McDade allowed Cook to remain on bond until his sentencing on Jan. 17.
1) link to main page 2) put in schools Public schools or public prisons??? Sadly our government schools frequently seem more concerned about micro-managing the lives of our children then educating them. http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/05/3733716/in-broward-student-arrests-down.html In Broward, student arrests down under new strategy By Michael Vasquez mrvasquez@MiamiHerald.com Only a couple of years ago, Broward’s school district led the state in the number of school-based arrests. The district’s 1,062 arrests in the 2011-2012 school year were nearly double the number in Miami-Dade, even though Broward has considerably fewer students. These days, however, Broward is not only reducing student arrests, but has also created a groundbreaking community partnership dedicated to keeping kids out of the criminal justice system altogether. On Tuesday — by unanimous vote — Broward School Board members signed off on a far-reaching collaborative agreement that seeks to remake how student discipline is handled. Students will no longer be arrested for non-violent misdemeanor offenses that occur on school grounds — instead, they will receive counseling and mentoring services under a new program known as PROMISE. The acronym stands for Preventing Recidivism through Opportunities, Mentoring, Interventions, Support and Education. The goal is to give misbehaving students a second chance — and spare them the lifelong stigma that comes with a criminal record. Broward in the past has been criticized for arresting students for minor infractions that aren’t even criminal in nature, such as throwing spitballs. The new rules should eliminate those controversial arrests. Instead of being pushed out of school through lengthy suspensions or expulsions, students who cause trouble will be transferred to alternative schools where class work will be combined with counseling and other intervention-type programs. The community partners include the Broward State Attorney’s office, Broward Sheriff Scott Israel and the local and state chapters of the NAACP. Under Broward’s previous policies, black students were being disproportionately suspended, expelled and arrested. “In this country we’ve got two million people in prison, more than any other western country,” Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said. “And it starts in our public school system.” Broward’s revamped discipline rules started in August. So far, district officials say student arrests have dropped by about 40 percent, and suspensions are down by roughly 66 percent. School Board member Robin Bartleman praised the district’s new philosophy as a “brave” step that will benefit students. Bartleman spent the past few years pushing for Broward to change its approach. “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results,” Bartleman said. “Well, we’re going to get different results, and we’re going to save lives.” Broward is not alone in rethinking how to best handle student discipline. Miami-Dade’s school district has increasingly incorporated psychologists and social workers into the disciplinary process, in hopes of making student arrests less common. Similar initiatives are sprouting up across the country. The ceremonial signing of Broward’s community agreement triggered cheers and standing ovations Tuesday — and even tears of gratitude. “I woke up very early, trying to make sure that I got here just to say thank you,” school district activist Ernestine Price told board members, choking up. “I just thank you for standing there for our children.”
1) link to main page 2) put in drugs, police, snowden, NSA, anti-war F*ck the 4th Amendment, we gotta protect you from imaginary enemies of America!!! Or as H. L. Mencken said: "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." H. L. Mencken http://techland.time.com/2013/11/04/intel-agency-lawyers-urge-retention-of-secret-data/ Intel Agency Lawyers Urge Retention of Secret Data Lawyers claim the government needs to keep its trove of innocent Americans' telephone records. By AP / Stephen Braun Nov. 04, 2013 WASHINGTON (AP) — Senior national security lawyers on Monday told an independent oversight board examining U.S. surveillance programs that the government needs to keep its trove of innocent Americans’ telephone records despite growing efforts in Congress to shut down the program. The lawyers also told the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board during a hearing that a secret overseas Internet data-gathering program exposed last week was not an attempt to evade scrutiny by a federal intelligence court that supervises such operations. Top officials of Google and Yahoo have criticized the program, in which the National Security Agency reportedly tapped into fiber optic cables that funnel the data overseas. The government did not dispute that it tapped the cables overseas for Internet traffic but said it wasn’t doing so to avoid U.S. legal restrictions. If Congress were to shut down the government’s collection of Americans’ phone records every day, which it has been secretly doing since 2006, “we wouldn’t be able to see the patterns that the NSA’s programs provide us,” said Patrick Kelley, acting general counsel of the FBI. Kelley added that the FBI would not be able to weed out significant phone data if it did not have the NSA’s massive data bank to tap into, and would lose valuable time if it had to instead seek the data from individual phone companies. The NSA’s general counsel, Rajesh De, declined to comment about published details describing the U.S. tapping into fiber optic cables to extract Internet data about customers of Google and Yahoo without the knowledge of the technology companies. But De insisted that the program was not an attempt to avoid the supervision of the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court. “That is simply inaccurate,” De said. He said news accounts about the program contained inaccuracies but didn’t say what they were. Eric Schmidt, Google’s chairman, told CNN he was shocked by the latest revelations. Schmidt described the operation as “perhaps a violation of law but certainly a violation of mission.” He added that it was “clearly an overstep.” Schmidt once famously told an interviewer, “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” Surveillance efforts aimed at the leaders of Germany and other European governments as well as thousands of their citizens have also roiled relations between the U.S. and its allies. The five members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board are appointed by President Barack Obama but report to Congress. The board has set no deadline but has been meeting for months with national security officials to scrutinize the surveillance programs and their impact on civil liberties. In his comments, Re noted that former NSA contract employee Edward Snowden, who leaked information behind many recent disclosures, had no access to the surveillance agency’s raw metadata collected both from Americans and foreign phone and Internet users. “We don’t have any evidence that makes us believe Snowden had access to raw material,” Re said. He said such material is so tightly guarded that only 22 federal officials are authorized to allow NSA employees to query the metadata in counter-terrorism searches. But recent FISA court documents released by the NSA and the court have shown that despite those safeguards, the surveillance agency repeatedly allowed unsanctioned access to that material until the court ordered tightened procedures.
1) link to main page Socialist California skeptical of Obamacare??? http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-poll-healthcare-20131110,0,4053047,full.story#axzz2kAeWi5ur Californians have their doubts about healthcare law By Chad Terhune November 9, 2013, 8:03 a.m. Californians are more supportive of President Obama's healthcare law than the country at large, but they still worry it will raise healthcare costs and hurt the economy, a new poll of registered voters shows. Statewide, 50% said they backed the Affordable Care Act and 42% opposed it, according to the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll. That runs counter to national polls that show more people disapprove of Obamacare than support it. Latinos, who make up about half of California's uninsured population, were even more enthusiastic, supporting the healthcare law by a 2-1 margin. Forty-nine percent of whites were opposed, with 44% in favor. Predictably, 77% of Democrats backed the president's healthcare plan, whereas 80% of Republicans surveyed said they were against it. Independents were more evenly split. Cutting across partisan and racial lines, Californians as a whole were skeptical that the Affordable Care Act would live up to its name. Sixty-five percent of respondents said people wouldn't be able to afford the health insurance they'll be required to have under the law's individual mandate. Forty percent think the program will have a negative effect on what they pay for coverage, compared with 21% who expect a positive outcome. According to the survey, 46% of registered voters expect the Affordable Care Act to be a drag on the overall economy and 34% see an economic boost. Nearly 60% think the law's new requirements will raise healthcare costs and keep businesses from hiring more workers. The poll was taken just as the national healthcare rollout was coming under intense criticism in Congress, even from some Democrats. Obama has apologized for the malfunctioning healthcare.gov enrollment website and for millions of Americans receiving cancellation notices because their current coverage doesn't meet all the requirements of the healthcare law. Those consumers have directed much of their anger at Obama's repeated pledge that Americans could keep their existing insurance if they liked it. California is running its own insurance exchange, as are 13 other states, and its online enrollment hasn't experienced nearly as many problems as the federal marketplace for 36 states. But the sticker shock from higher premiums and concerns about losing access to preferred doctors and hospitals have taken a toll. "California has had a pretty good rollout on its exchange compared to the national one, but people here are still feeling the negative repercussions of higher costs and lost policies," said David Kanevsky of American Viewpoint, the Republican firm that helped conduct the poll for the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and The Times. The poll was conducted jointly by American Viewpoint and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, a Democratic polling firm in Washington. They surveyed 1,503 registered state voters by telephone Oct. 30-Nov. 5. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, and larger for subgroups. For Obama and his signature law, much depends on Californians embracing the changes. California wants to enroll more than 2 million people by the end of next year in subsidized health insurance or an expansion of Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program for the poor. Poll respondents said they were upbeat about the law's potential to help many of the state's 7 million uninsured. Sixty-five percent expect there will be fewer people without coverage and 67% think patients will get more access to checkups and other preventive care. "Fundamentally, Californians are viewing the Affordable Care Act as a mixed bag," said Drew Lieberman of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner. "They harbor real concerns about the potential negative impact on costs and the economy." Diana Sackett, 61, a software engineer in Pleasanton, has many of those worries even though she strongly supports the president's healthcare plan. She has battled cancer in the past and knows the value of quality health coverage. "In an advanced country like ours, everyone should be able to get the healthcare they need," Sackett said. But she isn't optimistic that the healthcare law will stem the rising costs of medical care and fears it may even get worse with an influx of newly insured patients. "I'm concerned it won't really address the cost problems," said Sackett, who pays for health insurance through her employer. "I think healthcare is still going to be pretty expensive." According to the poll, the changes are being implemented at a time when voters are generally satisfied with their own healthcare. Ninety percent of respondents said they were happy with the quality of their medical care and access to their doctors. The state's health insurance exchange, Covered California, also faces deep skepticism among its core audience. Even uninsured Californians, who stand to benefit the most from the changes, were split. Forty-eight percent favored the law while 45% were against. Individuals who now purchase their own policies were more negative. Forty-nine percent were opposed to the law and 44% said they were in favor. Kathryn Davis, 29, an unemployed lab technician in San Diego, already had her doubts about Obamacare. Then she received a cancellation notice from her insurer, joining an estimated 1 million Californians who have received similar termination letters in recent weeks. "It makes me angry I will be forced to purchase a new policy I don't want, and fined if I don't," she said. Davis said she paid $130 a month for a Blue Shield of California policy. On the state exchange, she saw a mid-level Silver plan from Blue Shield that would cost her $96 a month thanks to a federal subsidy of $187 a month based on her income. Her annual deductible would decrease, and the coverage would be more comprehensive, including benefits such as maternity care. Even though it may be a better deal for her, Davis said she feared government spending on insurance subsidies would trigger huge tax increases. California exchange officials say they are ramping up their marketing campaign this month to better explain the new insurance options and address some of the criticisms. People must enroll by Dec. 15 if they want coverage Jan. 1. Open enrollment in the exchange runs through March 31. In the poll, 42% of respondents said they still didn't have enough information about the healthcare law. Statewide, 50% of Latinos said they didn't know enough about the overhaul. Federico del Castillo, a 51-year-old Bellflower resident, said he couldn't afford health insurance for himself while he searched for a new job in sales. His wife has coverage through her job, and his three young daughters are enrolled in a low-cost government program for children. He said he'd heard about all the glitches with Obamacare, but he hoped it would make coverage affordable for him. He hears a lot of conflicting information about the program from neighbors and friends at church. "Everyone is so confused," Del Castillo said. "I don't think most people are getting all the information they need." chad.terhune@latimes.com Twitter: @chadterhune
1) link to main page 2) put in police and drugs You expect a fair trail??? Don't make me laugh!!! The prosecutor is gonna railroad you like everybody else he railroaded!!!! http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-texas-judge-20131109,0,6232637.story#axzz2kAfudueg Ex-prosecutor punished for withholding evidence in murder case By Molly Hennessy-Fiske November 8, 2013, 5:32 p.m. HOUSTON — A former Texas judge and prosecutor agreed to serve nine days in jail and surrender his law license Friday for withholding evidence in his prosecution of a man who was exonerated in 2011 after serving 25 years in prison for his wife's murder. The hearing took place at the same courthouse north of Austin where Ken Anderson once heard cases as a district court judge. Anderson agreed not to contest a judge's criminal contempt order after he was arrested in April on a felony charge of tampering with evidence, a misdemeanor charge of tampering with a government record, and the contempt finding that as a prosecutor he lied to a judge during a pretrial hearing for Michael Morton, who was eventually convicted and sentenced to life in prison. "This is a big day for a lot of reasons. We have never heard of any prosecutor being punished for deliberately refusing to turn over exculpatory evidence," said Barry Scheck, one of Morton's attorneys and a founder of the Innocence Project in New York. Prosecutors are granted immunity and rarely prosecuted for alleged misconduct, including withholding exculpatory evidence favorable to the defense. The case against Anderson was spearheaded by attorneys for Morton, who was freed after DNA tests implicated another man in the murder of Morton's wife, Christine, who was found beaten to death in the bedroom of their Williamson County home in 1986. Mark Norwood was convicted of the murder in March and received a life sentence. Morton was in court Friday and celebrated after the hearing. "I said the only thing that I want, as a baseline, is Ken Anderson to be off the bench and no longer practicing law — and both of those things have happened, and more," Morton said. As part of Friday's agreement, the judge dismissed the two charges against Anderson, who agreed to complete 500 hours of community service and pay a $500 fine. He was ordered to surrender by Dec. 2. Anderson, the district attorney for 16 years in Williamson County before he became a judge in 2002, surrendered his law license to settle a related civil suit filed by the State Bar of Texas, accusing him of professional misconduct. His attorney said after the hearing that Anderson had no comment. Morton's attorneys, including a team from the Innocence Project, argued that Anderson withheld two key pieces of evidence during Morton's trial: first, a police interview with Morton's mother-in-law, who said his 3-year-old son witnessed the murder and said his father was not home during the killing; and second, a police report saying the driver of a green van had parked and walked behind the Morton house before the murder. Under a unique Texas law, a "court of inquiry" into Anderson's handling of the case was convened before a Fort Worth judge in February for five days of testimony from witnesses including Anderson, Morton, lawyers from both sides and the jury foreman. Two months later, the judge found probable cause that Anderson violated two anti-tampering laws by intentionally hiding the evidence, and that he committed criminal contempt of court by lying to Morton's trial judge. Scheck said Williamson County Dist. Atty. Jana Duty agreed to an independent audit of cases Anderson handled as district attorney, as well as some cases handled by his successor, John Bradley, in which Bradley refused requests for post-conviction DNA testing (as he did in the Morton case). The audit will be conducted by the Innocence Project, the Innocence Project of Texas and the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Assn. Morton's attorneys said they expected the impact of Anderson's case and the audit to be far-reaching. "Today's historic precedent demonstrates that when a judge orders a prosecutor to look in his file and disclose exculpatory evidence, deliberate failure to do so is punishable by contempt," Scheck said. "Every state and federal judge can issue such an order tomorrow and deter those few prosecutors who would otherwise deliberately violate their ethical and legal duties." Others who represent the wrongfully convicted cheered Anderson's agreement. "This agreement is going to focus the attention of Texas prosecutors without question," said Kathryn Kase, executive director of Texas Defender Service, a nonprofit that trains and assists lawyers who represent death row inmates. "If prosecutors have taken any one message away from that focus, it is that the public is unwilling to support a justice system where the innocent don't get a fair shake in the courtroom." Friday's outcome was not a surprise to Texas prosecutors, many of whom followed the Morton case and have since worked to improve the state's judicial system, said Robert Kepple, executive director of the Texas District & County Attorneys Assn. Kepple noted that Texas prosecutors worked with state lawmakers to help pass the Michael Morton Act, designed to ensure that prosecutors share evidence with defense attorneys and prevent wrongful convictions. (Morton was keynote speaker at the group's annual conference in September.) Kepple expressed concern, however, that prosecutors' immunity remain intact, calling it "essential." "I can't see how the closing of this final chapter of the Morton/Anderson saga changes that," he said. "If anything, it militates against touching immunity. Anderson is being punished in a number of ways, and if the Innocence Project people are right, his case will serve as a lesson to prosecutors in the future." molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com
1) link to main page 2) put in police and drugs Jack the taxes high enough and people will smuggle tobacco just like they do drugs. The problem isn't the consumers, but the greedy crooked politicians who want to steal every dime out of our pockets so they can give our money to themselves and the special interest groups that helped them get elected!!! This should be a warning to people that are passing petitions to legalize marijuana. You have to put in the proposed law that the politicians can't tax marijuana like they tax booze and cigarettes. I am sure all of you in Arizona remember Kyrsten Sinema's attempt to slap a 300 percent tax on medical marijuana in Arizona. http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Next-tobacco-war-battlefield-Cigarette-smuggling-4969317.php Next tobacco war battlefield: Cigarette smuggling Melody Gutierrez Updated 10:45 pm, Friday, November 8, 2013 Sacramento -- Interest groups long divided over the benefits of increasing the tobacco tax in California are digging in for another fight, with proponents submitting a proposal for a ballot measure and opponents signaling how they will wage the next cigarette war. What can voters expect? A lot of talk about cigarette smuggling. The black market for cigarette trafficking in the United States surfaced, in part, as a result of varying tax rates among states. Smugglers purchase large quantities of tobacco products in states with low tax rates and resell them in states with higher taxes for a profit, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which investigates such cases. That's a costly problem in California, where the average cost of a pack of cigarettes is $5.44, which includes an 87-cent state tobacco tax, a $1.01 federal tobacco tax and a 39-cent state sales tax. The state loses an estimated $182 million in revenue from cigarette smuggling each year, according to the State Board of Equalization, which collects the tobacco tax and investigates smuggling. Discord over take hike The effects of increasing the tobacco tax by $2 per pack, as is being proposed in California, are highly disputed. According to a study released last month by an affiliate group of the California Chamber of Commerce, a $2 increase would double smuggling rates in the state to almost 40 percent of cigarettes consumed. The group, California Foundation for Commerce and Education, estimated that the Bay Area alone would lose $4.7 million in local sales tax revenue and 2,900 retail jobs if cigarette smuggling increased. Proponents of the tax dismiss the warnings as propaganda. "These are the same lies as before that never came true," said Mike Roth, a spokesman for the cigarette tax ballot proposal, which was submitted last month and is pending in the attorney general's office. If approved, the measure would need 504,000 signatures to qualify for the 2014 ballot. Roth said the proposal would fund new cancer research and discourage current and future smokers from the habit. Tax unchanged since 1998 Although there have been numerous efforts to increase California's tobacco tax, the rate has not changed since 1998. The national average for a state cigarette tax is $1.53. New York leads the country with a $4.35-per-pack tobacco tax. ATF estimates that smugglers could net up to $23,000 on a carload of 10 cases of cigarettes, particularly on the East Coast where neighboring states have drastically different tobacco taxes. The revenue is sometimes used to fund other criminal activities, the ATF wrote in a report on cigarette smuggling this year. "That's part of what happens when you start increasing taxes," said state Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar (Los Angeles County). "There are people who believe a tax solves all problems. It creates more problems than it solves." The current ballot proposal mirrors legislative efforts this year by state Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, who sought to add a $2-per-pack tobacco tax for medical research. The bill was put on hold in the Senate, but the lawmaker intends to take it up again when the Legislature reconvenes in January. Like de Leon's bill, the ballot proposal has support from the California Medical Association, Service Employees International Union, American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association in California. Marsha Ramos, chairwoman of the board of directors for the American Lung Association in California, said the current ballot proposal keeps "all options open" while de Leon's legislation is pending in the Senate.
1) link to main page More on "Bend over, Obamacare is here"!!! http://www.azcentral.com/news/arizona/articles/20131101affordable-health-care-high-deductible -plans.html Rush is on to get health care now, with high-deductible plans looming in 2014 By Ken Alltucker The Republic | azcentral.com Sun Nov 10, 2013 12:47 AM When Cynthia Edson learned how much her husband’s employer-provided health- insurance plan would change in 2014, she compiled a to-do list. Get a skin-cancer check and an appointment with a gynecologist. Renew and fill the family’s prescriptions. Schedule a blood draw for her husband and youngest daughter. Edson sprang to action because her husband’s employer drastically changed its health-insurance plan for 2014. Citing the nation’s new health-care law, the company switched to a high-deductible plan that won’t pay for medical care until the family spends $4,000 out of pocket. So, like many others in Arizona and elsewhere, Edson is cramming in all of the health care she can to take advantage of her more generous plan that ends Dec. 31. “We’re trying to get everything we can get done right now,” said Edson, of Chandler. “We’re not the only ones feeling this pressure. We’re competing with everyone else who is doing the same thing.” Doctors, insurers and health-care analysts say the rush to use medical benefits before the year ends is a real phenomenon. Consumers try to get all of the health care they need before newer, less- generous plans start. Or they schedule non- emergency “elective” procedures toward the end of the year, after they’ve met deductibles that require them to spend $1,000 or more before coverage kicks in. Such high-deductible plans are a popular choice for employers seeking to share costs with employees. About two out of five workers who received health insurance through an employer had a deductible of at least $1,000 this year, according to an annual Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research & Educational Trust survey of more than 2,000 large and small employers. National surveys suggest that corporations have been shifting health-care costs to employees for years by raising premiums, co-payments or deductibles. The Kaiser poll found that the cost of the typical plan rose 80 percent over the past decade, but the worker’s contribution increased 89 percent over that same time period. Still, employers paid an average of $11,786 per family plan in 2013, while the worker’s share was $4,565. University of Arizona College of Public Health professor Daniel Derksen said such costs become a competitive issue for businesses, and some companies may see the health-care-reform law as a strategy to offset rising costs for health insurance. “It’s always nice to have a villain to blame,” Derksen said. “These days, it’s easy to blame ‘Obamacare.’ ” Proponents of the Affordable Care Act insist that the law should not trigger major changes to employer- provided health insurance, but some companies have cited the law as a catalyst for converting to high-deductible plans, charging more for coverage, or dropping coverage for part-time workers. United Parcel Service cited the law as one reason it is eliminating health insurance for about 15,000 spouses who have coverage options elsewhere. Retailers Home Depot and Trader Joe’s both dropped coverage for part-time workers, sending those employees to government-run marketplaces. The health-care law requires companies with 50 or more employees to provide affordable health insurance or pay a penalty. The mandate is for employees who work at least 30 hours per week, and it does not take effect until Jan. 1, 2015. But next year, employers must pay a “reinsurance” fee that will be used to stabilize rates in the new online marketplaces, and many employers are citing that fee as a factor for charging more, covering less or a combination of both. A national survey by Aon Hewitt suggests that the Affordable Care Act’s taxes and fees add 1 to 2 percent in direct costs to employers. Phoenix Children’s Hospital said in a letter to employees that it must pay a $409,000 insurance fee under the health-care law. Such fees prompted the hospital to scale back less-expensive plans and raise health-insurance premiums for many employees. Still, the Phoenix hospital offers employees a range of choices. Many other companies are considering giving employees just one option for health insurance. The Aon Hewitt survey found that 44 percent of companies are considering offering workers just one health-insurance plan — a high-deductible plan — rather than offer a high-deductible plan plus a more traditional plan that covers 70 to 80 percent of medical costs. Gannett Co., Inc., which owns Republic Media, the parent company of The Arizona Republic, is among the companies that will offer only a high-deductible insurance plan. Health-insurance executives describe high- deductible plans as “consumer-driven” because they make employees responsible for a larger share of their health-care costs. These plans are often coupled with health savings accounts, which allow employees to put away pretax money that can later be spent on medical care. Such plans theoretically encourage consumers to make smarter choices and skip care that isn’t necessary. “That is what a consumer plan is designed to do — it pushes more accountability to employees,” said Denise Jewell, a principal with Mercer, a benefits-consulting firm with an office in Phoenix. Other experts say that while the Affordable Care Act’s direct expenses are limited, the law gives companies an excuse to scrutinize how much they are spending and make changes. “Small and large businesses are going to look at this as an opportunity to really think about health-insurance benefits they are offering to employees,” said Derksen, the University of Arizona professor. “Business decisions will be made about what is the best value. Are they really getting the value they expect with the amount they are paying?” Family plan Edson’s family gets coverage through her husband’s employer, Atlanta-based HD Supply. The Edson family now has a plan that covers 70 percent of medical costs. HD Supply, which employs about 15,000, switched to a high- deductible plan combined with a health savings account. “At the beginning of 2014, most remaining measures of the Affordable Care Act will kick in, and HD Supply is keeping pace with these new compliance measures to make sure you and your family continue to have access to affordable, quality health care,” the company’s enrollment package states. Edson said her family’s monthly premium will be slightly less expensive, but they will pay more out of pocket. She said she will search for a generic cholesterol medication to replace the brand-name drugs that cost $470 for a 90-day supply. She also will ask her family’s doctors how much they charge for a routine visit. She did not have to worry about such costs with her existing plan, which charges a $35 copay for a primary-care doctor’s visit. People have the option to decline their employer’s insurance plan and choose a plan on the new government-run marketplace at healthcare.gov. But those people will not get government subsidies if their company offers affordable health insurance, defined as costing less than 9.5 percent of income. And such employees would lose their employer contribution to their plan, unless the company agreed to provide such a payment in lieu of coverage. Edson is planning now to make sure her family does not miss out on needed health care. But she expects many others with high-deductible plans will forgo needed medical care over pocketbook concerns. “When you make a doctor’s visit and know you are going to pay $35, you are more likely to go to the doctor,” Edson said. “When you don’t know how much it will cost you, you will put it off.” Delayed care Hospitals and doctors have noticed that with plans that require employees to pay a greater share of their health costs, some consumers are delaying non- emergency procedures until they reach their deductible. Damon Adamany, a hand surgeon with the CORE Institute in Phoenix, said his office sees a late-year surge of patients scheduling surgery for arthritis or carpal-tunnel syndrome because they have met their deductibles. “At the end of the year, we definitely see a mad rush,” Adamany said. “I generally don’t take my vacations around the holidays. That is generally when we are the busiest.” Yet he warns that delayed care can worsen health problems. A person with carpal- tunnel syndrome, for example, may ignore the pain, but “the longer a nerve is being compressed, the more potential damage can be done.” Mayo Clinic said that historically, the number of patients seeking surgical procedures at its Arizona facilities has grown 5 percent to 10 percent each year. This year, those figures have been flat. William Stone, who leads the clinical practice at Mayo Clinic in Arizona, said the high- deductible plans are partly responsible. “The way that costs are shifted with people paying a higher premium or deductible, it’s had some impact,” Stone said. “We’ve seen our volumes decrease because of that.” Experts on employee benefits say that engaging employees in their health care helps keep costs in check. Employers routinely encourage workers to take physical exams and biometric screens that gauge health risks. Based on these measures, companies may financially reward or penalize workers. Several surveys suggest that Americans are keeping health costs in check. Health costs routinely spiked at double-digit rates over the past decade but have risen at moderate rates over the past three years. Aon Hewitt said that metro Phoenix costs increased just 2.9 percent in 2013, but it projects that costs will increase 6.7 percent in 2014.
1) link to main page 2) put in police and drugs http://www.azcentral.com/news/free/20131110nyc-moves-vacate-judges-stop-frisk-decisions.html NYC moves to vacate judge’s stop-frisk decisions Associated Press Sun Nov 10, 2013 7:09 AM NEW YORK — Attorneys for New York City asked a federal appeals court to vacate a judge’s orders that require the police department to change its stop-and-frisk practice that critics argue unfairly targets minorities. The city said Saturday in filings with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan that U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin’s orders this summer should be thrown out largely for the same reasons a three-judge panel of the appeals court gave in staying her decision on Oct. 31, pending an appeal. The panel stayed her order and removed her from the case, saying she misapplied a related case ruling that allowed her to take the stop-and-frisk case and gave media interviews during the trial, calling her impartiality into question. “At a minimum, the District Court’s misconduct makes it reasonable to question the impartiality of the District Court Orders, and at a maximum represents a violation of Appellant’s Due Process rights to a neutral arbiter and to present a defense,” the filings said. “In either case, the District Court Orders must be vacated.” Scheindlin ruled in August that the city violated the civil rights of tens of thousands of blacks and Hispanics by disproportionally stopping, questioning and sometimes frisking them. She assigned a monitor to help the New York Police Department change its policy and training programs regarding the tactic. An attorney for Scheindlin last week asked the three-judge panel to reconsider its unusual step of ordering her off the case or pass the issue along to the full circuit. Advocates for changing stop and frisk blistered at the city’s request to vacate the judge’s orders Saturday. “Voters overwhelmingly rejected (Mayor Michael) Bloomberg’s stop-and-frisk policy by choosing a mayor committed to reforming stop-and-frisk, so fighting reform now not only adds injury to those subjected to the policy but is a waste of taxpayer money and counterproductive to public safety,” said Joo-Hyun Kang, a spokeswoman for Communities United for Police Reform. Mayor-elect Bill De Blasio has said he would drop the city’s appeal of Scheindlin’s ruling but he could also settle with those urging reforms, which would eliminate federal oversight. Stop and frisk has been around for decades. To make a stop, police must have reasonable suspicion that a crime is about to occur or has occurred, a standard lower than the probable cause needed to justify an arrest. Only about 10 percent of the stops result in arrests or summonses, and weapons are found about 2 percent of the time. But recorded stops increased dramatically under Bloomberg’s administration to an all-time high in 2011 of 684,330, mostly of black and Hispanic men. A lawsuit was filed in 2004 by four minority men, who said they were targeted because of their races, and it became a class-action case.
1) link to main page More on "bend over Obamacare is here"!!!! http://www.azcentral.com/business/call12foraction/articles/20131107care-cost-calculators-scare-consumers-call12.html Call 12: Care-cost calculators may scare consumers By Robert Anglen The Republic | azcentral.com Sat Nov 9, 2013 7:06 PM Online calculators might be scaring people from signing up for the Affordable Care Act before they even start. Calculators are supposed to give people a snapshot of premium costs and options under the nation’s new health-care mandate, which requires most Americans to get insurance by 2014 or face fines. But sticker shock may be preventing some of those who use the calculators from proceeding to enroll in insurance. Health-care educators and advocates say some calculators, including the one on the official government website, Healthcare.gov, are spitting out inflated estimates based on predetermined assumptions that don’t account for individual circumstances. Their advice: Don’t stop. Continue through the registration process and shop for insurance based on specific individual details rather than the general information provided by calculators. “All of the calculators are built based on estimated premiums,” said Allen Gjersvig, director of health-care innovations for the Arizona Alliance for Community Health Centers. “Prices are significantly lower than what some industry experts were estimating. ... Generally, prices in Arizona are lower than the rest of the country.” Additionally, the calculators themselves generate estimates that can differ by hundreds of dollars, so someone trying to determine what it might cost will get different answers depending on the website being used. There are four tiers of insurance from bronze to platinum, and all calculators are required to give answers based on the second-lowest price on the silver plan. That means somebody looking for cheaper insurance will almost certainly get an estimate for more than the actual cost. Calculators often have age-based assumptions, Gjersvig said. For instance, some calculators are pegged to two pre-determined ages: 49 and 27. That means a 60-year-old man shopping for insurance would get an estimate for a 49-year-old man. Others would get information based on a 27-year-old man. Insurance costs differ based on age. The government site links to a calculator operated by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. The calculator does not ask for a specific age, only the number of people in a family younger and older than 21. Another key problem for calculators is subsidies, according to experts. The government offers sliding-scale subsidies to offset insurance costs for those making up to 400 percent of the poverty level. Anyone below 133 percent of the poverty level qualifies for Medicaid. “The only way to find out your subsidy is to go through Healthcare.Gov ... and get a determination notice,” Gjersvig said. “Until you go through that step, everything is an estimate.” Steve Taylor, head pastor of the Lakeshore Bible Church in Tempe, said he stopped the registration process after seeing initial estimates that would cost him hundreds of dollars more than his current premium. Like many people, Taylor received notice that his current premiums are going up and wanted to see what is available under the Affordable Care Act. He said his first time with the calculator returned high premiums with less coverage than his current plan. “I was not really sure about those projections,” Taylor said. “The projection seemed a fair bit higher than the listings by specific companies ... There didn’t seem to be a lot of options.” Taylor, 57, describes his current plan as a basic United Healthcare plan through Golden Rule Insurance. He said he and his wife earn about $40,000 through the church in taxable income and receive a $30,000 parsonage allowance. They pay $514 a month for the health plan, which has a $5,000 deductible but pays 100 percent of office visits and hospitalization after the deductible is met. Taylor said that as he plugged information into the calculators, prices seemed to go down. But he said he never saw anything that encouraged him that he might save money under the Affordable Care Act. He said he stopped short of registering on the website over concern about the costs. Educators and advocates say the best online calculators will allow you to plug in a variety of data, including age, income and smoking status before giving estimates. Some calculators, such as one at ValuePenguin.com, a consumer-finance website that analyzes insurance data, will present plan options. Using ValuePenguin with Taylor’s information returned 40 plans offered by seven providers under the silver tier. They ranged in cost from $265 to $843 a month with deductibles from zero to $5,000 and various co-pays and out-of-pocket expense requirements. Arizona has many insurance options and is a competitive market for insurance, so premiums are lower here, according to experts. Available plans vary from county to county. There are 119 insurance plans in Maricopa County and 107 in Pinal County offered by several companies. “There are a lot of pieces in a puzzle,” said Cheryl O’Donnell, Arizona director of Enroll America, a non-profit group focused on Affordable Care Act education and registration. “The primary question I get is, ‘How much is this going to cost me?’ ... I don’t think there are black-and-white answers.” O’Donnell’s agency is one of dozens of so-called health-care navigators operating across the country. She said people often stop at the calculators without realizing that individual circumstances must be taken into consideration before a reliable cost can be determined. One of the biggest groups of people seeking help from navigators in Arizona are those seeking to apply for insurance under the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System. O’Donnell said up to 80 percent of the people going to navigators sought coverage through the state’s version of Medicaid, which is expanding under the Affordable Care Act. Laurie James, 59, of Scottsdale said she didn’t realize she qualified for Medicaid. And when she received a notice recently that her insurance premiums were going to up by more than $150 a month, she believed she could be left without insurance. James, a Call 12 for Action volunteer, has hepatitis C and needs insurance to cover doctor’s visits and medication. She said based on calculations on Healthcare.org, she believed she would fall through the cracks, unable to afford insurance and unable to qualify for Medicaid. Her current coverage, which costs about $350 a month, has a $2,000 deductible, a $25 co-pay for doctor’s visits and covers 100 percent of hospitalization. James said she believed she couldn’t qualify for Medicaid because her liquid assets exceed $3,000 a year. She later learned the asset clause will change in 2014. “I don’t know anything definitive,’ she said. “I will be without insurance Dec. 31 if I don’t get Medicaid.” Robert Anglen and Veronica Sanchez lead the Call 12 for Action team, focused on issues important to Arizona consumers.
1) link to main web page Trans fat doesn't stir much 'nanny state' debate http://www.tennessean.com/viewart/20131109/BUSINESS/131109023/Trans-fat-doesn-t-stir-much-nanny-state-debate Trans fat doesn't stir much 'nanny state' debate Nov. 9, 2013 | WASHINGTON (AP) — They are among our most personal daily decisions: what to eat or drink. Maybe what to inhale. Now that the government's banning trans fat, does that mean it's revving up to take away our choice to consume all sorts of other unhealthy stuff? What about salt? Soda? Cigarettes? Nah. In the tug-of-war between public health and personal freedom, the Food and Drug Administration's decision to ban trans fats barely rates a ripple. Hardly anyone defends the icky-sounding artificial ingredient anymore, two decades after health activists began warning Americans that it was clogging their arteries and causing heart attacks. New York, Philadelphia, a few other localities and the state of California already have banned trans fat from restaurant food. McDonald's, Taco Bell and KFC dropped it from their french fries, nachos and chicken years ago. The companies that fill grocery shelves say they already have reduced their use of trans fat by nearly three-fourths since 2005. Growers are promoting new soybean oils that they say will eliminate, within a few years, the need for partial hydrogenation, the process that creates trans fats still used to enhance the texture of some pie crusts, cookies and margarine. Mostly, Americans' palates have moved on, and so have their arguments over what's sensible health policy and what amounts to a "nanny state" run amok. When they aren't feuding over President Barack Obama's health care law, state politicians are busy weighing the wisdom of legalizing marijuana. Already 20 states and the District of Columbia have authorized it for medicinal use. Voters in Colorado and Washington state approved smoking pot just for fun. The FDA is taking heat for delays in coming out with new rules on regular-old tobacco cigarettes under a law passed in 2009. There are the new e-cigarettes to worry about, too. More than 20 states have banned stores from selling electronic cigarettes to minors, but the federal government has yet to take them on. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's attempt to stop restaurants from selling sodas larger than 16 ounces, and the federal government's efforts to impose healthier lunches on school kids are causing more of an uproar than the trans fat ban. Still, Jeffrey Levi, executive director of the nonprofit Trust for America's Health, says a national trans fat ban is "a big deal." After all, the FDA estimates it will prevent 20,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths a year. Levi doesn't see it as evidence that federal regulators are suddenly on a roll, however. "There are other areas where regulation is sort of stuck — everything from nutrition labeling to food safety to the tobacco regulations that have not seen the light of day," Levi said. Talk of new government regulation typically stirs up libertarians and conservatives. Yet the trans fat ban hasn't provoked much beefing. Radio host Rush Limbaugh groused that bureaucrats shouldn't regulate what people eat because it's "none of their business" and research on nutrition keeps changing. After all, sticks of margarine made with trans fats used to be recommended as a healthier alternative to butter. Heritage Foundation research fellow Daren Bakst, who specializes in agriculture issues, blogged that the FDA is "ignoring the most important issue: the freedom of Americans." A few fans of ready-to-spread cake frostings and microwave popcorn that still contain trans fat griped via Twitter. They don't have to worry immediately. The FDA must consider comments from the food industry and the public before it comes up with a timeline for phasing out trans fats, also known as partially hydrogenated oils. It could take years to get them off the market. Michael Jacobson, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, has been warning about the dangers since the early 1990s. Advocacy by the center helped persuade the government to add trans fat to nutrition labels beginning in 2006. That created consumer pressure on food companies to find tasty ways to replace partially hydrogenated oil with less harmful fats. The companies' success helped clear the way for the government to consider a trans fat ban, he said. "It's a little bit of an exception, in that it's so harmful and it was so widely used," Jacobson said, "and there are substitutes so that people can't tell the difference when it's removed." Next on Jacobson's wish list is something that would be much harder for industry and the FDA to accomplish: reducing the salt in processed foods. "There are estimates that it's causing around 100,000 deaths prematurely every year in this country," he said. "That is just huge."
The article doesn't mention it, but our government masters are directly responsible for this rise in hit and run accidents. In Arizona they passed a law making it a felony to be in an accident and not have insurance. Prior to the law if you got into an accident and didn't have insurance you could stop and give aid to the person you hit without being worried about being slapped with felony charges for not having insurance. Now if you get into an accident and don't have insurance the best thing to do from a legal point of view is leave the scene of the accident to avoid being charged with a felony. If you repeal the laws making it a felony not to have insurance the number of hit and run accidents will drop! Of course our lawmakers would rather appear to be tough on crime so they can be reelected and could care less about the effect these silly laws have on people who are involved in accidents without insurance! http://www.tennessean.com/article/20131110/NEWS08/311100073/Hit-run-fatalities-rise-U-S- Hit-and-run fatalities rise in U.S. Several states have tightened laws as a result Nov. 10, 2013 1:20 AM | Written by Larry Copeland USA Today Hit-and-run crashes are increasing in many major cities, and fatal hit-and-run collisions are rising nationally. Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show that the number of fatal hit-and-run crashes is trending upward, from 1,274 in 2009 to 1,449 in 2011. Perhaps more significantly, the 13.7 percent increase in hit-and-run deaths over that period occurred while traffic deaths overall were falling 4.5 percent. “The problem is bigger than I think most people are aware,” says Peter Kissinger, president and CEO of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. The foundation’s analysis of hit-and-run crashes found that about 1 in 5 of all pedestrian fatalities are hit-and-run crashes, and 60 percent of hit-and-run fatalities have pedestrians as victims, he says. In a recent high-profile case, a 22-year-old Ohio man confessed online to killing a man in a drunken-driving crash in June. Matthew Cordle of Dublin, Ohio, was sentenced last month to 6½ years in prison for aggravated vehicular homicide and DUI in a crash that killed Vincent Canzani, 61. “Drivers are more likely to run if they feel there is a reason to do so,“ says Sara Solnick, chairwoman of the Department of Economics at the University of Vermont, who has studied hit-and-run crashes. “They’re more likely to have high blood-alcohol content, or they’re driving without a license, or they’re very young drivers.”
1) link to main page Wow Gerrymandering is sure expensive??? Of course it's not about "fair elections", it's about "fair elections" that allow the people in power to stay in power!!!! http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/20131107arizona-two-track-voting-plan-costly.html Arizona's 2-track voting plan to be costly Court ruling on proof-of-citizenship law forced Ariz. to make changes By Mary Jo Pitzl The Republic | azcentral.com Sat Nov 9, 2013 9:37 PM Arizona is creating a two-track voting system, with one track that will accommodate a tiny fraction of the state’s voters at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars to county governments. Last month, Secretary of State Ken Bennett said the switch is needed in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that determined Arizona cannot impose its proof-of- citizenship requirement on voters who use a federal voter-registration form. The citizenship requirement applies only to those registering with Arizona’s state form. Relying on an opinion from Attorney General Tom Horne, Bennett announced that those voters who use the federal form and who cannot provide proof of U.S. citizenship will be able to vote only in federal races next year. Those who register with the state form will get a ballot that covers races on the local, state and federal level. An Arizona Republic review of statistics from the state’s 15 counties shows that the requirement, if in force today, would affect 1,327 of the state’s 3.2 million registered voters. The Republic obtained the information through the state’s public-records law. Although the percentage of voters is small — 0.04 percent — the cost of establishing a dual-track election system is expected to be great. County elections officials have not come up with firm figures, although a spokesman for the Arizona Association of Counties said officials are expecting an increase in expenditures, which will be borne by the county governments. An early estimate from Maricopa County, the state’s most populous, puts the figure “north of $250,000,” according to Karen Osborne, county elections director. “That doesn’t include the education part of it,” Osborne said. Horne, who authored the opinion, said that although he’s sympathetic to concerns about the increased cost, it had no influence on his advice to Bennett. “For me, I look at the law,” he said. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June, Bennett asked the Attorney General’s Office if people who use the federal form can vote in state and local elections. Horne issued an opinion saying “no,” since the voter- approved Proposition 200 requires citizenship proof and the court said Arizona has a right to impose those requirements for state and local races. That prompted Bennett to launch a dual-voting system. Bennett acknowledged the looming cost to create separate sets of ballots, depending on how a voter is registered. “Monetarily, it’s probably not worth it,” he said. But, he added, the state can’t ignore the small percentage of voters who qualify only for the federal ballot. When Bennett announced the dual-track system last month, there was concern that anyone who registered using the federal form would be blocked from voting in local and state races. That’s not true, said Sam Wercinski, executive director of the Arizona Advocacy Network. Many people provide enough information on the federal form to allow state elections officials to verify their citizenship, he said. “Continue to use the federal form. It’s as secure a means to registering and getting a local ballot as the state form,” Wercinski said. Anyone who provides the last four digits of his or her Social Security number — an optional requirement on the federal form — will likely be cleared to vote in state and local elections, he said. Horne and Bennett agreed, saying the Social Security number allows elections officials to cross-reference that voter with the state’s driver’s license database. People must prove U.S. citizenship to get an Arizona driver’s license, and that citizenship proof would qualify them for a full ballot, they said. In his opinion, Horne noted that the court suggested Arizona could ask the federal Election Assistance Commission to require proof of citizenship for all voter-registration forms, whether federal or state. Arizona, along with Kansas, is now arguing in federal court that it should have that authority. A hearing is scheduled for next month in Topeka, Kan. Horne said a favorable ruling would effectively end the need for a dual-track voting system. But until the court rules, or if the court rules against Arizona, the two-track system will be needed, no matter how small the pool of affected voters. To do otherwise would allow unqualified voters to weigh in on state and local races, he said. “There are a lot of races decided by fewer than 1,500 votes,” he said. It’s likely that pool of federal-only voters will shrink from the current 1,327 because county recorders are trying to contact them and explain what documentation they need to provide to qualify for a full ballot. In addition to a driver’s license, documents that can be used to prove citizenship include a naturalization card, an Indian registration number or a birth certificate, elections officials said.
1) link to main page 2) put under cops and drugs http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/20131109horne-media-attack-political-insider.html Political Insider: Horne is under a big media attack The Republic | azcentral.com Sat Nov 9, 2013 9:11 PM Pop the popcorn … Consider this a trailer for his critics’ “Evil Tom Horne” show. The Arizona Public Integrity Alliance launched a “statewide public education effort” last week using TV, print and the web to highlight what it calls “unethical behavior” by Horne, the state’s top prosecutor. (You know — the FBI’s allegations of violations of campaign-finance laws and the like.) “We trusted him to enforce Arizona’s laws,” a woman says in ominous tones in a YouTube ad that features headlines of Horne’s alleged misdeeds. “But Tom Horne does not even follow Arizona’s laws himself.” Aside from the campaign issue, a press release also dings Horne for allegedly “having an affair with a woman he hired to work” in the Attorney General’s Office. Last month, Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk ordered Horne to return nearly $400,000 to an independent expenditure committee that Polk determined illegally coordinated efforts with Horne during the 2010 election. Horne is refusing to pay the money, saying he did not coordinate with the committee. He plans to fight Polk’s order. The judicial process apparently isn’t good enough for Arizona Public Integrity, which identifies itself as a non-profit corporation “dedicated to public education around issues of public integrity.” Odds are, it won’t be enough for other Horne opponents, who are expected to shoot harsh anti-Horne campaign ads of their own. Political code-talking ... The notorious difficulty of the Navajo language — personified by the famed code-talkers of World War II — apparently poses no deterrent for new pupil Adam Kwasman. The Republican state lawmaker told Insider he plans on taking lessons in preparation for his campaign across Congressional District 1, which includes the nation’s largest reservation. Kwasman may want to take heed of another’s foibles with the language. Then-U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth was greeted with giggles in 1996 as he bellowed a Navajo salutation along a parade route. It sounded to native onlookers like he was yelling out “lice!” Let’s call the whole thing off ... One year into it, the merger of Public Policy Partners with DeMenna and Associates is off. Both parties in the powerhouse Capitol lobbying group say it was an amicable split driven by style differences and the unexpected specter of limited business opportunities due to client conflicts. Kevin DeMenna announced last week that his family was buying back DeMenna and Associates. “Kevin made an offer to buy back the company that I could not refuse,” John Kaites, P3’s owner said. That offer was financial not physical, both parties agreed. DeMenna wouldn’t disclose the price, but said it was more than the $4.2 million acquisition that was announced a year ago. DeMenna, a grandfather to four-month-old Dylan, said the desire to work in a family, rather than corporate, organization was a key motivation. Two of his three sons are lobbyists in the firm, and “we’ve actually kicked around whether we should register Dylan,” he joked. Tweet of the week “On my list of who should be allowed to have a Drone, Joe Arpaio would be right behind Stevie Wonder.” — Grant Woods (@GrantWoods), attorney. Compiled by Republic reporters Mary Jo Pitzl, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Rebekah L. Sanders. Get the latest at politics.azcentral.com.
Sadly like most politicians Obama is a liar who will tell us anything to get his way!!! http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/nov/09/few-options-for-obama-to-fix-cancellations-problem/ Few options for Obama to fix cancellations problem By ARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR Associated Press 1:06 a.m.Nov. 9, 2013 WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says he'll do everything he can to help people coping with health insurance cancellations, but legally and practically his options appear limited. That means the latest political problem engulfing Obama's health care overhaul may not be resolved quickly, cleanly or completely. White House deputy spokesman Josh Earnest said Friday that the president has asked his team to look at administrative fixes to help people whose plans are being canceled as a result of new federal coverage rules. Obama, in an NBC interview Thursday, said "I am sorry" to people who are losing coverage and had relied on his assurances that if they liked their plan, they could keep it. The focus appears to be on easing the impact for a specific group: people whose policies have been canceled and who don't qualify for tax credits to offset higher premiums. The administration has not settled on a particular fix and it's possible the final decision would apply to a broader group. Still, a president can't just pick up the phone and order the Treasury to cut checks for people suffering from insurance premium sticker shock. Spending would have to be authorized by law. Another obstacle: Most of the discontinued policies appear to have been issued after the law was enacted, according to insurers and independent experts. Legally, that means they would have never been eligible for cancellation protections offered by the statute. Its grandfather clause applies only to policies that were in effect when the law passed in 2010. More than five weeks after open-enrollment season started for uninsured Americans, Obama's signature domestic policy achievement is still struggling. Persistent website problems appear to have kept most interested customers from signing up. Repairs are underway. Friday the administration said the website's income verification component will be offline for maintenance until Tuesday morning. An enrollment report expected next week is likely to reflect only paltry sign-ups. Website woes have been eclipsed by the uproar over cancellation notices sent to millions of people who have individual plans that don't measure up to the benefits package and level of financial protection required by the law. "It was clear from the beginning that there were going to be some winners and losers," said Timothy Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee University in Virginia, who supports the health overhaul. "But the losers are calling reporters, and the winners can't get on the website." In the House, a Republican-sponsored bill that would give insurers another year to sell individual policies that were in effect Jan. 1, 2013, is expected to get a floor vote late next week. In the Senate, Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu has introduced legislation that would require insurers to keep offering current individual plans. Democrats, who as a group have stood firmly behind the new law so far, may start to splinter if the uproar continues. The legislation faces long odds to begin with, but it may not do the job even if it passes. The reason: States, not the federal government, regulate the individual insurance market. State insurance commissioners have already approved the plans that will be offered for next year. It may be too late to wind back to where things stood at the beginning of this year. "It has taken the industry many months to rejigger their systems to comply with the law," said Bob Laszewski, a health care industry consultant. "The cancellation letters have already gone out. What are these guys supposed to do, go down to the post office and buy a million stamps?" The insurance industry doesn't like the legislative route either. "We have some significant concerns with how that would work operationally," said Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for the trade group America's Health Insurance Plans. Behind the political and legal issues, a powerful economic logic is also at work. Shifting people who already have individual coverage into the new health insurance markets under Obama's law would bring in customers already known to insurers, reducing overall financial risks for the insurance pool. That's painful for those who end up paying higher premiums for upgraded policies. But it could save money for the taxpayers who are subsidizing the new coverage. Compared with the uninsured, people with coverage are less likely to have a pent-up need for medical services. At one point, they were all prescreened for health problems. A sizable share of the uninsured people expected to gain coverage under Obama's law have health problems that have kept them from getting coverage. They'll be the costly cases. Obama sold the overhaul as a win all around. Uninsured Americans would get coverage and people who liked their insurance could keep it, he said. In hindsight, the president might have wanted to say that you could keep your plan as long as your insurer or your employer did not change it beyond limits prescribed by the government. Meanwhile, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said late Friday he had issued a subpoena to Todd Park, Obama's top adviser on technology, to appear before his committee next week. The White House has said Park is too busy trying to fix the health care website to appear. ___ Associated Press writers Julie Pace, David Espo and Kevin Vineys contributed to this report.
President Obama??? Nope, it's Emperor Obama, just like it was Emperor Bush!!!! Of course most elected officials from our US Congressmen and Senators seem to ignore both the US Constitution and the Arizona Constitution and think they have a God given right to rule over us serfs regardless of what limited powers they have been given by the constitutions. http://www.azcentral.com/insiders/robertrobb/2013/11/15/obama-what-separation-of-powers/ Obama: What separation of powers? In President Obama’s announcement that individual plans not conforming with Obamacare could be continued past Jan. 1, and in the accompanying materials, there was one conspicuous absence: Any reference to the legal basis for such action. The grandfather clause in Obamacare is clearly limited to policies in place on the effective date of the law, which was over three years ago. There is nothing in Obamacare that gives the president the authority to waive the essential benefits requirements for other policies that have resulted in the politically destructive wave of cancellations. As there was nothing in Obamacare that gave the president the authority to waive the requirement that businesses provide Obamacare-compliant coverage or pay a penalty, as Obama did earlier. Obama isn’t just making up the law as he goes along on health care. He has essentially set up a new immigration category for dreamers, young adults brought here illegally as children, that Congress not only hasn’t authorized, it recently explicitly rejected. The Obama administration claims it is exercising prosecutorial discretion, but the exercise of discretion doesn’t include an application process and solicitations for offenders to apply. Obama just ignores the separation of powers, in which Congress legislates and the president implements what Congress enacts. Obama obviously regards legislation as merely non-binding suggestions. When George W. Bush was president, the left was aflame with warnings about the neoconservative “unitary” vision of the presidency as a dangerous aggregating of power. And it pitched a hissy about Bush’s signing letters, which expressed reservations about the provisions of laws he signed. There was merit in these concerns. But Bush was a piker regarding the centralization of power in the presidency compared to Obama. Yet the left isn’t protesting and the right is complaining but not really doing anything about it. The lasting legacy of this presidency may very well be the evisceration of Congress’s lawmaking power.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/free/20131115toronto-mayor-powers.html Toronto council votes to strip embattled Mayor Ford of powers By Rob Gillies Associated Press Fri Nov 15, 2013 9:05 AM TORONTO — Toronto’s City Council has voted overwhelming to strip Mayor Rob Ford of some of his powers in the latest attempt to box in the brash leader who has rebuffed huge pressure to resign over his drinking and drug habits and erratic behavior. The motion was approved in a 39-3 vote Friday. It suspends Ford’s authority to appoint and dismiss the deputy mayor and his executive committee, which runs the budget process. Ford vowed to fight it in court. In the span of a few hours Thursday, Ford used obscene language to deny that he pressured a female employee for oral sex, admitted that he had driven while drinking and then apologized for his vulgarity and said he was seeking professional help, though he refused to give details. “We need to take away his power for the good of the city,” said Councilor Denzil Minnan-Wong, a former ally. “The tide has turned and there are very few people that are prepared to defend him given his vulgar comments and his admission that not only does he takes drugs but that he seems to be comfortable drinking and getting behind the wheel.” Ford’s troubles began escalating in May when news reports first surface of a video showing him smoking crack. After month of evading the question, the mayor admitted to having smoked crack when Toronto police announced they had obtained the video during the course of a massive drug investigation that has ensnared a close friend of Ford. Revelations have rapidly surfaced of other startling behavior, from former aides alleging that the mayor has been frequently drunk on the job, to a video showing the mayor threatening to kill someone in an incoherent rant. It has been a stunning decline for the 44-year-old mayor who was elected three years ago with fervent support from Toronto’s conservative-leaning outer suburbs, where many voters felt angry about they considered wasteful spending and elitist politics at City Hall. Friday’s motion would suspend Ford’s authority to appoint and dismiss the deputy mayor and his executive committee, which runs the budget process. John Filion, the councilor who introduced that motion, has said the goal is to prevent Ford from firing executive committee members who speak out against him. Councilors are also considering stripping Ford’s authority to set the City Council’s agenda. The effort will continue Monday when the council moves to strip the mayor of most of his remaining powers. A motion, already signed by 28 of the 44 council members, will take away his budget and appoint the deputy mayor as head of the executive committee. Earlier this week, the council voted overwhelmingly to ask Ford to take a leave of absence, but the motion was non-binding. At Thursday’s session, many councilors turned their backs on the mayor each time to spoke. An ardent football fan, Ford on Thursday wore a Toronto Argonauts football jersey and cowboy boots, only to draw a protest from the team. Later, Councilor Karen Stintz said the city has temporarily suspended all school trips to City Hall because staff deemed them unsafe for the children. Ford drew gasps from reporters Thursday morning when he used an obscenity as he denied telling a staffer he wanted to have oral sex. The father of two school-age children said he is “happily married” and used crude language to say he enjoys enough oral sex at home. Ford later apologized for his remarks at a news conference. He explained he was pushed “over the line” by newly released court documents that included allegations against him involving cocaine, escorts and prostitution. He called the allegations “100 per cent lies.” The mayor also said he would take legal action against his former chief of staff, Mark Towhey, and two other aides over their interviews with police that were detailed in court documents released Wednesday. Ford did not specify what the aides might have said that was untrue. He also said he would take action against a waiter who said he believed Ford and a woman were snorting cocaine in a private room at a restaurant. Ford denied that allegation. The court documents are part of a drug case against Ford’s friend and occasional driver. Police interviews with Ford’s ex-staffers revealed their concerns about his drug use and drunk driving, with one staffer alleging another saw Ford “impaired, driving very fast,” and frightening the female employee who was in the car with him. In another incident, Ford was described by a former staff member as being “very inebriated, verbally abusive and inappropriate with” a female staff member on St. Patrick’s Day. Another former staffer reported seeing the mayor drunk in his office about 15 to 20 times in the year he worked for him. No matter what the council does, Ford seems intent to remain in the limelight. The tabloid Sun News Network announced that the mayor and his brother Doug, a city councilor, will do a current events television show called “Ford Nation” on Monday nights. ——— Follow Rob Gillies on Twitter at — http://twitter.com/rgilliescanada
Remember it's impossible for cops to make mistakes. At least that's what they want us to think!!! http://www.azcentral.com/news/free/20131115lax-shooting-aid-delay.html TSA officer bled for 33 minutes in LAX shooting By Tami Abdollah Associated Press Fri Nov 15, 2013 8:33 AM LOS ANGELES — An airport security officer lay helplessly bleeding after a gunman opened fire at Los Angeles International Airport as paramedics waited 150 yards away because police had not declared the terminal safe to enter, according to two law enforcement officials. It would be 33 minutes before Transportation Security Administration Officer Gerardo Hernandez, who was about 20 feet from an exit, would be wheeled out by police to an ambulance, said the officials, who were briefed on the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity because the probe was still ongoing into the Nov. 1 shooting. For all but five of those minutes, there was no threat from the suspected gunman — he had been shot and was in custody, they said. While it’s not known when Hernandez died or if immediate medical attention could have saved his life, officials are examining what conversations took place between police and fire commanders to determine when it was safe enough to enter and whether paramedics could have gone into the terminal earlier, one of the officials said. Formal conclusions may take months to reach, but what’s known raises the possibility that a lack of coordination between police and fire officials prevented speedy treatment for Hernandez and other victims. TSA workers at LAX have been wondering the same thing, said Victor Payes, who works at the airport and is president of the local union. “I basically think there’s a lack of coordination between entities at this airport. That lack of coordination may have led to something that shouldn’t have happened,” Payes said. “We may be talking about Officer Hernandez as a survivor.” Representatives for the Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles Fire Department and Los Angeles Airport Police said they couldn’t comment on the ongoing investigation until extensive reports are finished. Authorities say that Paul Ciancia entered Terminal 3 with a duffel bag, pulled out an assault rifle and started shooting. They said he had a note in his bag that said he wanted to “kill TSA” and that he wanted to stir fear in them, criticizing their searches as unconstitutional. He was shot by airport police officers four times, in the mouth and leg, before being taken into custody. He remains in fair condition at a hospital and his doctors will determine when he’s fit to appear in court. In the chaotic moments after the gunfire began, as travelers dove to the ground or scrambled for cover in restaurants and stores, officials worried there could be bombs in the terminal and tried to determine whether the gunman had any accomplices. In the first 30 minutes, there was also an unfounded report of two suspicious people on an adjacent parking garage roof, one of the officials said. Officers from multiple agencies bent down to check on Hernandez before moving on, officials said. Police broadcast over their radios that Ciancia was in custody at 9:25 a.m., five minutes after Hernandez was shot in the chest. That’s when a nearly 26-year veteran Los Angeles police officer checked on Hernandez several times, repeatedly telling officers who came by from various agencies “he’s dead,” according to one of the law enforcement officials. It’s unclear whether the officer was qualified to determine Hernandez was dead. No officers rendered first aid on scene, according to surveillance video reviewed by the officials. Finally, airport police put Hernandez in a wheelchair and ran him to an ambulance. Trauma surgeon David Plurad said Hernandez had no signs of life when he arrived at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Doctors worked for about an hour to revive him despite significant blood loss. “When somebody is shot and they’re bleeding to death, lifesaving skills need to be implemented immediately, in a couple minutes, and they’re very simple, pressure dressings, tourniquets, adequate bandages to stop the bleeding,” said Dr. Lawrence E. Heiskell, an emergency physician for 27 years and a reserve police officer for 24 years who founded the state and federally approved International School of Tactical Medicine. Responding to a situation with a shooter on the loose has changed since the 1999 Columbine school massacre, when officials huddled outside to formulate a plan while shooters continued firing inside and a teacher bled to death without timely treatment. Now police immediately charge in to stop the shooting as quickly as possible; officers are trained to step over the wounded and stop the gunman first, then tend to victims. During active shooter training last month with the LAX police and LAPD, Los Angeles city firefighters wearing ballistic vests and helmets dragged survivors to areas where they could provide treatment. Because police are often the first at the scene where there are injuries, California law requires officers receive first aid and CPR training in the academy and regular refreshers afterward. A recent audit by Los Angeles Police Commission Inspector General Alex Bustamante found that the LAPD had a zero percent compliance rate. Only 250-sworn officers in the Metropolitan Division out of the department’s more than 9,900 sworn officers received the refresher training, it states. Airport police have the training. On day-to-day crime scenes, firefighters wait down the street until police clear the scene, usually in minutes, and allow them in, Los Angeles County Fire Battalion Chief Larry Collins, who’s a member of a Los Angeles interagency working group creating best practices for mass casualty incidents. “When we have an active shooter, we can’t hold back a block away, we’ve got to go in” because clearing the scene could take hours. ——— Associated Press writer Justin Pritchard contributed to this report. Tami Abdollah can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/latams
Hey, we are the royal members of the Tempe City Council and those silly laws don't apply to us!!!! Of course if you break one of those silly little laws the jackbooted Tempe police will be at your doorstep quicker then you can blink an eye. http://www.azcentral.com/community/tempe/articles/20131113tempe-behind-mandated-arts-funds.html Tempe behind on mandated arts fund By Dianna M. Náñez The Republic | azcentral.com Fri Nov 15, 2013 9:33 AM Tempe has been withholding hundreds of thousands of dollars for several years from a city fund that is intended to ensure that each year a small portion of the budget includes money for public art. The money has been withheld from the general fund since fiscal year 2008-2009 amid the Great Recession, as the City Council struggled to maintain funding for public safety and other services considered high priorities. Tempe Finance and Technology Director Ken Jones told the council at a recent study session, which included a budget update, that the funds are required by a city ordinance, so he needs the council to make the call on whether to continue to hold back the money. “We have an ordinance that requires us to contribute 1 percent of our CIP (capital-improvements program budget) to the arts fund,” Jones said at the Oct. 24 study session. “We suspended that during the economic downturn.” Jones told the council that the Municipal Arts Fund has about $1.5 million that has been carried over from previous years. Jones said that the city’s finance staff are recommending that the suspension continue. However, only the council has the authority to make the budget decision, he added. This account is separate from the Performing Arts Fund, which supports the Tempe Center for the Arts. “I don’t have an official document that says how long that should have been suspended,” he said. “So, I feel like I have to make that contribution unless you tell me to continue suspending that contribution.” Jones said that during the downturn the city’s water fund has continued to make a contribution, but similar funding has been suspended from contributions that would have been made by the transit fund and general fund. “The amount that the general fund would contribute would be about $357,000. That’s 1 percent,” he said. “The transit fund would be about $42,000. Currently, the water fund is contributing about $100,000 a year.” Contributions from the transit fund have been withheld since fiscal 2010-2011. Contributions also were suspended from the transit and general funds in other years prior to the recession, according to a Tempe public document outlining Municipal Arts Fund revenues and expenditures. Mayor Mark Mitchell was among the council members who appeared to be caught by surprise that the contribution from the transit fund, which often includes transportation-infrastructure projects with public-art components, was suspended. Mitchell and Councilwoman Shana Ellis questioned whether the city’s Municipal Arts Commission, which includes public membership and recommends city arts projects, had received the information the council was getting about the fund. “Does the arts commission even know there’s a balance?” Mitchell asked. Ellis asked whether the commission had “been given a certain amount that they can spend.” Jones said that he did not believe that the commission has been restricted from spending the $1.5 million. Councilwoman Onnie Shekerjian suggested that it appeared from the hefty balance that the commission has no urgent public-arts projects. “They have over $1.5 million sitting in the fund that they haven’t even used currently for any projects, so does it make sense for us to contribute any more until such time as they decide to do something?” she said. Shekerjian said the council should consider continuing to suspend the contributions from the general and transit funds, and cut back the water fund’s contribution to half a percent from the current 1 percent. Jones told The Arizona Republic this week that the Finance Department is seeking information from the Municipal Arts Commission to answer the council’s questions. He said that update would be provided to the council at a committee-of-the-whole meeting, 4 p.m. Monday, Nov. 18, at Hatton Hall, 34 E. Seventh St. The meeting is open to the public but it is not currently being taped so that the community may watch the council discussion on Tempe Channel 11, which regularly airs other city hearings and meetings.
Don't these pigs have any criminals to hunt down??? On the other hand I guess it's a lot safer to collect expired prescriptions then it is to hunt down dangerous criminals like robbers and burglars!!! http://www.azcentral.com/community/chandler/articles/20131101chandler-police-medicine-disposal-sites.html Chandler police set up drop boxes for medicine disposal By Michelle Mitchell The Republic | azcentral.com Tue Nov 12, 2013 8:13 AM The Chandler Police Department has installed three drop boxes so residents can safely and anonymously get rid of unwanted or expired prescription medications. The collection bins were set up this summer in the lobbies of the main station and the two substations. “We saw a need for these boxes just based off of citizens in the community requesting it, dropping off prescription drugs,” said Sgt. Greg Howarth, crime-prevention-unit supervisor for Chandler Police Department. By providing a convenient place for residents to leave unwanted prescription drugs, the hope is that fewer medications will get tossed down the drain or flushed down the toilet, Howarth said. “It also gets those drugs out of the medicine cabinets that aren’t being used,” he said. That is safer if children are in the house and prevents teenagers and adults from having an easy opportunity to access drugs not prescribed to them, he said. “They come over and visit a parent, and next thing you know, they’re in the medicine cabinet,” Howarth said. More than half of the people who used prescription drugs for non-medical purposes got them from a friend or relative, according to the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. About 5 percent of non-medical users took the drugs from a friend or relative without asking, according to the survey. Needles, thermometers, liquids and ointments, aerosol cans, inhalers, and medication from businesses or clinics cannot be accepted at the drop boxes. The restrictions are for the safety of those emptying the collection boxes and because those items have special requirements to properly dispose of them, Howarth said. “If those leak or you reach into that box … and get poked, that’s the concern.” The collection boxes cost about $1,000 each, according to the MedReturn website, but there is no ongoing cost. These boxes are also available in Mesa and Scottsdale. At least once a month, officers empty the containers, take an inventory of the items left there and store the items in the property and evidence room until they can be incinerated, Howarth said. These drop boxes will not replace the drug take-back events that Chandler police hold in partnership with the Drug Enforcement Agency, Howarth said. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency both recommend returning unused or expired medications to official drug-collection programs as the best option to get rid of them. If that is not available, the agencies suggest these steps to properly dispose of prescription medications: Check the label. Some medications provide disposal instructions. Do not flush prescription drugs down the toilet unless the label specifically instructs you to do so. Take the medications out of their original containers, mix the pills with a substance, such as coffee grounds or kitty litter, and place them in a sealable bag container. Remove all identifying information from prescription bottle labels before throwing them away. Drug drop boxes MedReturn drop boxes are available at Chandler police stations for residents to drop off expired or unused prescription medications. >> Main Station, 250 E. Chicago St.: Open 24 hours a day seven days a week. >> Desert Breeze Substation, 251 N. Desert Breeze Blvd.: Open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. >> Chandler Heights Substation, 4040 E. Chandler Heights Road: Open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.
The government tyrants in Arizona aren’t the only government tyrants keeping their serfs from using medical marijuana. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/czechs-cant-access-medical-marijuana-half-year-after-legalization/2013/11/15/d420e848-4dcf-11e3-97f6-ed8e3053083b_story.html Czechs can’t access medical marijuana half year after legalization By Associated Press, Published: November 15 TYN NAD VLTAVOU, Czech Republic — Just three years ago, the only thing that Zdenek Majzlik knew about cannabis was that it’s good stuff for making rope. Today, the 67-year-old retired nuclear power plant employee is an experienced grower who cultivates pot for his daughter who has multiple sclerosis. Majzlik faces a thorny dilemma: The Czech Republic legalized medical marijuana use this year, but maintained strict restrictions on growing, selling and importing it. For Majzlik, the solution is breaking the law to grow pot for his daughter. “She’s my child and it is my duty to take care of her,” Majzlik said, standing in front of a cannabis plant in his garden. “I do what I have to and I will continue doing so. I have no other option.” Medical marijuana is legal in a number of European countries, Israel and 20 U.S. states as well the District of Columbia. Advocates say it gives patients relief from the debilitating symptoms of illnesses including cancer, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease, where more conventional treatment fails. The Czech Republic’s parliament legalized medical marijuana this year by an overwhelming majority, with the law becoming effective April 1. But some 20,000 patients who are estimated to be eligible for cannabis treatment have no chance to get it legally — although so far police have largely ignored renegade growers such as Majzlik who technically would face prison. Patients and medical experts blame interference by the Health Ministry, which has long fiercely opposed legalizing medical marijuana. “There’s a very consistent effort from the Ministry of Health not to make the law really enforced,” said Dr. Tomas Zabransky, a U.N and EU adviser on drug issues. The ministry denies deliberately blocking access to medical marijuana, but few question that its policies have raised steep barriers for patients to access pot legally. The Health Ministry and its State Institute for Drug Control, the nation’s drug agency, banned health insurance companies from covering the cost of medical marijuana, and set the maximum amount patients are allowed at 30 grams (1.1 ounces) per month, an amount Zabransky says often falls woefully short of providing effective relief. The government also banned treatment for those under 18 and allowed imports of just four types of cannabis that can be obtained only from the Netherlands at a cost of about $10 per gram — prohibitive for most patients in a nation where the average monthly salary is $1,300 and the average pension is $500. The government said it restricted legal use to these four types from the Dutch marijuana monopoly to ensure quality. Health Ministry spokeswoman Dana Salamunova said medical marijuana is not covered by insurance because the “positive effects of cannabis have not been clearly clinically proven.” So far, two licenses have been issued allowing import and distribution of marijuana, and Salamunova said the cannabis approved under those licenses may hit pharmacies in December. But the pharmacies won’t be able to legally sell it until an electronic registry is set up to record prescriptions, sales and patient information — and it’s not clear when it will be up and running. The law currently only allows medical cannabis to be imported. The Czech drug agency plans to call a public tender in April for up to 10 licenses to grow an unspecified amount of medical marijuana. The winning bidders won’t be able to start growing until they’ve been issued licenses, a process that could take months in this bureaucracy-heavy nation. Jindrich Voboril, the government’s national drug coordinator, said the conditions for obtaining medical marijuana are “unnecessarily limiting and discriminating.” Under current rules the illegal market will continue to be the main supply source, a situation Voboril calls “unacceptable.” Zabransky said doctors’ only real option is to advise patients to obtain pot illegally, either growing it or buying on the black market. Even that route may be getting harder: The government last week launched a harsh crackdown on stores suspected of supplying material for growing marijuana, carrying out about 100 raids and putting dozens of people under investigation. Majzlik’s 46-year-old daughter has been fully dependent on her parents since her marriage fell apart three years ago. Martina Kafkova was teaching guitar at a school for disabled children when she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 19 years ago. Kafkova, who uses a wheelchair, needs five joints a day to get relief from severe stiffness, painful spasms and breathing troubles because other available medicine is not effective enough. “Cannabis has saved my life,” said the tiny woman, who weighs just 43 kilograms (95 pounds), during a recent interview in the apartment where she lives with her parents. Living without it, should said, “would be a nightmare.” Her father had to step in after she ran out of supplies following her divorce. “She was in pain, screaming and begging me to help her die,” he said. Meanwhile, Majzlik spends most of his time bombarding authorities, including health officials and police, trying to make it easier to access marijuana and to lift the ban on growing it for pain relief. “That I face five years in jail for trying to provide something the current medicine can’t do is insane,” he said. “I don’t want to be a hero. I am breaking the law and that’s a problem for me. I don’t think I’m a criminal.” His activities helped persuade lawmakers to vote in favor of medical marijuana. Now he’s angry it is still not widely available. He recently approached the U.N High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Council of Europe for help. Kafkova, who received the equivalent of $400 a month from the state, expressed despair over her situation: “I only hope that I will die sooner than my parents. What would I do without them?”
More on Tempe Town Toilet!!!! http://www.azcentral.com/community/tempe/articles/20131108tempe-town-lake-dam-plan-approved.html Tempe approves final part of Town Lake dam plan The $40.8 mil project will create innovative steel dam By Dianna M. Náñez The Republic | azcentral.com Mon Nov 11, 2013 7:02 AM Tempe has approved the final piece of its $40.8 million Town Lake steel-dam project, but city officials have yet to decide whether they will pay for a long-term warranty to protect the innovative infrastructure. The council on Thursday unanimously approved a nearly $24 million construction contract. The vote paves the way for the contractor to begin working with the engineering team to finalize the dam’s design. Tempe officials have said it will be the largest steel dam in the nation. State officials said the hydraulic steel-gate dam will be the first of its kind in Arizona, spanning 950 feet across the dry Salt River bed. “The steel (dam) is a reliable infrastructure that will benefit our community for years to come,” said Tempe Mayor Mark Mitchell after the meeting. Countering critics who have said the expensive man-made lake has drained the city’s budget, Mitchell said the lake has attracted millions of dollars in economic development. The steel dam will replace a temporary rubber-bladder dam rented for a nominal fee to replace the original western-end rubber dam that failed in 2010, emptying the lake of nearly 1 billion gallons of water and spurring a months-long effort to refill the lake. Assistant City Manager Jeff Kulaga, in an interview last week with The Arizona Republic, said that engineers expect to complete the design in the next couple of months. Kulaga said he expects a decision on a warranty for the new dam to parallel the timeline for completing the design. “We’re still reviewing (warranties),” he said. The minimum two-year warranty the city is considering is cheaper compared with the longer option. However, Kulaga has said he does not have the exact cost comparison yet. Tempe council members have said they are waiting on city engineers’ recommendation on the warranty before making up their minds on whether to accept a shorter or lengthier option. Tempe Councilman Kolby Granville said he will use the staff report in his decision, but he is leaning toward the shorter warranty because the steel dam is more reliable than the former rubber technology. “I don’t have a lot of concern about a warranty,” he said. “Realistically, if a giant hunk of steel breaks, it’s not going to matter if we had a warranty. That is going to be a manufacturing defect. They would have to replace it.” But Councilman Joel Navarro said there would have to be a strong case for a shorter-term option, and staff members who make that recommendation should expect questioning from the public and council members about their reasoning. “I really would wonder if it goes to (recommending a) short-term warranty,” he said. “We had this happen with the rubber dam. We don’t want to make that same mistake twice. You’re talking about a very hot-button issue.” Innovative design Features of the steel design are so innovative that the Arizona Department of Water Resources, which will ultimately decide whether to approve Tempe’s dam permit or require modifications, asked the city to pay for a second engineering firm to review the hydraulic system. Although elements of the new dam are untested, Tempe is considering trying to save money by accepting a minimum warranty of two years. Kulaga said the city is studying the myriad warranties on individual parts of the dam. Tempe also is weighing the costs of the potential longer warranty against the cost of proper maintenance, he said. The design and steel construction are expected to be more stable and last 50 years. But Tempe officials lost the savings gamble they took when they accepted a short-term warranty on the innovative original rubber-dam engineering. The rubber dam, a technology that had never been tested in desert temperatures, had a 10-year warranty, but the city was told it would actually last more than 20 years. A durable replacement The original dam, manufactured by Bridgestone Industrial Products Inc., began to deteriorate in less than a decade under the searing sun. The city and Bridgestone argued over who was to blame for failing to install a sprinklerlike structure over the dam to protect the rubber from heat and sun damage. A deal was brokered allowing the city to rent the temporary rubber dam until Dec. 28, 2015. But the dam failed on the eve of the city installing the temporary replacement. The city hustled to refill the lake but officials were bombarded with residents’ complaints about the muddy bog. Still, the agreement with Bridgestone bought Tempe time to study a permanent replacement for the failed dam. City engineers said Tempe had to identify a type of dam sturdy enough to withstand desert temperatures, yet capable of being lowered fast enough to allow upstream waters to flow through the lake to prevent flooding on the banks, where people live in condos and businesses operate in high rises. Tempe and contract engineers spent more than a year researching options, including steel and rubber designs. The council ultimately chose the hydraulic steel-gate dam. Construction is expected to start in January at a Phoenix plant. Excavation of the river bed will begin in the spring. The city expects to begin pouring foundation for the concrete next fall and by January 2015, installing the dam gates, which are expected to be completed by December 2015.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/free/20131111atheist-mega-churches-take-root-across-us-world.html Atheist ‘mega-churches’ take root across U.S., world Associated Press Mon Nov 11, 2013 7:04 AM LOS ANGELES — It looked like a typical Sunday morning at any mega-church. Several hundred people, including families with small children, packed in for more than an hour of rousing music, an inspirational talk and some quiet reflection. The only thing missing was God. Nearly three dozen gatherings dubbed “atheist mega-churches” by supporters and detractors have sprung up around the U.S. and Australia — with more to come — after finding success in Great Britain earlier this year. The movement fueled by social media and spearheaded by two prominent British comedians is no joke. On Sunday, the inaugural Sunday Assembly in Los Angeles attracted several hundred people bound by their belief in non-belief. Similar gatherings in San Diego, Nashville, New York and other U.S. cities have drawn hundreds of atheists seeking the camaraderie of a congregation without religion or ritual. The founders, British duo Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans, are currently on a tongue-in-cheek “40 Dates, 40 Nights” tour around the U.S. and Australia to drum up donations and help launch new Sunday Assemblies. They hope to raise more than $800,000 that will help atheists launch their pop-up congregations around the world. So far, they have raised about $50,000. They don’t bash believers but want to find a new way to meet likeminded people, engage in the community and make their presence more visible in a landscape dominated by faith. Jones got the first inkling for the idea while leaving a Christmas carol concert six years ago. “There was so much about it that I loved, but it’s a shame because at the heart of it, it’s something I don’t believe in,” Jones said. “If you think about church, there’s very little that’s bad. It’s singing awesome songs, hearing interesting talks, thinking about improving yourself and helping other people — and doing that in a community with wonderful relationships. What part of that is not to like?” The movement dovetails with new studies that show an increasing number of Americans are drifting from any religious affiliation. The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released a study last year that found 20 percent of Americans say they have no religious affiliation, an increase from 15 percent in the last five years. Pew researchers stressed, however, that the category also encompassed majorities of people who said they believed in God but had no ties with organized religion and people who consider themselves “spiritual” but not “religious.” Sunday Assembly — whose motto is Live Better, Help Often, Wonder More — taps into that universe of people who left their faith but now miss the community church provided, said Phil Zuckerman, a professor of secular studies at Pitzer College in Claremont. It also plays into a feeling among some atheists that they should make themselves more visible. For example, last December, an atheist in Santa Monica created an uproar — and triggered a lawsuit — when he set up a godless display amid Christian nativity scenes that were part of a beloved, decades-old tradition. “In the U.S., there’s a little bit of a feeling that if you’re not religious, you’re not patriotic. I think a lot of secular people say, ‘Hey, wait a minute. We are charitable, we are good people, we’re good parents and we are just as good citizens as you and we’re going to start a church to prove it,” said Zuckerman. “It’s still a minority, but there’s enough of them now.” That impulse, however, has raised the ire of those who have spent years pushing back against the idea that atheism itself is a religion. “The idea that you’re building an entire organization based on what you don’t believe, to me, sounds like an offense against sensibility,” said Michael Luciano, a self-described atheist who was raised Roman Catholic but left when he became disillusioned. “There’s something not OK with appropriating all of this religious language, imagery and ritual for atheism,” said Luciano, who blogged about the movement at the site policymic.com. That sentiment didn’t seem to detract from the excitement Sunday at the inaugural meeting in Los Angeles. Hundreds of atheists and atheist-curious packed into a Hollywood auditorium for a boisterous service filled with live music, moments of reflection, an “inspirational talk” about forgotten — but important — inventors and scientists and some stand-up comedy. During the service, attendees stomped their feet, clapped their hands and cheered as Jones and Evans led the group through rousing renditions of “Lean on Me,” ‘’Here Comes the Sun” and other hits that took the place of gospel songs. Congregants dissolved into laughter at a get-to-know-you game that involved clapping and slapping the hands of the person next to them and applauded as members of the audience spoke about community service projects they had started in LA. At the end, volunteers passed cardboard boxes for donations as attendees mingled over coffee and pastries and children played on the floor. For atheist Elijah Senn, the morning was perfect. “I think the image that we have put forward in a lot of ways has been a scary, mean, we want to tear down the walls, we want to do destructive things kind of image is what a lot of people have of us,” he said. “I’m really excited to be able to come together and show that it’s not about destruction. It’s about making things and making things better.” ——— On the Web: Sunday Assembly: http://www.SundayAssembly.com ——— Follow Gillian Flaccus on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/gflaccus
http://www.azcentral.com/community/surprise/articles/20131107surprise-official-alton-no-removal.html Surprise official Alton won't be removed By Jen Lebron Kuhney The Republic | azcentral.com Sun Nov 10, 2013 8:56 PM Complaints about a Surprise councilman who moved to California but still calls in to city meetings have bounced between government agencies that have declined to investigate. Meanwhile, Surprise city leaders plan to bar council members from calling in to meetings, but the policy change will likely have no impact on Councilman Richard Alton. That frustrates residents like Randy Miller who say Alton’s refusal to step down immediately will impact who may be appointed to the seat later. Residents have submitted at least two formal complaints to the city since Oct. 10. “Am I surprised? Not really,” said Miller, who filed the first complaint. “But I am very frustrated.” Miller, a former council candidate, said he was considering reporting the issue to the FBI’s Public Corruption Division. Alton submitted his letter of resignation on Sept. 24, but he will remain in office until Dec. 31. He has moved to the Sacramento area and has called in to the last five council sessions. Alton said he is unsure if he will return to Arizona before his resignation date. “I think I’ve done an awesome job for two years and I believe I can still do good for the city of Surprise now,” he said. “But my priorities have changed,” he added. “I’m taking care of my family and spending time with my grandchildren. I’m sorry if I’ve offended anyone with my decision.” Officials from the Surprise City Attorney’s and Maricopa County Attorney’s offices each say the other agency is responsible for probing the complaints. Under the city code, Surprise does not have the authority to remove Alton or investigate whether he is a resident, Surprise Mayor Sharon Wolcott said. “When there aren’t clear rules about process at the state level, it leaves our hands tied,” Wolcott said. Wolcott said it is not the council’s place to oust an official who was elected by the people. She said she has been publicly opposed to elected officials calling in to meetings since a council member phoned in to cast a swing vote to approve putting a $185 million bond on the 2009 ballot. Yet, she said, “I will not interfere with the will of the voters. It is not up to us to decide whether a councilman should stay in office.” City officials forwarded the complaint to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, but spokesman Jerry Cobb said the county does not have jurisdiction over that type of complaint. The city could tap an independent investigator to probe the issue, he said. City officials say they don’t plan to use an outside expert because the county or state should be handling the issue. It isn’t surprising that agencies are sending the complaint back and forth, said Fred Solop, a Northern Arizona University political-science professor. “It’s an unusual situation,” he said. “Cities tend to be autonomous and that clear delineation of power between them, the county and the state makes it difficult to determine who exactly should handle a case like this one.” The timing of Alton’s resignation impacts who will be appointed to replace him. If Alton stays on the council until the end of the year, Surprise residents will get better representation, Wolcott and Alton have said. Then, the City Council could appoint a replacement from the newly redrawn district. Critics have argued that delaying Alton’s resignation allows Vice Mayor Jim Biundo to apply to be appointed to Alton’s seat because Biundo lives in the redrawn district. The redistricting changes put Biundo’s home outside District 1, the area he represents. The council is expected to adopt an ordinance on Nov. 19 that requires council members to be physically present to participate and vote in a meeting. If approved, the new rules would go into effect on Dec. 19, two days after the last regularly scheduled council meeting of 2013. The new rules also would more narrowly define an excused absence as one due to illness, family emergency, military service, personal vacations or events, or business travel. However, there are no procedures to enforce the proposed policy. That’s not unusual. In Chandler, an elected official cannot have more than three unexcused absences. Phoenix elected officials can’t miss more than 30 days of work. Under state law, all elected officials can call in to meetings unless specific city rules prohibit it. Phoenix Open Meeting Law coordinator Kristen Merser said she was unsure of what would happen if a council member were to stop attending. “There’s an expectation that they’ll be there,” she said about elected officials. “We haven’t experienced a lot of people calling in or had anyone stop showing up.”
In this editorial Terry Goddard shoves the BS and brags the system is working. Of course the fact Terry Goddard presents are all proof of why the system ISNT working!!! The RICO laws have turned changed the criminal injustice system from seeking justice, to a criminal justice system that raises cash for the elected officials and special interest groups that helped get them into power. It's not about justice it's about using the courts and police to raise cash for special interest groups. I personally I owe a huge debt to Terry Goddard!!!! He taught me that government is corrupt to the core!!!! When Terry Goddard was first elected to be the Mayor of Phoenix I thought he was the greatest thing in the world. Of course over time I discovered that Terry Goddard lied about just about every campaign promise that he made which I thought was important. And of course that made me realize that most elected officials are crooks and liars who will say anything to get elected. So even if Terry Goddard is an *sshole crook, I still owe a lot to him. http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/articles/20131105prosecutors-legacy-shows-justice-alive-well.html Prosecutor’s legacy shows justice is alive and well By Terry Goddard My Turn Sun Nov 10, 2013 6:05 PM The recent Arizona Republic series by Michael Kiefer on prosecutorial misconduct was an important reminder of the critical role of criminal prosecutors. We must protest loudly if the awesome power of the state to charge someone with a crime is abused. However, The Republic series and recent discipline imposed on top Maricopa County prosecutors might convince Arizonans that our criminal-justice system is broken. That would be wrong. There are many talented, ethical prosecutors throughout our state doing great work. One of the best, Cameron “Kip” Holmes, recently passed away. On Nov. 2, a large gathering of Arizona law enforcement celebrated his life. Kip’s lifelong quest was to serve justice, not just win cases. The best testament to his success was that counsel for defendants in Kip’s most important cases came to pay tribute to one who fought hard but always fairly. Remembering Kip reminds Arizonans how much there is to be proud of in our criminal-justice system. Kip was a superhero. He didn’t wear a cape and tights or leap tall buildings, at least not when I was watching. But, he was a fighter for justice. He singlehandedly changed this state’s approach to criminal law enforcement, with impacts far beyond Arizona. He took on powerful opposition and prevailed. Kip wrote the Arizona laws on forfeiture and money laundering and recruited a crack team of lawyers, analysts and investigators to enforce them. Over the years, his team won many court victories and seized hundreds of millions of dollars, which were returned to victims or invested in new investigations. He attacked organized crime where it hurt the most, in the pocketbook. If that’s not the work of a superhero, I don’t know what is. Much of Kip’s story can be told in his decadelong confrontation with Western Union. What began as an effort to weed out cartel collaborators within the company ultimately morphed into a titanic series of court cases. In the end, Kip scored a double victory. An international financial powerhouse became far better equipped to resist criminal forces and a powerful new state collaboration against organized crime, the Southwest Border Anti-Money Laundering Alliance, was born. Kip’s story of triumph has one unfortunate sidebar. The Arizona successes against money launders have not been repeated in other states. I have tried unsuccessfully to interest state attorneys general in fighting illegal cash transfers. But, no other state has a Kip Holmes. No man is irreplaceable, but Kip came close. The Financial Remedies Section at the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, the annual Southwest Conference on Money Laundering and the alliance are flourishing because of Kip. Now, it’s up to all who knew Kip and benefited from his legacy to pick up the torch. Terry Goddard is a former Arizona attorney general.
So Veteran's Day honours war mongers, not freedom fighters???? http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/free/20131110veterans-day-parade-honor-vets.html Veterans Day Parade to honor vets, not to provide peace-activist forum Sun Nov 10, 2013 6:41 PM Regarding E.J. Montini’s column “Peacenik veterans deserve to march” (Valley & State, Thursday): Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton should not turn his back on the thousands of veterans who have served their country. Montini suggests that our veterans would be better served by the mayor not participating in the Veterans Day Parade simply because a Veterans for Peace chapter has not complied with the parade rules or completed paperwork. We should not forget that the parade is to honor our veterans who served and for the sacrifices they have given for our country. The parade should not be used by peace activists or any other activists unless it is to honor our veterans. Yes, veterans do deserve respect. — Bernie Abeytia, Phoenix
Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton shoves the BS and pretends he stopped pension spiking in the city of Phoenix. That's a big lie. In fact Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton is a big time supporters of pension spiking. Probably because of the 3,000 votes it will get him from members of the Phoenix Police Department who are the biggest recipients of pension spiking! http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/articles/20131111pension-spiking-win-stanton.html We took the pragmatic, legal approach on pension 'spiking' By Greg Stanton My Turn Mon Nov 11, 2013 7:32 AM When I took office less than two years ago, Phoenix’s pension system was a mess. The Great Recession gutted the pension fund’s investments, leaving the city with a dangerous level of unfunded pension liability. On top of that, the unfair practice of pension spiking that remained in place for two decades inflated costs and violated our basic sense of fairness. To protect taxpayers and the pension system, we took action. First, we asked the voters to approve a set of sweeping pension reforms that, among other things, require new employees to contribute half the cost of their pension and dedicate roughly 15 percent of their salaries towards their retirement. Voters passed the measures by overwhelming margins. As a result, the city and taxpayers will save an estimated $600 million in pension expenses over the course of the next 25 years. We are putting the pension system on track to be 100 percent funded. Next, we set out to end pension "spiking" — a practice that allows some to receive lifetime payments from unused sick and vacation time as well as cellphone and car allowances. Spiking occurs in many cities and states across the country, and their taxpayers suffer as a result. To tackle the problem head on, I appointed a special subcommittee to examine the issue, analyze the legal issues and point to a path forward. It proposed a set of solutions that are among the toughest anti-spiking measures in the nation. A majority of the council approved those measures Oct. 31. Unfortunately, there has been a great deal of false information reported about these new policies, including on the editorial page of this newspaper. The public deserves the facts, and I want to set the record straight. The council affirmatively eliminated counting future unused sick and vacation compensation toward pensions. We have also ended counting other perks such as travel and communication allowances for middle managers and executives. These combined anti-spiking reforms will affect every city employee, and are likely to save the city an additional $130 million over 25 years. A few — including The Arizona Republic editorial board – urged us to break the city’s existing labor agreements and strip employees of already-vested compensation rights. But because Arizona courts have already said that violates the law, this was not considered a legitimate option. Many others said we went too far, that we should have followed other states whose reforms only affect future hires. More than 98 percent of the residents and employees who testified at public hearings — as well as every employee union — opposed the plan, arguing the measures would diminish the quality of service Phoenix provides. I disagree. In my view, employees and taxpayers alike are better served with a more fair and transparent — and fiscally sound — retirement system. Our more pragmatic — and legal — approach earned the support of the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, which hailed the new policies as practical steps “to ending an unsustainable practice allowed for many years within the system.” We’ve come a long way in less than two years. It hasn’t been easy. But by making tough choices, and staying true to doing what’s right, Phoenix is finally on the right track. Greg Stanton is mayor of Phoenix.
Even if I think it is a misguided politically correct policy to ban guns on private property, I certainly think the owners of private property have every right to ban guns on their property! http://www.azcentral.com/news/free/20131111gonzaga-students-punished-pulling-gun-intruder.html 2 students punished for pulling gun on intruder Associated Press Mon Nov 11, 2013 1:03 PM SPOKANE, Wash. — Gonzaga University has agreed to review its weapons policy as two students who used a pistol to drive an intruder from their apartment appeal their probation for having guns in their university-owned accommodation. “As a Jesuit institution dedicated to thoughtful evaluation of complex social issues,” Gonzaga will use the incident to re-examine its policy, President Thayne McCulloh said in a weekend statement. The university informed the students, Erik Fagan, 21, and Daniel McIntosh, 23, over the weekend they were on probation and could be suspended or expelled for any more violations of the Spokane university’s code of conduct, The Spokesman-Review reported (http://bit.ly/17qgjgm ). Gonzaga should consider student safety above all else, said their lawyer, Dean Chuang. “We’re glad that it didn’t have to end in tragedy for them to consider changing the policy there,” Chuang said. “Our boys were armed and stopped a home invasion here.” A homeless man came to their door Oct. 24 demanding money and trying to force his way inside. Fagan offered the man a blanket and a can of food but refused to hand over any cash, he said. The man became agitated and combative. Fagan shouted for McIntosh, who came downstairs holding a loaded 10 mm Glock pistol. “I draw on him,” McIntosh said. “As soon as he sees me, he decides he doesn’t want to deal with me. So he takes off.” The men called police and campus security. Fagan has a concealed weapons permit, he said. Campus security returned the next day and confiscated McIntosh’s Glock and Fagan’s shotgun, which he uses for hunting and sport shooting. The men say their guns were seized illegally and are seeking to have them returned. They say they are glad they weren’t expelled, but they are appealing their probation because they don’t want the sanction on their school records. Students are not allowed to have guns in their homes if they live on campus or in a university-owned apartment. The university discipline board on Friday found Fagan and McIntosh responsible for two violations: possessing weapons on school grounds and putting others in danger by the use of weapons. The man who went to their door, John M. Taylor, 29, is a six-time felon, said police spokeswoman Monique Cotton. His crimes have included riot with a deadly weapon, possession of a controlled substance and unlawful imprisonment. Officers responding to an initial report of a residential burglary, found him in the area, Cotton said. He was jailed on an arrest warrant from the state Department of Corrections, she said. Typically that means a person under department supervision has violated terms of release. Taylor was no longer on the jail roster Monday. Calls to the Department of Corrections were not immediately returned on Monday and there was no answer at the Spokane County Public Defender office, which might represent Taylor.
http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/articles/20131111pension-spiking-fail-diciccio.html Mayor Greg Stanton's pension reforms are designed to fail DiCiccio: Spiking proposal gave unions what they wanted By Sal DiCiccio The Republic | azcentral.com Mon Nov 11, 2013 7:33 AM Mayor Greg Stanton broke his campaign promise to taxpayers to end pension "spiking" and kept his promise to the government unions to keep pension spiking. Spiking allows government employees to enhance their pensions at retirement. Stanton’s proposal still allows employees to walk away with large sums of money at retirement by cashing in unused vacation, sick leave, deferred compensation and other perks and use those cash outs to “spike” their yearly pensions. Two years ago, 10 people retired and walked away with more than $700,000 in cash and received more than $114,000 in yearly pensions for life. One individual, through spiking, walked away with $795,000 in cash and spiked his yearly pension from $96,000 a year to $136,000. And, yes every single person of the more than 14,000 employees gets to spike. It’s not just reserved for the top brass. The mayor’s proposal continues to allow employees to roll over vacation and sick leave year after year and then at retirement cash in a portion of those hours at the higher ending wage/salary. Phoenix owes more than $12 million in accrued hours. We paid out about $50 million at retirement in the past five years for vacation and sick leave accruals. The proposal that Councilmen Jim Waring, Bill Gates and I proposed would have stopped this practice and put in place a “use it or lose it” paid time off model. The same model you get. Rushing through the mayor’s proposal stopped the city from evaluating all other ideas that would have brought real reform. Waring, Gates and I asked that all proposals and ideas be modeled, allowing the public the ability to see the costs savings of each in a transparent and open way. This did not happen. Here’s what did happen. All of this was moved back behind closed doors and away from public scrutiny. This out-of-control pension problem and the “pension spiking” was all originally created behind closed doors. And the mayor’s proposal moved everything back to the closed doors of labor negotiations. Any proposal must withstand a legal challenge. This is important. It is important for the public to know that there were other proposals that had a better chance of protecting the citizens. Of four proposals discussed, the one pushed by the mayor was third in legal defensibility. The proposal backed by Waring, Gates and I was first. So what does this all mean? It means the mayor’s proposal was designed for failure. To fail in closed-door labor negotiations and in court, thus keeping pension spiking in place. It gave the labor unions exactly what they wanted. The proposal that Waring, Gates and I proposed would have stopped spiking, provided the public the ability to see all options and put in place the best practice defendable in court. The mayor’s proposal passed on Halloween. The public got tricked and the unions got treated. Sal DiCiccio is a Phoenix city councilman representing District 6, which includes Ahwatukee and parts of north-central Phoenix.
I think David Euchner is a Libertarian who works as a public defender for Pima County http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/articles/20131111prosecutors-group-doth-protest-series-too-much.html Prosecutors group doth protest series too much By David Euchner My Turn Mon Nov 11, 2013 5:12 PM Not surprisingly, Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys’ Advisory Council and other elected prosecutors did not like Arizona Republic reporter Michael Kiefer’s series exposing prosecutorial misconduct in Arizona (“The gray area of courtroom conduct,” Oct. 27-30). The prosecutors’ responses, however, are one-sided and misleading to the point that a rebuttal is required. Undoubtedly, the vast majority of prosecutors are honorable and ethical. But APAAC refuses to address some particulary thorny problems regarding misconduct and instead sets up a straw-man argument that Kiefer never made. The prosecutors’ claim that “the criminal-justice system … works perfectly in 99.9996 percent of the cases” is demonstrably false. This assumes a false premise — that in every case where there is no post-conviction DNA exoneration, the system worked perfectly. Take Ken Peasley’s prosecution in the El Grande Market murder case that ultimately led to his disbarment for suborning perjury, described by Kiefer in detail. Two defendants were ultimately freed, but the third remains in prison nearly 20 years after a trial tainted by perjured testimony. The system certainly did not work “perfectly” in that case. The prosecutors union is understandably defending prosecutor Noel Levy. After all, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal’s reversal of Debra Milke’s murder conviction specifically called for an investigation of possible civil-rights violations by the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. The only witness to Milke’s confession, now-retired Phoenix police Detective Armando Saldate, is invoking his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. When the primary officer on the case is invoking his Fifth Amendment rights, we must wonder why the prosecution has not been dropped. Kiefer’s series could not possibly cover all the worst cases. For example, Deputy Pima County Attorney David White died on the job in 2003, and many boxes containing undisclosed exculpatory evidence were discovered in his office, leading the Carolyn Peak murder case to be dismissed and his other cases to be examined. Prior to his death, White was facing Bar charges for misconduct in the prosecution of Robert Jones, who was executed last month even though exculpatory information was suppressed. White was APAAC’s Prosecutor of the Year in 1999 based in part on the Jones prosecution. It is a good sign that Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery is evaluating the conduct of his prosecutors and has abandoned Andrew Thomas’ practice of filing frivolous complaints and criminal charges against defense attorneys and judges. This is to be commended. But let us also acknowledge that Kiefer’s series bears great truth: Some prosecutors, aware of the judiciary’s reticence to reverse convictions, knowingly commit prosecutorial misconduct to increase the chance of convictions. There’s an old saying coined by Dallas prosecutors — and repeated by some in Arizona — that “anybody can convict a guilty man; it takes talent to convict an innocent one.” Kiefer’s series showed that APAAC has bestowed its highest honors on those who committed the most egregious misconduct. Prosecutors have extreme power. Any abuse of that power demeans us all. David Euchner is president elect of the Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice, an organization of criminal defense lawyers.
http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/articles/20131106prosecutors-improved-training-oversight-ignored.html Prosecution series did more to insult than inform By Bill Montgomery My Turn Wed Nov 6, 2013 4:15 PM The Arizona Republic’s series on prosecutors (“The gray area of courtroom conduct,” Oct. 27-30) did more to demean and insult the men and women responsible for holding criminals accountable on behalf of Maricopa County than it did to contribute to a meaningful discussion of capital litigation and how our justice system actually works. It also missed an opportunity to detail significant changes in training and oversight within the County Attorney’s Office to enhance the professionalism daily displayed by prosecutors ethically seeking justice. Asserting “there are tricks of the prosecutorial trade, ways to sway a jury without crossing the line” is just the first of many gross misrepresentations of what goes on in a trial. While the goals of a defense attorney, to seek the best result for their client, and those of a prosecutor, to seek justice on behalf of a victim and the community, are different, they use similar tactics to accomplish legitimate goals. It’s called trial advocacy, and it is taught in law schools and continuing legal education, though the frequent allegation of prosecutorial misconduct is a unique “trick” for the defense. I guess you need to conduct trials rather than just watch them to know that. Likewise, criminal rules of procedure allow both sides to request a change of judge without cause, not just the prosecution, as falsely presented. Of the 82 death-penalty cases in The Republic’s database, reporter Michael Kiefer cites 18 in which the court “found improprieties or outright misconduct” by prosecutors, noting further that “only two prosecutors were disciplined.” But by conflating impropriety with misconduct, which are not the same, Kiefer misleads readers to believe that prosecutors are rarely held accountable. The court found only two instances of prosecutorial misconduct in the 18 cases referenced, and both resulted in discipline. Misconduct claims in the other 16 cases were not sustained. By contrast, 39 of the 82 cases in the database include allegations of ineffective assistance of defense counsel, three of which led to a reversal of a conviction or sentence. Kiefer does not tell us if these defense attorneys faced consequences. Kiefer then indicts our entire criminal-justice system with the observation that “the way the justice system really works is that if you are charged with a crime, you are likely to be found guilty of something.” That reflects the standard for charging a case that requires necessary evidence to prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt. Otherwise, defense attorneys, judges and jurors are part of a grand conspiracy where they ignore their constitutional roles. We do not seek to charge crimes where the likely outcome is acquittal or dismissal. I take seriously my duty to ensure we conduct prosecutions in an ethical manner. We have bolstered our internal training program to underscore the special role prosecutors have in the criminal-justice system. I recently met with all supervisors to ensure they understand their responsibility in enforcing professional standards. Likewise, I increased the mission of our Ethics Committee to ensure prosecutors are adhering to ethical standards and gave the committee the authority to refer prosecutors to the state Bar. As for the claim that I am “lobbying” on issues surrounding medical marijuana and Arizona laws protecting the unborn, I am a named defendant in lawsuits involving these issues. There is a difference between litigating and lobbying. A 10-year court watcher should know that. Bill Montgomery is the Maricopa County attorney.
Kind of reminds me of the old days when the Arizona Republic used ran editorials, usually written by tough on crime nut jobs demanding the death penalty for the victimless crime of selling marijuana and other illegal drugs. OK, maybe smoking pot causes people to do stupid stuff and waste their lives away!!!! Who cares!!!! It's far worse wasting our tax dollars putting people who smoke or sell pot in prison. Kind like when I was a kid and worried about God sending me to hell for masturbating!!!! Of course now a few Christian nut jobs also think the government should put people in prison for masturbating. http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/articles/20131111medical-marijuana-inherently-dishonest-editorial-prog.html Cheech and Chong would love Arizona's medical-pot law By Editorial board The Republic | azcentral.com Mon Nov 11, 2013 4:12 PM Keeping an inherently dishonest program honest is no easy task. The Arizona Department of Health Services got that job in 2010 when voters bought into one of the biggest cons around and narrowly approved “medical” marijuana. Below: Medical marijuana, by the numbers DHS Director Will Humble deserves credit for trying to keep things honest. But you have to wonder if it’s even possible. So-called medical-marijuana laws are more about normalizing a recreational drug than getting medical treatment to sick people. It is true that marijuana appears to provide relieve from symptoms of some ailments or side effects from other medical treatment. But Arizona’s medical-marijuana law did not produce a time-tested way for those patients to access a dose-controlled, legitimate pharmaceutical product. It opened the door to abuse. If you doubt that, just ask yourself what other medically prescribed pharmaceutical is sold through special “dispensaries” instead of at the drug store. A law that authorizes those who claim chronic pain — a subjective and unprovable assertion — to buy generous doses of an otherwise illegal recreational drug is a farce. In fact, 73 percent of Arizonans who got approved to use pot between July 2012 and June 2013 cited severe and chronic pain as the sole reason they needed the drug, according to DHS’ second annual medical marijuana report issued this month. None but the chronically gullible will be surprised. Seventy-two percent of qualifying patients were male, and 30 percent of those men were between the ages of 18 and 30. This age group listed pain as a debilitating condition at a higher rate than any other group. Man, that hurts! We’re not saying the young don’t suffer. But you have to wonder why Arizona is seeing so much pain among people who are in their prime recreational drug-using years. The report suggests collecting “more nuanced data” to help better understand “how medical marijuana may influence pain management.” Good idea — and tactfully stated. But collecting that information is difficult under the current language of the medical-marijuana law, the report says. What’s more, statutory changes or amendments are necessary to conduct an epidemiological analysis that would show any public health and safety implications of medical-marijuana use on opiate dependency, motor vehicle accidents and pregnancy and breast feeding. Lawmakers: When Humble comes around next session, listen up. He needs to be able to better track what’s going on. What we do know raises real questions. For example, DHS found a mere 25 physicians certified about 70 percent of pot patients. Twenty-one of those docs were naturopaths. A total of 472 physicians wrote 36,346 pot ’scripts during the period covered by the report. Humble told The Republic’s Yvonne Wingett Sanchez this raises concerns about whether people are seeking our “certification mills” rather than going to primary-care doctors who would bring more scrutiny to those requests to get high for health. Humble is doing his best to keep a misguided law true to voter intent. This report shows just how hard that task is. Voters were right to feel compassion for sick people, those who might legitimately benefit from access to marijuana. But this law patches together patient with a remedy that has more in common with a street drug than standardized medicine. As a result, pot patients are stigmatized by a system that invites abuse. Meanwhile, DHS deserves public and political support as it tries to rein in the excesses of a law only Cheech and Chong could love.
http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/free/20131111looking-beyond-obamacare.html Looking beyond ‘Obamacare’ Dear Abby Mon Nov 11, 2013 5:07 PM Everybody needs medical care; it’s too important to leave to a bunch of greedy profit makers. Hence, “Obamacare.” Now that health care is “saved” by government takeover, one might ask, what’s next? Hereafter, a bit of speculation. Everybody needs food; it’s too important to leave to a bunch of greedy profit-making agribusiness conglomerates. Besides, per our first lady, Americans don’t know the right things to eat or the right amounts or the right times. And we’re already halfway there, with “guidelines” for school lunches and breakfasts. My friends, we must have “Obamafare.” Everybody needs clothing, but our wardrobe choices are clearly lacking. This critical need cannot be left to a bunch of greedy profit-making clothing manufacturers, distributors and retailers. The solution? Think of Nehru jackets and leisure suits for everybody: “Obamawear!” Everybody needs housing; it’s too important to leave to a bunch of greedy profit-making builders, Realtors and landlords. Again, we’re halfway there with public housing, HUD subsidies, etc., so the next logical step must be a government takeover. We’ll get everyone into a nice home — maybe yours — with “Obamashare.” Everybody needs grooming; it’s clearly too important to leave to Americans to decide for themselves. Just have a look around! We need — we must have — “Obamahair.” Every man needs a man-cave. But some are dressed out in Green Bay Packer regalia. More than any other desperate need, we must have Da “ObamaBear!” — Bruce Jorgensen, Gold Canyon
Hey, the Republicans aren't corrupt. The Democrats aren't corrupt. The whole system is corrupt to the core!!!! If you want change you need to vote Libertarian. http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/free/20131110pick-common-sense-over-fringe.html Pick common sense over ‘fringe’ Sun Nov 10, 2013 6:24 PM I’d like to chime in on the “fringe” wacko bird’s recent letter about leftists (“I’m proud to be a ‘fringe’ wacko bird in a country crowded with leftists,” Opinions, Thursday). I’m an independent voter who prefers common sense. I believe both parties have valid points on different issues, but neither is right about everything. It’s the “fringe” that is creating problems rather than solutions. The Democrats didn’t create the $17 trillion debt alone. Remember the two wars President George W. Bush got us into and the financial crash on his watch? No Child Left Behind has done nothing more than create more bureaucracy for teachers so Bush would have his legacy. It’s about time a politician stood up and blamed parents for part of the lack of educational success. “Obamacare” is proof that government should stay out of business, but Barack Obama craves his legacy, too. The problem today is that both sides care more about votes than people. Maybe if all of us moved more towards the middle and used common sense as our compass, we could solve problems. What our country really needs right now is bipartisanship, not fringe. — Tim Propps, Phoenix
http://www.azcentral.com/news/arizona/free/20131110navajo-council-consider-junk-food-tax-proposal.html Navajo Council to consider junk food tax proposal Associated Press Sun Nov 10, 2013 10:18 AM FARMINGTON, N.M. — A proposed sales tax on junk food is headed to the Navajo Nation Council for consideration. The legislation calls for an additional 2 percent tax on sweetened beverages, chips, candy, cookies and pastries bought on the reservation, which spans parts of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. The revenue would be used to build wellness centers, parks, basketball courts, trails, gardens and picnic grounds. It would also help to sponsor health education classes. Supporters tell The Daily Times (http://bit.ly/1iSQjtP ) the tax would help reduce diabetes and encourage people to buy healthy foods. Opponents argue the tax would push consumers to buy junk food in stores off the reservation. The measure is sponsored by Delegate Danny Simpson. He’s also sponsoring legislation to remove the sales tax on vegetables, fruit, water and other foods.
Even cops deserve a fair trail. I also suspect this cop is being railroaded, not because of the crimes he committed, but because he p*ssed off his masters one way or another. http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/20131112ex-officer-phoenix-chrisman-may-get-new-trial-in-death.html Ex-officer may get new trial in 2010 death By JJ Hensley The Republic | azcentral.com Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:07 PM Nearly two months ago, a jury convicted former Phoenix police Officer Richard Chrisman of assaulting a south Phoenix man in 2010, but the legal wrangling related to the case is far from over. Attorneys representing Chrisman want a new trial, and have asked Maricopa County Judge Warren Granville to vacate the jury’s decision, accusing Deputy County Attorney Juan Martinez of prosecutorial misconduct and questioning the competency of the victim’s mother, who testified in the first trial. Granville is scheduled to hear oral arguments today on the motion for a new trial. Chrisman is scheduled to be sentenced on the aggravated-assault count later this month. In September, jurors found Chrisman guilty of assaulting 29-year-old Danny Frank Rodriguez when Chrisman put his service weapon to Rodriguez’s temple soon after the officer and his partner entered Rodriguez’s south Phoenix trailer in an October 2010 domestic-violence call. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on second-degree murder and animal-cruelty allegations. Prosecutors told Granville last month that they planned to retry Chrisman on the second-degree murder and animal-cruelty charges. About the only thing prosecutors and Chrisman’s defense team have been able to agree on is the possibility that they could reach a settlement before a new trial. “Just because we set a trial date, it does not mean there has been a change in attitude in the office about being willing to resolve the case short of trial,” County Attorney Bill Montgomery said in a news conference last month. “I’m open to resolving the case short of a retrial on the remaining two counts. Obviously there are a lot of factors that would come into play, but we’re willing to sit down and talk with the defense. Both sides have to agree to specific terms and conditions, whether or not we can get there, that’s the crux of the effort to settle the case.” Chrisman is facing a sentencing range of five to 15 years for the aggravated-assault conviction, but could spend nearly 30 years in prison if he is convicted during a retrial and his aggravated assault conviction is counted as a prior felony. Chrisman’s defense team filed a motion on Tuesday asking the court to strike the prosecution’s attempt to count the aggravated assault as a prior conviction, arguing that it happened during the same incident. Craig Mehrens, a Chrisman attorney, said he always thought the County Attorney’s Office would refile the second-degree murder and animal-cruelty charges following the hung jury, but he remains open to a settlement. “We’re still pursuing a resolution short of a retrial,” he said. Chrisman said he had no choice but to shoot Rodriguez because the officer’s partner had abandoned him and none of the non-lethal tactics he had used to subdue Rodriguez, who was high on methamphetamine, had worked. Chrisman’s partner on the call, Officer Sergio Virgillo, testified that he had successfully de-escalated the tension inside the tiny trailer just before Chrisman shot Rodriguez’s dog and then killed Rodriguez as he was backing away from the officers. The acrimony that the two sides showed during the trial appeared again in court filings and exhibits where Chrisman’s defense team cited a recent series in The Arizona Republic among the examples of Martinez’s alleged prosecutorial misconduct. That misconduct showed up during the trial when Martinez ignored objections and “blurted out” information that he wanted the jury to hear and when he injected confusing and misleading evidence while examining witnesses, according to the court filings. “Taken one by one and examined in a vacuum, each act by Mr. Martinez might not amount to misconduct warranting a new trial,” Chrisman’s defense team wrote. “The defense’s assertion is that taken as a whole, there is more than ample evidence of a consistent pattern of misconduct during this trial to warrant a new trial.” Martinez, in response, wrote that the burden of proving prosecutorial misconduct is high and the threshold to vacate jury verdicts greater. Chrisman’s defense attorneys can argue that Martinez did not adequately communicate about the availability and identity of his witnesses, or that he made a last-minute allegation during closing arguments that Chrisman’s fellow officers had helped him cover up the crime, but none of those facts, if true, swayed the jury’s guilty verdict on the aggravated-assault charge, the prosecutor wrote. “Although defendant spends considerable time arguing about AFIDs (evidence) from Tasers, the aggravated assault was not committed with a Taser. Therefore, the jury’s verdict could not have been affected by comments during closing (arguments) about Taser evidence,” Martinez wrote.
This is kind of odd, cops being punished for their crimes!!!! http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/20131112border-agents-prison-sentences-abuse-migrants.html 2 border agents get prison for abuse of migrants By Bob Ortega The Republic | azcentral.com Tue Nov 12, 2013 9:24 PM Two suspended Border Patrol agents were sentenced Tuesday to 24 months each in federal prison for civil-rights offenses because of their mistreatment of undocumented migrants they caught smuggling marijuana in the Arizona desert five years ago. In April, a jury convicted agents Dario Castillo, 25, of four felony counts, and Ramon Zuniga, 31, of four misdemeanor counts, of deprivation of civil rights under color of law. That charge applies to government officials or officers who use their position unlawfully to deprive anyone of their rights under the U.S. Constitution. John Leonard, the U.S. attorney for Arizona, said the verdict “sends a clear message that abuse of authority by federal law enforcement officers will not be tolerated.” Castillo had faced a maximum of 10 years on each felony count, and Zuniga faced a maximum of one year on each misdemeanor count. The two agents have been given until Jan. 14 to begin serving their sentences. According to evidence presented at the agents’ trial in U.S. District Court in Tucson, at about 10:30 p.m. on Nov. 12, 2008, Border Patrol agents spotted a group of men toting backpacks full of marijuana through the Tohono O’odham Reservation, near the border with Mexico. As agents approached, the group dropped their packs and scattered. Four men were caught by Castillo, Zuniga and two other agents. Zuniga found a bag of marijuana on one of the men, and shoved it into several of the men’s mouths, ordering them to eat it, according to the evidence presented at trial. The agents then forced the men to take off their shoes, socks, jackets and extra shirts they’d been wearing. Castillo used a cigarette lighter borrowed from another agent to set fire to the shoes and clothing. Then Castillo and Zuniga ordered the men to run away. The men spent the night in the desert, barefoot with one layer of clothing, in 50-degree temperatures. They were caught the next morning by tribal police officers. After being returned to Border Patrol custody, the men accused Castillo and Zuniga of mistreating them. All four men were eventually deported without being charged with any drug offense. The Border Patrol did not immediately respond to questions about whether the agents would be terminated.
Yea, and most Americans, also believe that a long haired, bearded hippy guy named Jesus created the universe and watches over us 24/7!!!! Just because a lot of people believe something doesn't make it true!!!! I don't know if the so called "global warming" is true, but even if it is we certainly don't need the government to spend our money to stop it. http://www.azcentral.com/news/free/20131113study-global-warming-alarms-usa.html Study: Global warming alarms USA By Wendy Koch USA Today Wed Nov 13, 2013 12:33 AM The vast majority of Americans in each of 40-plus states surveyed say global warming is real, serious and man-made, and the concerns tend to be slightly higher in coastal or drought-stricken areas, says an analysis out today. At least 75% of U.S. adults say global warming has been happening, but the Stanford University research found that 84% or more took that view in states recently hit by drought — Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas — or vulnerable to sea-level rise: Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island. Despite intense debate in Congress on global warming, the research found broad public agreement on the issue and its remedies. Most say past warming has been caused largely by human activities — ranging from a low of 65% in Utah to a high of 92% in Rhode Island. Most also back government curbs on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants — from 62% in Utah to 90% in New Hampshire. "The consistency of findings across states was especially surprising to me," says author and professor Jon Krosnick, director of Stanford's Political Psychology Research Group, adding the analysis is likely the first to offer state-by-state breakdowns. He plans to release the findings today on Capitol Hill. Global warming remains controversial. This week, representatives of more than 100 nations gathered in Warsaw for the United Nations' annual talks on how to deal with climate change. On Thursday, the House Subcommittee on Energy and Power holds a hearing on legislation that would thwart proposed rules to limit carbon emissions from new power plants. The Environmental Protection Agency is expected next year to finalize these rules and also propose limits for existing power plants. Krosnick says the data, based on 23 surveys — mostly by Stanford — suggest members of Congress who question global warming or oppose EPA power plant rules may not have an accurate view of what their constituents want. "This is still a politically divisive issue," says Michael Dimock, director of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. He says just because most constituents want action doesn't mean a lawmaker's political base does. A national Pew poll last month found that while 67% of Americans say there's solid evidence the earth has been warming, the GOP is deeply divided. Just 25% of Tea Party Republicans say there's such evidence compared to 61% of other Republicans. Dimock welcomes Stanford's state-by-state approach. He says that its overall findings are consistent with national polling though it finds more Americans believe global warming is man-made. Pew's recent survey found 44% take that view. Stanford's analysis looks at opinion on 22 questions, some of which had sufficient data from all but four states — Alaska, Hawaii, North Dakota and Wyoming. It finds that in every state surveyed, most Americans support tax breaks to produce renewable energy and reduce air pollution from coal as well as efforts to boost energy efficiency for cars, appliances and buildings. Less popular were government policies to encourage the building of electric vehicles and nuclear power plants. Most unpopular were higher consumption taxes on electricity and gasoline. Higher gas taxes won support from as few as 15% of adults in Idaho, South Carolina and Utah and as many as 42% in Colorado. "Majorities consistently said that the U.S. should take action regardless of what other countries do," Krosnick says, noting that support for this view fell below 50% in only one state surveyed — Utah.
Bill Clinton to Obama: Let Americans keep canceled health plans Obliviously government knows how to run our lives better then we do!!!! Well at least that's how Obama and the folks in Congress who passed Obamacare or the ACA or Affordable Care Act seem to feel. Of course if they had come out on day one and told Americans that we were too stupid to care for our own medical needs, the law would have never passed. http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/free/20131112bill-clinton-obama-americans-keep-canceled-health-plans.html Bill Clinton to Obama: Let Americans keep canceled health plans USA Today Tue Nov 12, 2013 2:20 PM WASHINGTON — Adding pressure to fix the administration’s problem-plagued health care program, former President Bill Clinton says President Barack Obama should find a way to let people keep their health coverage, even if it means changing the law. Clinton says Obama should “honor the commitment that the federal government made to those people and let them keep what they got.” The former president, a Democrat who has helped Obama promote the 3-year-old health law, becomes the latest in Obama’s party to urge the president to live up to a promise he made repeatedly, declaring that the if Americans liked their health care coverage, they would be able to keep it under the new law. Instead, millions of Americans have started receiving insurance cancellation letters. That, coupled with the troubled launch of the health care law’s enrollment website, has prompted Republican critics and frustrated Democrats to seek corrections in the law. House Republicans have drafted legislation to give consumers the opportunity to keep their coverage. Ten Senate Democrats are pushing for an unspecified extension of the sign-up period and in a private White House meeting last week several pressed Obama to do so. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., has proposed legislation that would require insurance companies to reinstate the canceled policies. The White House says it is working on changes that would ease the impact of the cancellations for some people. But the fixes under consideration are administrative actions, not congressional changes to the law. White House spokesman Jay Carney on Tuesday reiterated the White House argument that the cancellations apply to only about 5 percent of Americans who obtained health care insurance. He also argued that more than half of those people receiving termination notices would benefit from better insurance at lower prices either through expanded Medicaid or through new health care marketplaces. For the remainder, Carney said, “The president has instructed his team to look at a range of options.” The issue facing the administration now is how to ease the impact on people who are losing their plans and don’t qualify for subsidies to cover higher premiums. Carney said the White House opposes a House Republican bill, proposed by Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., that would allow insurers to keep selling insurance that doesn’t offer the type of benefits required by the new law. “Any fix that would essentially open up for insurers the ability to sell new plans that do not meet standards would create more problems than it fixed,” he said. Jonathan Gruber, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist who advised the Obama administration on the health care law, said the White House has few if any administrative options available. One solution, he said, would be to offer a “transitional tax credit” to those consumers who are losing their insurance and must pay more for new coverage that meets the law’s standards. “I don’t know how you do that without Congress’s permission, and they’re not going to give it to you,” he said. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second ranking Democratic leader in the Senate, on Tuesday said that while the law does face problems, he said some of the changes proposed by Republicans “are not friendly proposals. They’re designed to derail this effort.” In an interview with CNN, Durbin cautioned that if consumers are permitted to keep policies that don’t meet the law’s minimum requirements “it’s going to be difficult for the insurance industry to produce a product that really is going to serve our needs and that they can adequately tell us what it costs.” Asked whether Obama lied to the public when he promised people that they could keep their policies, Durbin said: “A couple more sentences added would clarify it.” In his interview with the website www.OZY.com , Clinton overall praised the health care legislation. “The big lesson is that we’re better off with this law than without it.” Carney noted that Clinton’s own efforts to pass health care legislation during his presidency were blocked. “The goal here is to achieve what President Clinton and presidents both Democratic and Republican sought to achieve in the past,” he said.
F*ck that First Amendment free speech thing. Or government masters in Washington D.C. have decided that it is illegal for you to ask certain questions in interviews. http://www.azcentral.com/business/jobs/free/20131029not-all-ihttp://www.azcentral.com/business/jobs/free/20131029not-all-interview-questions-legal.htmlnterview-questions-legal.html Not all interview questions are legal CareerBuilder Wed Nov 13, 2013 12:19 AM During job interviews, employers will try to gather as much information about you as possible, mostly through perfectly legal questioning, but sometimes through simple yet illegal questions. It’s up to the interviewee to recognize these questions. Any questions that reveal your age, race, national origin, gender, religion, marital status and sexual orientation are off-limits. Lori Adelson, a labor and employment attorney and partner with the law firm Arnstein & Lehr, and Joan K. Ustin & Associates, a consultant firm specializing in human resources and organization development, compiled the following illegal interview questions that are often mistaken as appropriate: What type of discharge did you receive in the military? This is not appropriate for the interviewer to ask you, but they can ask what type of education, training or work experience you’ve received while in the military. Is English your first language? It’s not the employers’ lawful right to know whether a language is your first language. In order to find out language proficiency, employers can ask you what other languages you read, speak or write fluently. What country are you from? If you have an accent, this may seem like an innocent question, but it’s illegal because it involves your national origin. Employers can’t legally inquire about your nationality, but they can ask if you’re authorized to work in a certain country.
Obama is a liar??? http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/troubled-healthcaregov-unlikely-to-work-fully-by-end-of-november-as-white-house-vowed/2013/11/12/daf9670a-4bca-11e3-be6b-d3d28122e6d4_story.html?hpid=z1 Troubled HealthCare.gov unlikely to work fully by end of November By Amy Goldstein, Juliet Eilperin and Lena H. Sun, Published: November 12 E-mail the writers Software problems with the federal online health insurance marketplace, especially in handling high volumes, are proving so stubborn that the system is unlikely to work fully by the end of the month as the White House has promised, according to an official with knowledge of the project. The insurance exchange is balking when more than 20,000 to 30,000 people attempt to use it at the same time — about half its intended capacity, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose internal information. And CGI Federal, the main contractor that built the site, has succeeded in repairing only about six of every 10 of the defects it has addressed so far. Government workers and technical contractors racing to repair the Web site have concluded, the official said, that the only way for large numbers of Americans to enroll in the health-care plans soon is by using other means so that the online system isn’t overburdened. This inside view of the halting nature of HealthCare.gov repairs is emerging as the insurance industry is working behind the scenes on contingency plans, in case the site continues to have problems. And it calls into question the repeated assurances by the White House and other top officials that the insurance exchange will work smoothly for the vast majority of Americans by Nov. 30. Speaking in Dallas a week ago, President Obama said that the “Web site is already better than it was at the beginning of October, and by the end of this month, we anticipate that it is going to be working the way it is supposed to, all right?” The need for what the official called a “divide-and-conquer strategy” for enrollment puts more emphasis on alternative methods for buying health plans. These methods include federal call centers and insurance companies that sell policies directly to customers — paths that are hobbled for now by some of the same technical problems affecting the federal Web site. Julie Bataille, director of communications at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, said: “We are working 24/7 to make improvements so that by the end of the month the site is working smoothly for the vast majority of users. We are making progress, including fixes to reduce error rates and get the site moving faster. “The challenges we are addressing today,” she added, “are a snapshot of November 12th, not November 30th.” Meanwhile, pressure intensified Tuesday on the Obama administration to address the growing complaints of Americans whose individual insurance policies are being canceled because they do not comply with new government rules for coverage. The online magazine Ozy published a video interview with former president Bill Clinton saying that Obama must “honor the commitment” he made to Americans that they could keep their insurance — even if it requires a change in the law. Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger said she and her counterparts in other states have offered suggestions to the White House on how best to address the problem of canceled policies. The most obvious solution, she said, would be to allow customers to renew policies early to let them stay in effect until November 2014. But that would come with a trade-off, she said: Those people would not receive federal subsidies for which they might be eligible if they bought a plan on the exchange. She said that she and other insurance commissioners are trying to address consumers’ desire to use the federal exchange. “Honestly,” she said, “it’s just a big mess right now. . . . I don’t know what to tell people.” Debate over how to respond to Americans who are irate about losing their insurance is intensifying on Capitol Hill. The House plans to vote this week on a bill introduced by Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) that would extend this year’s insurance plans for a year. On Tuesday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said she is co-sponsoring a bill with Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) that would require insurers to offer 2013 plans on the individual market indefinitely. On Wednesday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is set to grill several high-ranking administration technology officials about the problems affecting HealthCare.gov. The software defects that ware making the Web site unstable with too much volume mean that some people face frozen computer screens when they try to enter information — and then get timeout errors, said the official with knowledge of the project. Call centers have had problems, too. Within the network of 17 federally sponsored call locations staffed by more than 10,000 people, consumers are discovering that telephone representatives lack the authority to correct errors in online applications. And sometimes, consumers with more than routine questions are promised that specialists will call them back, but the calls never come. Insurance companies, which have been pressing the White House for greater ability to sign up customers directly, are stuck at the moment, unable to complete enrollments. That is because they must connect with the federal online system to determine whether customers’ incomes qualify them for tax credits to help pay for their insurance — a part of the system that does not work. According to the official, workers are trying to streamline the computer system so that it can handle outside queries from insurers and the call centers about whether people are eligible for subsidies. Technical workers are striving to have this part of the system working reliably within two to three weeks. The work that remains to be done on the exchange is significant because the 2010 Affordable Care Act requires most Americans to have health insurance by Jan. 1. Under the law, the online marketplaces were supposed to be a central way for uninsured people who do not have access to insurance through a job to get coverage that is better and more affordable than most current individual policies. In a telephone call with reporters earlier Tuesday, Bataille said that HHS is e-mailing about 275,000 consumers who have gotten stuck while trying to shop for and buy health plans. The e-mails encourage them to try again. Asked whether the Web site could handle all those consumers if they logged on at once, Bataille replied, “That’s why we are sending this series of e-mails in waves.” The CMS has said it has cut the waiting time for pages on the federal Web site from an average of eight seconds to one second and has reduced errors that have blocked consumers from 6 percent to 2 percent. For some consumers, their frustration with the site has been compounded by their experiences with a call center. Lisa Chandler, 54, who lives with her husband outside Toledo, wanted to explore her new insurance options through the federal exchange. She had received a notice from her insurer that her health plan was ending and offering her a new one if she signed up by the end of this week. After she was unable to complete an application on HealthCare.gov, she tried to contact a center three times and each time was told that a specialist would call back. No one did. In Pennsylvania, Charles Roessler, 64, tried to apply three ways: online, through a call center and on paper. The retired computer salesman has decided on a health plan but hasn’t been able to sign up via any of the methods because no one has been able to verify his subsidy. During his most recent attempt, on Monday, he asked a call center representative to delete duplicate applications but was told that the center lacked the authority. “We’re being told that you can go online or enroll through the call center,” he said. “Well, no, not really. . . . I’m just inches away from the finish line.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/senior-navy-civilians-investigated-in-alleged-scheme-to-defraud-military-for-16-million/2013/11/12/74383ffa-4bbb-11e3-9890-a1e0997fb0c0_story.html?hpid=z4 Senior Navy civilians investigated in alleged scheme to defraud military for $1.6 million By Craig Whitlock, Published: November 12 E-mail the writer Federal authorities are investigating three senior Navy intelligence officials as part of a probe into an alleged contracting scheme that charged the military $1.6 million for homemade firearm silencers that cost only $8,000 to manufacture, court records show. The three civilian officials, who oversee highly classified programs, arranged for a hot-rod auto mechanic in California to build a specially ordered batch of unmarked and untraceable rifle silencers and sell them to the Navy at more than 200 times what they cost to manufacture, according to court documents filed by federal prosecutors. The purpose of the silencers remains a mystery. According to the court papers, one of the intelligence officials told a witness in the case that the silencers were intended for SEAL Team 6 , the elite commando unit that killed Osama bin Laden. The case is the second contract-fraud investigation to entangle senior Navy intelligence officials in recent weeks. On Friday, the Navy disclosed that Vice Adm. Ted “Twig” Branch, the director of naval intelligence, and Rear Adm. Bruce F. Loveless, the director of intelligence operations, are under investigation as part of an unrelated bribery scandal involving Glenn Defense Marine Asia , a Singapore-based defense contractor. Neither admiral has been charged with a crime. But the Navy suspended their access to classified materials after their names surfaced in an escalating probe into allegations that other officers provided sensitive information to the contractor in exchange for prostitutes and cash. There is no known connection between the two corruption cases, but both reach high into the Navy hierarchy and, based on prosecutors’ filings, expose how easy it can be for contractors and insiders to defraud the service of millions of dollars. The investigations also call into question the Navy’s ability to prevent fraud. In April 2011, after yet another contracting scandal, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus pledged a crackdown and appointed a special panel to improve oversight. “We will not accept any impropriety, kickbacks, bribery or fraud,” he promised at the time. A few months later, however, civilian intelligence officials at Navy headquarters began circulating e-mails that set into motion the scheme to purchase the firearm silencers, according to affidavits from investigators and other documents filed recently by prosecutors in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. None of the three Navy civilian intelligence officials has been charged in the investigation, which is ongoing. Their names are redacted in most of the court documents, which refer to them as “Conspirator #1,” “Conspirator #2” and “Conspirator #3.” But in one affidavit, federal investigators neglected to black out the name of Conspirator #2, identifying him as Lee Hall of Virginia. Hall is a longtime defense intelligence official who now works for the Navy. An attorney for Hall, Danny Onorato, declined to comment. The same affidavit identifies Conspirator #1 by his first name, David. Three people familiar with the case said that person is David W. Landersman, the senior director for intelligence in the Navy’s directorate for plans, policy, oversight and integration intelligence. Stephen M. Ryan, an attorney for Landersman, declined to answer questions about the case but said, “I’m confident that he did nothing wrong and will be fully exonerated.” Ryan said Landersman is a retired Marine colonel and decorated combat veteran who served in Somalia and did multiple tours in Iraq. Landersman and Hall were placed on administrative leave in the spring after the Naval Criminal Investigative Service opened a probe into the silencer purchases, the people familiar with the case said. Rear Adm. John F. Kirby, the Navy’s chief spokesman, declined to comment on the men’s work status, saying he could not discuss the details of ongoing investigations. “Secretary Mabus has made it clear that he holds senior leaders in the Navy Department accountable to high standards of ethics and conduct,” Kirby said in a statement. “We take seriously all allegations of wrongdoing and investigate them thoroughly.” Court records show that the only person charged has been the auto mechanic: Mark Stuart Landersman, 52, of Temecula, Calif. He is David Landersman’s brother. Mark Landersman was arrested Oct. 29 and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and to transport unregistered firearms. He was released on $100,000 bond. His attorney, John Zwerling, declined to discuss the allegations. “We have been living with this set of facts for months,” he said. “We are convinced that he has committed no crimes.” Court records describe Mark Landersman as a down-on-his-luck mechanic who struggled to keep his Temecula repair shop in business. He and his wife declared personal bankruptcy in July 2012. A month later, according to charging documents, Mark Landersman received a series of e-mails from his brother at the Pentagon about firearm silencers, including a link to a Web site with do-it-yourself instructions for building a certain model. “Wow! Very simple,” Mark Landersman replied in an e-mail on Aug. 14, 2012, according to the charging documents. The next day, Navy finance officials informed David Landersman that they had approved a $2 million budget supplement he had requested for “studies, assessments and research.” Two days after that, Landersman’s office transferred almost all of the money to a preexisting Navy intelligence contract with CACI, a major contractor. According to court documents, Hall and Conspirator #3 then directed CACI to buy the silencers from a California company newly incorporated by Mark Landersman. Hall also told CACI to award the business without seeking a lower bid, according to investigators. In e-mails, Hall said that Landersman’s fledgling company was “the only responsible source for the engineering expertise sought” and that “their product is first that incorporates a unique design that significantly reduces the decibel ratings to near background noise levels.” To manufacture the silencers, Landersman turned to Carlos C. Robles, a machinist who used to work in his auto repair shop. He gave Robles blueprints for what he called “a small-engine muffler” and asked him to make 349 of them, according to charging documents. Robles later told agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that he built the mufflers and that Landersman paid him $8,000 to cover parts and labor. He acknowledged to the agents that the mufflers closely resembled silencers. ATF firearm examiners tested the devices and concluded they were functioning silencers. In an interview with The Washington Post, Robles said he was stunned to learn that Landersman had resold the silencers to CACI and the Navy for $1.6 million. “Are you kidding me?” he said. A CACI spokesman did not return phone calls or an e-mail seeking comment. Soon after CACI paid for the work, the recently bankrupt Landersman went on a shopping spree, according to charging documents and affidavits filed by federal investigators. He bought stock shares in a microbrewery for $100,000, a restored 1988 Porsche 911 for $49,084, an off-road racing vehicle for $15,000, a Ford Ranger for $40,000, a red 2013 Ford F-150 Raptor pickup truck for $59,294 and a $5,760 welder. In February, the silencers were delivered to a Naval Research Laboratory warehouse in Chesapeake Beach, Md. NCIS agents seized the silencers two months later. The silencers were unmarked and untraceable, despite a federal law requiring all firearm manufacturers to imprint them with a serial number and the name of the maker. Why the silencers were ordered remains unclear. According to court records, one of the Navy intelligence officials under investigation told another Navy employee that the silencers were intended for the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, the official name for Navy SEAL Team 6. The intelligence official said the silencers were designed for the “AK family of firearms,” a reference to Kalashnikov rifles such as the AK-47. Officials with SEAL Team Six told investigators that they were unaware of any such order for silencers, according to court documents.
http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa/articles/20131112mesa-school-board-ends-opening-prayer-custom.html Mesa school board ends opening-prayer custom By Cathryn Creno The Republic | azcentral.com Wed Nov 13, 2013 9:47 PM The Mesa Public Schools governing board has quietly ended its tradition of starting public meetings with a non-denominational prayer. Instead, board President Mike Nichols on Tuesday asked audience members to observe a moment of silence after saying the Pledge of Allegiance. A ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on a public-prayer case this week could impact prayer at all levels of government, including school districts, many public officials believe. Nichols and board member Michelle Udall said Mesa schools' legal counsel recently advised that if the district were to be sued over the prayer said by district staff before public meetings, the district likely would lose. “We were told it’s a church-state issue,” Udall said. “We would likely not win in the long run.”
While I love Indian food, their culture tends to treat woman as 4th class citizens who have no rights whatsoever!!!! http://www.azcentral.com/news/free/20131113india-top-policeman-draws-fire-rape-remark.html India’s top policeman draws fire with rape remark Associated Press Wed Nov 13, 2013 9:00 AM NEW DELHI — India’s top police official apologized Wednesday for saying, “If you can’t prevent rape, you enjoy it,” a remark that has outraged women across the country. Central Bureau of Investigation chief Ranjit Sinha made the remark Tuesday during a conference about illegal sports betting and the need to legalize gambling. The CBI, the country’s premier investigative agency, is India’s equivalent of the FBI. Sinha said at the conference that if the state could not stop gambling, it could at least make some revenue by legalizing it. “If you cannot enforce the ban on betting, it is like saying, ‘If you can’t prevent rape, you enjoy it,’” he said. The remarks have caused outrage across India, which in the past year has been roiled by widespread protests following the fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old woman on a bus in New Delhi. On Wednesday, Sinha said that his comments had been taken out of context and misinterpreted, and that he was sorry if he had caused hurt. Angry activists, however, called for his resignation. Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat said Sinha’s comments were offensive to women everywhere. “It is sickening that a man who is in charge of several rape investigations should use such an analogy,” Karat told reporters. “He should be prosecuted for degrading and insulting women.” The New Delhi attack on the young woman last December caused nationwide outrage and forced the government to change rape laws and create fast-track courts for rape cases. New laws introduced after the attack make stalking, voyeurism and sexual harassment a crime. They also provide for the death penalty for repeat offenders or for rape attacks that lead to the victim’s death
F*ck that 2nd Amendment thingy!!!! Well at least that's how the cops seem to feel about it. Of course the Second Amendment was intended to allow us to protect ourselves from cops and other government tyrants. Right now that's how I feel about Scott Henderson!!!! I should say this is probably also a jobs program the cops are creating for themselves. http://www.azcentral.com/business/consumer/free/20131113undetectable-guns-law-enforcement-challenge.html Federal agents turn attention to plastic guns Associated Press Wed Nov 13, 2013 3:30 PM WASHINGTON — With a law banning undetectable firearms about to expire, federal agents are focusing attention on the latest twist in high-tech weaponry: guns made entirely out of plastic. 3-D industrial printers that can create plastic models and prototypes now can make guns that can’t be picked up by metal detectors. A longtime ban on undetectable firearms is scheduled to expire Dec. 9 and two Democratic senators, Chuck Schumer of New York and Bill Nelson of Florida, have called for a ban on plastic guns. “The expiration of this law, combined with advances in 3-D printing, make what was once a hypothetical threat into a terrifying reality,” said Schumer. “We are actively exploring all options to pass legislation that will eliminate the problem.” In a meeting with reporters Wednesday, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said plastic guns present a special challenge for law enforcement agencies. The agents said that in order to comply with current law, a person manufacturing a gun must use a certain amount of metal in the finished product so that the firearm is detectable by scanners at airports, federal buildings, sporting events — any place where security screening is in place. If the law expires, someone could legally make and sell firearms that are undetectable. A loophole in the existing law allows someone to make an illegal gun legal by simply attaching a removable metal piece to the weapon. That piece could be removed if someone wanted to sneak the weapon into a protected location. ATF spokesman Christopher Amon said that the agency does not comment on specific legislation, but provides technical advice and assistance to members of Congress and their staff on a variety of firearms-related issues. The Justice Department has not weighed in on the issue.
Cops don't like it when reporters criticize crooked cops!!! http://eastvalleytribune.com/opinion/columnists/article_4cc1ed26-4bfd-11e3-a556-0019bb2963f4.html Reporter shoots from the hip, damages good officer’s name Retired Mesa master police officer Bill Richardson lives in the East Valley and can be reached at bill.richardson@cox.net. Posted: Thursday, November 14, 2013 7:45 am By Bill Richardson, guest commentary When I saw the Nov. 7 KPNX Channel 12 news story headlines, “Cop cover up? Did Chandler police officers tamper with evidence after a Mesa SWAT sergeant’s DUI?” I thought, not another dirty cop! 12 News reported Chandler police were launching an internal investigation thanks to reporter Wendy Halloran uncovering a Chandler sergeant who “may have covered up evidence” in a 2002 DUI case. Halloran reported she “uncovered an unusual DUI case in Chandler” following a “tip” from a fired crime scene technician. Her tipster was fired in 2008 for unlawfully taking thousands of photographs of violent crime victims from police custody for own personal use. No criminal charges were filed against her. In June a federal appeals court upheld her firing. Halloran made the public records request days after her tipster lost her case. Halloran wanted 32 specific investigations dating back 21 years and seven police chiefs ago. After her five-month investigation, paying for and reviewing 2,700 pages of reports, Halloran’s focus shifted away from Mesa and re-aimed at highly decorated undercover Chandler police Sgt. Keith Benjamin, who received the 2008 Top Cops Award from Parade Magazine. Halloran failed to mention his twice being named “Officer of the Year.” Halloran reported that in August 2002 Chandler police arrested Mesa police officer Mike Beaton, not a SWAT sergeant as reported, for DUI following a one-car accident. Beaton admitted he’d been drinking and voluntarily took a blood test. His blood alcohol content was .16. Police had the evidence they needed to charge him. Benjamin made the decision to arrest and book Beaton into jail. DUI charges were brought but eventually dismissed because of prosecutorial errors. Following Beaton’s arrest Mesa police started an internal investigation into his off-duty conduct. Beaton was suspended without pay for a week. He has since been promoted to sergeant, lieutenant and was awarded the department’s highest award for valor for the leading the 2010 hostage rescue of a girl who was kidnapped by a heavily armed gang member. During the Mesa internal investigation, a rookie Chandler officer mentioned two empty beer cans in Beaton’s car and Benjamin disregarding his concern about the cans. That was enough for Halloran to go after him. Halloran’s story zeroed in on Benjamin’s 11-year-old comments. Her portrayal of the incident easily led people to believe the sergeant’s handling of the beer can situation was an attempt to “cover up” evidence? In my own experience and that of several veteran traffic enforcement officers I spoke with, beer cans in DUI arrests are inconsequential and not evidence. Even though Benjamin works undercover, Halloran showed his photograph during the newscast. What Halloran also failed to report was Mesa police internal affairs investigators and command staff reviewed the Beaton investigation and found no misconduct by Benjamin. If Mesa had detected any wrongdoing by the Chandler sergeant they were duty bound to report it immediately to his police chief. Benjamin has yet to be proven guilty of any misconduct by his own department. This isn’t the first time Halloran has shot from the hip when she didn’t have or report all the facts. In 2010, Halloran reported New Times reporter Paul Rubin allegedly paid three world-class pathologists for their opinions in the case of Pinal County Sheriff’s Deputy Louie Puroll reportedly being shot by drug smugglers. Before the newscast was over Channel 12 felt compelled to issue a retraction about Halloran’s false accusation after being contacted by the New Times. One can only wonder why Halloran didn’t ask the right questions and get all of the facts before pointing fingers? Halloran’s report made a negative impact on how the public sees the police. Being a cop is tough enough without the public’s attitude being misshaped by an errant reporter who doesn’t get all of the facts before dragging good cops names through the mud on TV. • Retired Mesa master police officer Bill Richardson lives in the East Valley and can be reached at bill.richardson@cox.net.
Rape is rape - well except when you have a gun and a badge!!! I don't agree with that, but I suspect that is how a lot of our government masters feel when they discipline the cops that protect them from us serfs. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/secret-service-agents-and-managers-accused-of-sexual-misconduct-by-whistleblowers/2013/11/14/8d1c4750-4d6e-11e3-9890-a1e0997fb0c0_story.html?hpid=z3 Whistleblowers tell Senate panel of alleged sexual misconduct by Secret Service agents By Carol D. Leonnig and David Nakamaura, Published: November 14 E-mail the writers Secret Service agents and managers have engaged in sexual misconduct and other improprieties across a span of 17 countries in recent years, according to accounts given by whistleblowers to the Senate committee that oversees the department. Sen. Ronald H. Johnson (Wis.), ranking Republican on a Homeland Security subcommittee, said Thursday that the accounts directly contradict repeated assertions by Secret Service leaders that the elite agency does not foster or tolerate sexually improper behavior. The allegations come in the wake of a prostitution scandal last year in Cartagena, Colombia, that roiled the Secret Service and prompted numerous reviews of its male-dominated culture. In a subsequent episode, The Washington Post reported this week, two supervisors were cut from President Obama’s security detail after allegedly sending sexually explicit e-mails to a female agent. Johnson said that one of those disciplined supervisors, Ignacio Zamora Jr., had helped lead the internal investigation into the April 2012 incident in Cartagena, where more than a dozen agents engaged in a night of heavy drinking and carousing with prostitutes ahead of a presidential visit. One person involved in security in Cartagena said Zamora was chosen for the review because he served as the “second supervisor” on the trip, and was among the managers responsible for the security effort in advance of Obama’s arrival for an international summit. The agency discovered Zamora’s e-mails to a female subordinate after he accidentally left a bullet behind in a woman’s room at the upscale Hay-Adams hotel in Northwest Washington. Johnson said in a statement that letting Zamora investigate Cartagena amounted to “the fox guarding the hen house.” Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan hung up on a reporter seeking comment Thursday on Zamora’s role and other allegations. An attorney representing Zamora declined to comment. White House officials also declined to comment. After the Cartagena scandal, the agency adopted new policies banning the consumption of alcohol 10 hours before employees report to work and limiting consumption to “moderate amounts” during off-duty hours. Agents and officers cannot drink alcohol when stationed at the hotel of the public official they are assigned to protect. Johnson declined to elaborate on the specifics of the whistleblower allegations. But two people briefed on the accounts said they include agents and managers hiring prostitutes, visiting bordellos on official trips, having extramarital affairs on the road, and having both one-night stands and long-term sexual relationships with foreign nationals that were not properly reported. Hiring prostitutes and having sexual relations with foreign nationals are both forbidden by Secret Service policy governing the top-secret security clearances needed for a service job. One whistleblower who has shared his account with Johnson’s committee told The Post on Thursday that senior management was fully aware of agents hiring prostitutes on foreign and domestic trips. In one incident in November 2009, the whistleblower said, a crew of more than 70 agents was waiting on a military transport plane to depart Thailand after a rest stop in the country before heading to South Korea. One of the agents was missing, and to avoid a delay, a supervisor agreed to stay behind to retrieve him from a Thai brothel, where he was found intoxicated. Senior management agreed to transport the agent back to the United States at great expense on a commercial flight. He faced no punishment, the whistleblower said. Echoes of Cartagena: Ruckus at hotel leads to internal review of president’s protective detail. Click here to subscribe. Obama visited South Korea in November 2009 as part of an eight-day Asian trip that also included stops in Japan, Singapore and China. In the wake of Cartagena, Homeland Security Inspector General Charles K. Edwards launched a review of the Secret Service’s culture and behavior. Johnson and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the national security subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, wrote to Edwards on Thursday asking why they have yet to see a final report, which is due to become public in coming weeks. “A serious and robust investigation should have revealed facts within weeks, allowing corrective action to be swiftly implemented with Congressional oversight,” the two members wrote. Johnson said he has concerns about whether the inspector general’s review will be thorough. He also said the Department of Homeland Security has been notoriously soft and has redacted damaging information in its public assessment of the Secret Service’ s handling of problems. “This type of behavior jeopardizes the security of the President of the United States and makes U.S. government personnel susceptible to coercion and blackmail,” Johnson said in his statement. In the Hay-Adams incident in May, people briefed on the case said, hotel managers notified the Secret Service after Zamora allegedly tried to reenter a woman’s room where he had mistakenly left behind a government-issued bullet from his service weapon. He had met the woman at the hotel bar before joining her in her room, the people said. A follow-up investigation revealed that Zamora and another supervisor, Timothy Barraclough, had each sent sexually explicit e-mails to a female agent, the people briefed on the case said. Officials have removed Zamora from his position and moved Barraclough off the detail to a separate part of the protective division.
At last week's Amnesty International Concert in Tempe where I was screwed over by Scott Henderson one of the woman selling tickets angerly told me that if I don't love America I should leave it. She, and I suspect Scott Henderson were angry with me because I was wearing a t-shirt that had a picture of a marijuana leaf on it that said "I love my country, but fear my government". Why either of those folks is involved with Amnesty International is beyond me. They both seem like police state thugs. Of course they probably both think they are freedom fighters protecting the world from people like me who think we have the right to free speech and criticize our corrupt government. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/11/14/16-american-cities-foreign-governments-warn-their-citizens-about/?hpid=z4 16 American cities foreign governments warn their citizens about By Reid Wilson November 14 at 4:34 pm Planning a trip abroad? It’s probably best to check out the State Department’s list of travel warnings for countries with unsafe political situations. At the moment, the State Department has issued travel warnings for 34 countries, from the Central African Republic and El Salvador to Iraq and North Korea. Well, just as State warns Americans about dangerous places to travel, so too do foreign ministries in other countries — and some countries warn their citizens to avoid heading to certain cities in the U.S. France, in particular, warns travelers to be careful in a large number of specific cities. Here’s what other countries, mostly France, say about American cities: Boston: Avoid walking at night in Dorchester, Mattapan and Roxbury, and be wary of “petty crime” in Chinatown, the North End and Fenway. New York: Be wary in Times Square and at the Statue of Liberty, and don’t go to Harlem, the Bronx or Central Park at night. Washington: Northeast and Southeast should be avoided, and Union Station is dangerous at night. “Le quartier Anacostia n’est pas recommandable de jour comme de nuit.” Translation: Don’t go to Anacostia, day or night. Baltimore: “Considered a dangerous city except downtown.” Richmond: “Do not visit the city on foot.” Pittsburgh: The French urge their citizens to avoid Mount Oliver, Hill District, Homewood-Brushton and Hazelwood. Cleveland: Avoid Cleveland Heights, Lakewood and Euclid. That warning got Cleveland Heights Mayor Edward Kelly upset. “The French government is foolish and doesn’t know what they’re talking about,” he told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Detroit: “The center is not recommended after the close of business.” Chicago: Stay away from the West Side and anywhere south of 59th Street. Houston: Be vigilant if traveling through Downtown, south and east Houston at night. St. Louis: “Eviter le quartier nord entre l’aéroport et le centre-ville, mais la navette reliant l’aéroport est sûre.” Translation: Avoid northern area between the airport and the city center, but the airport shuttle is safe (Hat tip to our friend Chris Good, of ABC News, for spotting that nugget). Atlanta: The French are nervous about the southern part of the city, and downtown after dark. New Orleans: Northwest of Dauphine Street, northeast of Ursulines Avenue, north of St. Charles Avenue and south of Magazine Street are areas of concern. Miami: “Canadians have been the victims of crime such as break-ins, assaults and pickpocketing in the Miami area, sometimes during daylight hours,” Canada’s foreign ministry warns. France says attacks on tourists in Florida are rare now, but were frequent a few years ago. Los Angeles: France warns tourists to take care in Hollywood, Santa Monica, Venice Beach and Long Beach, and to avoid Watts, Inglewood and Florence. El Paso: The British Foreign Office warns tourists about violence along the border with Mexico, and the border crossing at Ciudad Juarez specifically. Germany doesn’t warn its citizens about any specific cities, but it does caution against letting it all hang out: “Although the laws in individual states categorizing nudity as ‘indecent exposure’, are rarely asserted and punished, those laws should absolutely be followed. Nude bathing and changing clothes at the beach stirs up public agitation and can lead to unpleasantnesses.” Want to receive GovBeat in your inbox? Sign up here for our twice-weekly newsletter! [And of course stay away from Amnesty International Concerts in Tempe. You may be falsely arrested for volunteering to shot fotos of the event]
As long as prosecutors are allowed to use junk science like this in trials people will be continued to be framed for crimes they didn't commit. The cops say that the way Melvin Nathaniel Pate blinked is positive proof that he was murdered by Jermaine Hailes. What's next, will cops come up and say that the way I farted is proof that I was planning on robbing a bank in Cleveland???? http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/video-of-paralyzed-man-identifying-his-shooter-by-blinking-banned-from-pr-georges-murder-trial/2013/11/14/28b5422c-4b15-11e3-ac54-aa84301ced81_story.html?tid=hpModule_13097a0c-868e-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394&hpid=z10 Video of paralyzed man identifying his shooter by blinking banned from Pr. George’s murder trial By Lynh Bui, Published: November 14 E-mail the writer A Prince George’s County jury will not be allowed to see video that prosecutors say showed a slain man identifying his shooter by blinking his eyes before his death, a judge decided Thursday. In a written decision, Judge Leo E. Green Jr. barred the evidence from a trial set for December, ruling that showing the video to jurors would have violated the defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to face his accuser. Had the blink testimony been allowed, it would have been the first time such evidence appeared in a Maryland murder case and the fourth time in the United States. Green spent two weeks deciding whether video of Melvin Nathaniel Pate blinking at a photo lineup should be included in Jermaine Hailes’s murder trial. Pate, 29, died in 2012, two years after the video was recorded. The crux of the debate lies in whether the video would have violated Hailes’s constitutional right to confront his accuser. “The inability of Hailes’s defense team to explore Pate’s viewing and recollection of the shooting runs afoul of Hailes’s Sixth Amendment right of confrontation,” Green wrote in his ruling. Prosecutors will spend the evening reviewing the judge’s 33-page decision before offering a detailed comment, said John Erzen, a spokesman for the Prince George’s County Office of the State’s Attorney. “We are disappointed in the court’s ruling, but we feel that the remaining evidence will still allow us to present a strong case and we look forward to proceeding to trial on December ninth,” Erzen said in an e-mail statement. Hailes’s attorney, Robert Moskov, did not immediately return calls Thursday night. The case presented highly unusual legal questions for the judge and the attorneys. During a hearing two weeks ago, prosecutors argued that the video should be considered a “dying declaration,” one of the unique circumstances under which such material could be allowed at a trial. But Pate died two years after the video was made, complicating whether his blink was really a “dying” declaration. According to police, Pate was shot during a drug sale gone bad in November 2010. He had planned to sell a half-pound of marijuana to people who ended up robbing him instead. A bullet fired during the robbery hit him in the face and lodged at the top of his spine, leaving Pate paralyzed from the neck down. The video in question shows police detectives flashing six photos to Pate days after he was shot. He is asked to “blink hard” to indicate which of the photos resembles the person who shot him. Pate blinks at Hailes’s picture. There was dispute over whether Pate’s blinking was a legitimate form of communication. During the hearing, Hailes’s attorney argued that the blinking could be confused with Pate’s natural impulse to keep his eyes moist. The prosecutor insisted that Pate was deliberately blinking during the lineup with police. The judge found that Pate was competent when he gave statements to the police, that blinking was an acceptable form of communication and that the blink could be considered a “dying declaration.” But in the end, Green ruled, Pate’s video should be considered court testimony that would have to be reviewed critically and questioned. Because Pate is dead, there is no way to scrutinize the reliability of the statement he gave to police when he blinked. “The only way that we can assure that Pate’s identification of Hailes was accurate is through examination and most importantly cross-examination,” Green wrote. “The video tape depicting Pate’s identification is less than 2 minutes and consists of Pate viewing 6 photos. The court has nothing more.”
If a private business operated like this they would be put in jail for fraud!!!! http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-edd-deficit-20131112,0,627791.story#axzz2kj3rwchn California's unemployment benefits fund is mired in debt By Marc Lifsher November 15, 2013, 5:00 a.m. SACRAMENTO — Late payments, glitch-prone computers and swamped call centers aren't the only problems bedeviling California's unemployment insurance program. The insurance fund that pays state jobless benefits — run by the Employment Development Department — owes nearly $10 billion to the federal government. That's because the state has been paying far more in jobless benefits than it receives in employer-paid taxes, and the feds make up the difference. "The whole system is really whacked out right now and needs a fix," said Assemblyman Curt Hagman (R-Chino Hills). "Every time you peel off a layer of this EDD, there's an additional problem waiting to be tackled." Hagman is vice chairman of the Assembly Insurance Committee, which last week held an oversight hearing into the EDD's operations. California has been wrestling with its unemployment insurance debt for almost five years, and now it projects that the debt won't be repaid for at least a decade. That's unless Gov. Jerry Brown's administration and the Legislature come up with a new way to pay for the employer-financed program. At least three stabs at finding such a solution have failed since 2004, with the last attempt failing this year. "We can't keep putting our heads in the sand," said Angie Wei, a lobbyist for the California Labor Federation. "The problem is not going to go away by itself." About 466,000 Californians currently receive state-paid unemployment benefits. The average weekly benefit is about $300; the maximum, $450. Recipients are required to actively seek employment. Employers pay state and federal unemployment-insurance taxes. The state's unemployment insurance fund finances the first 26 weeks of jobless benefits, and that's the fund that is insolvent — largely because tax revenue has been insufficient to cover the sharp rise in claims that began with the recent recession. In addition, federally funded benefits extending past 26 weeks are scheduled to expire at the end of the year unless renewed by Congress. The state had hoped to pay back the federal government as the economy got better, but no dice, officials said recently. The debt is so large, a recent EDD update warned, that "the current financing system cannot self-correct during better economic times ... even if disbursement levels were to reach pre-recessionary levels." The blunt assessment, EDD spokeswoman Loree Levy said, was intended to spur policymakers, economic interest groups and politicians to reach agreement on how to balance the fund. "It's got to be fixed," she said, "or we take another dive when we hit another recession." In the meantime, each year California employers have to forgo hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of federal tax credits, which are reduced when the state cuts its repayments to the federal government. And their federal unemployment tax bill could more than quadruple in 2015 compared with the 2012 level, the EDD forecast said. State taxpayers, meanwhile, are saddled with the interest payments on the debt to the federal government. The state has paid $871 million in the last three years and will pay an estimated $431 million in the next two years, the EDD said. Much of that interest had to be paid with other borrowed money: $612 million from the state disability insurance fund, which comes due in 2016 and 2017. There's no mystery about how to right the fund, analysts say. Employers, who provide 100% of the funds for the state safety-net program, could increase contributions. California is one of a handful of states in the nation that levy the payroll tax on only a worker's first $7,000 of annual income. Alternatively, laid-off workers could get lower payments or be excluded from benefits by tightening eligibility requirements. Or, there could be some combination of the two. For now, groups representing employers and labor, separately, have shown interest in talking with the governor's staff about trying yet again to cut a deal. "The administration will continue to push all parties to work together to stabilize the fund," said Jim Evans, a Brown spokesman. But getting business owners and lawmakers to pass a tax increase during an election year "is a tough sell," said Allan Zaremberg, president of the California Chamber of Commerce. Zaremberg and other employer groups are not confident of reaching an agreement that can win support from two-thirds of the members of the state Senate and Assembly. "I don't see the political will to do it," said Bill Dombrowski, leader of the California Retailers Assn. This year, an employers coalition proposed refinancing the federal debt by selling state bonds to be retired out of current unemployment tax revenue. The governor's office, which has been working to pay down what Brown calls the state's "wall of debt," did not embrace the idea. "It appears to be a non-starter," Dombrowski said. At the same time, business also put forward a list of 23 proposals, similar to those in other states, that in various ways would reduce unemployment benefits and make qualifying for them more difficult. "There's no appetite for taking away benefits or eligibility for laid-off workers," said Wei, the California Labor Federation lobbyist. "Our average weekly benefit is $300. Who can live on that?" marc.lifsher@latimes.com
To protect and serve - Themselves!!! You may also want to google Louis Scarcella, a retired NYPD Detective who is suspected of framing up to 50 people for murder!!!! http://www.azcentral.com/news/free/20131114former-nypd-detective-held-m-burglary-case.html Former NYPD detective held in $10M burglary case Associated Press Thu Nov 14, 2013 12:54 PM MINEOLA, N.Y. — A former New York City police detective was part of a burglary ring that pocketed approximately $10 million in loot over several years, including $3 million worth of sunglasses, prosecutors announced Thursday. The ex-detective, Rafael Astacio, 41, of Copiague, and four others were scheduled to make initial court appearances Thursday in federal court in Central Islip. Astacio’s attorney did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment. The proceeds of the burglaries included the sunglasses taken from a Plainview, N.Y., business and $2 million in cash stolen from a plastic surgeon’s office, prosecutors said. The five men were charged with conspiracy and transporting stolen property across state lines. Astacio also was charged with illegally accessing an FBI database while working as a detective. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Astacio, a 20-year veteran who was assigned to the special victims division, was fired this month following an Internal Affairs investigation. “Astacio’s actions make clear that he was a police officer in name only, having sold his badge and his honor in exchange for his share of their ill-gotten gains,” U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said in a statement. According to the indictment, the ring operated on Long Island between 2009 and 2012. It used traditional burglary tools like blow torches, crowbars, wire cutters and sledgehammers, and technology including cellphone jammers and police scanners, according to the indictment. In one instance, the crew allegedly installed a tracking device on a car to ensure the victim was not present when a break-in happened. If convicted, Astacio faces up to 17 years in prison.
You mean folks like Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, killing 13 people and wounding 30??? http://www.azcentral.com/insiders/nowdeparting/2013/11/14/military-members-to-get-expedited-security-screening-at-more-airports/ Posted on November 14, 2013 11:39 am by Dawn Gilbertson Military members to get expedited security screening at more airports Military personnel on active duty will be eligible for expedited security screening at 100 airports beginning next month under a program announced this week by the Transportation Security Administration and the U.S. Department of Defense. Service members currently get the perk in just 10 airports by showing their Common Access Card. Beginning Dec. 20, they will automatically receive access to TSA PreCheck lanes at the 100 participating airports, including Sky Harbor International Airport, by entering their Department of Defense identification number when making airline reservations. The access is available on trips for military business and personal travel. TSA PreCheck, which began two years ago, allows eligible participants to keep their laptops and small liquids in their carry on bags during screening as well as leave their shoes, jackets and belts on. They also get a dedicated security lane that speeds up the process. The program is currently open to invited frequent fliers of participating airlines, including US Airways and Southwest Airlines, as well as travelers who are members of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Trusted Traveler program, such as Global Entry. Southwest Airlines joined the program this month. The TSA is in the process of expanding eligibility to more U.S. citizens by opening it up to applications this fall. That program, which requires a background check including fngerprinting, will debut at two airports, Washington Dulles International Airport and Indianapolis International Airport, and be expanded from there. The fee for a five-year membership is $85. Some passengers are being randomly selected for PreCheck on flights. On a US Airways flight from Providence to Phoenix via Philadelphia last month, my teenage daughter had PreCheck access stamped on her boarding pass, something we didn’t realize until she presented it at the security checkpoint. (I was still stuck in the regular line.)
I think Obamacare or the ACA sucks, but I doubt if the law was written to allow Obama to act like a King and cancel parts of it. http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/free/20131114obama-health-care-affordable-plans.html Policy cancellations: Obama will allow old plans By David Espo Associated Press Thu Nov 14, 2013 1:55 PM WASHINGTON — State insurance commissioners are voicing serious concerns about President Barack Obama’s plan to stave off cancellations for people whose individual policies don’t comply with the new health care law. In a statement Thursday, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners warned that the president’s decision could undermine the new insurance markets being created under his overhaul law. Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon, president of the group, said Obama’s proposal could lead to higher premiums and market disruptions next year and beyond. It may also be unworkable as a practical matter. A Republican, Donelon was speaking on behalf of the organization. —————— Bowing to pressure, President Barack Obama on Thursday announced changes to his health care law to give insurance companies the option to keep offering consumers plans that would otherwise be canceled. The administrative changes are good for just one year, though senior administration officials said they could be extended if problems with the law persist. Obama announced the changes at the White House. “This fix won’t solve every problem for every person, but it’s going to help a lot of people,” the president said. He acknowledged that “we fumbled the rollout of this health care law” and pledged to “just keep on chipping away at this until the job is done.” He also promised to work to regain the trust of the American people. “I think it’s legitimate for them to expect me to have to win back some credibility on this health care law in particular and on a whole range of these issues in general,” he said. Obama has been under enormous pressure from congressional Democrats to give ground on the cancellation issue under the health care overhaul, a program likely to be at the center of next year’s midterm elections for control of the House and Senate. It’s unclear what the impact of Thursday’s changes will be for the millions of people who have already had their plans canceled. While officials said insurance companies will now be able to offer those people the option to renew their old plans, companies are not required to take that step. The main industry trade group, America’s Health Insurance Plans, said Obama’s offer comes too late and could lead to higher premiums, since companies already have set 2014 rates based on the assumption that many people with individual coverage will shift over to the new markets created under Obama’s law. Karen Ignagni, president of the industry group, didn’t speculate on whether companies would extend coverage for those threatened with cancellation, but warned in a statement that “changing the rules after health plans have already met the requirements of the law could destabilize the market and result in higher premiums for consumers.” Insurance companies will be required to inform consumers who want to keep canceled plans about the protections that are not included under those plans. Customers will also be notified that new options are available offering more coverage and in some cases, tax credits to cover higher premiums. Under Obama’s plan, insurance companies would not be allowed to sell coverage deemed subpar under the law to new customers, marking a difference with legislation that House Republicans intend to put to a vote on Friday. Only last week, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told a Senate panel she doubted that retroactively permitting insurers to sell canceled policies “can work very well since companies are now in the market with an array of new plans. Many have actually added consumer protections in the last three-and-a-half years.” Republicans were unimpressed with the changes. House Speaker John Boehner, speaking in advance of the president’s announcement, insisted it was time to “scrap this law once and for all.” “You can’t fix this government-run health care plan called Obamacare ,” he said. “It’s just not fixable.” Obama, for his part, made clear he would continue to fight ongoing attempts to sink the whole program, saying, “I will not accept proposals that are just another brazen attempt to undermine or repeal the overall law and drag us back into a broken system.” “We’re going to solve the problems that are there, we’re going to get it right, and the Affordable Care Act is going to work for the American people,” he pledged. While the White House deals with the cancellation issue, the administration is also promising improvements in a federal website so balky that enrollments totaled fewer than 27,000 in October in 36 states combined. The administration had said in advance the enrollment numbers would fall far short of initial expectations. After weeks of highly publicized technical woes, they did. Adding in enrollment of more than 79,000 in the 14 states with their own websites, the nationwide number of 106,000 October sign-ups was barely one-fifth of what officials had projected — and a small fraction of the millions who have received private coverage cancellations as a result of the federal law. The administration said an additional 1 million people have been found eligible to buy coverage in the markets, with about one-third qualifying for tax credits to reduce their premiums. Another 396,000 have been found eligible for Medicaid, which covers low-income people. Administration officials and senior congressional Democrats expressed confidence in the program’s future. “We expect enrollment will grow substantially throughout the next five months,” said Sebelius, who is in charge of the program. “Even with the issues we’ve had, the marketplace is working and people are enrolling,” she added. Despite the expressions, the White House worked to reassure anxious Democrats who are worried about the controversial program, which they voted into existence three years ago over Republican opposition as strong now as it was then. Obama said he regretted the political grief he’d caused members of his own party who’d backed him on the health care law. “There is no doubt that our failure to roll out the Affordable Care Act smoothly has put a burden on Democrats, whether they’re running or not, because they stood up and supported this effort through thick and thin,” he said. Senate Democrats arranged a closed-door meeting for midday Thursday in the Capitol with White House officials, who held a similar session Wednesday with the House rank and file. Ahead of that meeting, Obama planned to speak from the White House about new efforts to help Americans receiving insurance cancellation notices. So far, five Senate Democrats are on record in support of legislation by Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., to make sure everyone can keep their present coverage if they want to. The bill would require insurance companies to continue offering existing policies, even if they fall short of minimum coverage requirements in the law. The measure has little apparent chance at passage, given that it imposes a new mandate on the insurance industry that Republicans will be reluctant to accept. At the same time, a vote would at least permit Democrats to say they have voted to repair some of the problems associated with the Affordable Care Act, as many appear eager to do. In a statement, Landrieu said Sens. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Mark Pryor of Arkansas were now supporting the legislation, as is Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California. All but Feinstein are on the ballot next year. Across the Capitol, majority Republicans in the House set a vote for Friday on legislation to permit insurance companies to continue selling existing policies that have been ordered scrapped because they fall short of coverage standards in the law. While House passage of the measure is assured, each Democrat will be forced to cast a vote on the future of a program that Republicans have vowed to place at the center of next year’s campaign. Democratic Rep. Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania, who voted for the initial Obama health care bill, said Thursday that members of his caucus want an opportunity to go on the record in support of allowing people to keep the insurance they had. Doyle told MSNBC in an interview that at a White House meeting Wednesday, House Democrats told Obama about “the frustration level that many of us have” with the health care roll-out. Doyle said Democrats warned Obama that “if you don’t give us something by Friday” to fix the insurance cancellation problem, then many Democrats are likely to vote for the pending House bill sponsored by Republican Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, which would accomplish that goal. The promise of keeping coverage was Obama’s oft-stated pledge when the legislation was under consideration, a calling card since shredded by the millions of cancellations mailed out by insurers. Obama apologized last week for the broken promise, but aides said at the time the White House was only considering administration changes, rather than new legislation. Associated Press writer Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar contributed to this report
Maria Mereness sounds like a socialist who thinks the rest of us are required to pay for her free health care!!!! I wonder if Maria Mereness also thinks us tax payers deserve to give her a free Mercedes!!!! Hey after all she was in the Air Force and probably thinks she deserves it!!! http://eastvalleytribune.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/article_4d9035e6-4bf8-11e3-8930-0019bb2963f4.html Letter: Foes will stop at nothing to shut program down Posted: Thursday, November 14, 2013 5:45 am Letter to the Editor I’ve been watching the fight over the Affordable Care Act and how some are stopping at nothing to shut it down before giving it a chance to work. There is an urgent need for people to have access to affordable health care, particularly if they work at a job that doesn’t offer coverage or are unable to purchase it on the private market because of costs or an illness that makes it impossible for them to buy, especially here in Arizona. Those who are opposed to affordable health care need to know their opposition affects many Americans — including those of us who served our country in the Armed Forces — whose love of country and dedication we celebrate this week. I am a veteran and native Arizonan, having served in the Air Force during the 1970s. Since I did not retire from the service, I and many others in my situation do not qualify for retiree health benefits, meaning we have to buy it on our own or get it from our spouses or employers. I know plenty of people my age (mid-50s) who are struggling with health issues and would go completely broke without health insurance, myself included. I’m grateful to see the health care law now allows people I know, including family members and friends, to purchase medical insurance they can afford. I hope this can provide them with the assurance they deserve that their daily and emergency health needs will be covered. Maria Mereness Mesa
Obamacare or the ACA is a dismal failure???? http://swampland.time.com/2013/11/13/only-106000-americans-signed-up-for-obamacare-in-october/ Only 106,000 Americans Signed Up for Obamacare in October Less than 2% of the 7 million Americans officials expect to do so By Kate Pickert & Zeke J Miller Nov. 13, 201348 Less than 2% of the 7 million Americans federal officials expect to sign up for new health insurance under Obamacare were able to do so in October, the Obama Administration said on Wednesday. According to a detailed report released by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), 106,185 Americans chose new plans through new Obamacare exchanges during their first month in operation. The federal government included in this figure those who have purchased new plans and those who have selected plans but not yet paid for them. The new federal exchange website handling Obamacare enrollment in 36 states, HealthCare.gov, has been particularly problematic since it launched on Oct. 1. The site has crashed, operated slowly, locked users out, sent error-ridden information to insurers and been taken off-line regularly for maintenance. The impact of the site’s dysfunction was illustrated in Wednesday’s HHS report. Just 25% of those who had signed up for new plans through the marketplaces did so through HealthCare.gov. Three-quarters signed up via state-run websites, which have, in many cases, functioned much better. New York and California alone accounted for almost half of the 106,185 total sign-ups reported on Wednesday. In an indication of how the website difficulties are affecting enrollment, just 3.8% of those who have completed applications and are eligible to enroll in federal exchanges have selected a plan, compared with 20.9% for state-based exchanges, which have been unaffected by the worst of HealthCare.gov’s technical errors. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney acknowledged on Wednesday that the numbers fell well below the Administration’s expectations. “I promise you that no one will be satisfied with the numbers because they will be below what we sought prior to the launch,” he told reporters about an hour before they were released. Speaking to reporters on a conference call, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said “even with the issues we’ve had, the marketplace is working.” But House Speaker John Boehner said the numbers “underscore the urgent need for President Obama to allow people to keep the plans they have and like.” “Above all, this report is a symbol of the failure of the President’s health care law,” Boehner said in a statement. “It is a rolling calamity that must be scrapped.” In addition to those who have selected private insurance plans through Obamacare’s exchanges, HHS said 396,261 had been “assessed or deemed eligible for Medicaid or CHIP,” public insurance programs for low-income adults and children. If the rollout of Obamacare’s exchange websites had gone more smoothly, it is likely more Americans would have signed up for new coverage by now. HHS said in its report that some 27 million people have visited the exchange websites so far. Sebelius has apologized before Congress for the bungled rollout of HealthCare.gov, and federal officials have repeatedly said the website will work smoothly “for the vast majority of users” by Nov. 30. Some congressional Republicans have called for Sebelius to resign over the error-ridden launch. “The promise of quality, affordable coverage is increasingly becoming reality for this first wave of applicants to the Health Insurance Marketplaces,” Sebelius said in a statement on Wednesday. Administration officials have said although they are disappointed by early technical problems hobbling HealthCare.gov and other exchange websites, they expected early enrollment to be slow. In her statement, Sebelius pointed to a similarly slow start in Massachusetts, which launched an Obamacare-like insurance-exchange system in 2007. “We expect enrollment will grow substantially throughout the next five months, mirroring the pattern that Massachusetts experienced,” she said. Open enrollment through Obamacare exchanges lasts until March 31, although users must sign up for coverage by Dec. 15 for plans that start on Jan. 1. Those who do not have insurance before March 31 will face a tax penalty next year under a provision of the Affordable Care Act known as the individual mandate. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/13/first-obamacare-enrollment-numbers-are-dismal-but-it-s-no-failure-yet.html First Obamacare Enrollment Numbers Are Dismal, but It’s No Failure Yet by Jamelle Bouie Nov 13, 2013 7:15 PM EST Just 106,856 Americans have chosen plans, when the prediction was 500,000? That’s bleak, but worse would be a crippling of the exchanges by panicked Democrats to guarantee failure. On Wednesday afternoon, the Obama administration released an avalanche of numbers (PDF) detailing the progress of HealthCare.gov and enrollment in the exchanges. Compared to the pre-launch prediction of 500,000 private enrollees in the first month, the news is disappointing. Just 106,856 Americans have chosen plans in the exchanges. Of those, 79,000 did so through state exchanges and 26,794 through the federal website. Nearly half of all sign-ups were in California and New York, which—not coincidentally—are two of the states that have worked hardest to build exchanges and implement key parts of the law. Overall, 82 percent of all enrollees came from blue states, a testament to the stark divide between states that support the law and states that oppose it. Only one red state has its own exchange: Kentucky. So far, it’s enrolled 5,586 people. It’s important to note that the administration has tried repeatedly to manage expectations for enrollment, often citing the example of Massachusetts, which had few enrollments at the beginning of its health-care rollout in February 2007. By the end of the year, however, participation had spiked, with 36,000 enrollments of 80,000 eligible uninsured people. And of those, 20 percent purchased coverage in the last month before the penalty kicked in. If Americans follow the same pattern with Obamacare, then we should see a mass of enrollees near April, when enrollment ends. According to the administration, there have already been 26.8 million visits to state and federal websites and 3.1 million calls to call-in centers asking about coverage. In addition, of the 1.5 million people who have applied for coverage, 1.48 million have received an eligibility determination. In other words, if you make it to the application stage of the exchanges, you will find out if you’re eligible for a subsidy. And on that note, more than 846,000 individuals have completed applications, though—obviously—they haven’t made the purchase. Whether any of that is successful, though, depends on whether the website can be fixed. The Washington Post reports that the end of the month deadline for repairs might be breached, but the administration says it is making headway. Looking forward, the report offers a mixed bag. On one hand, the initial numbers are dismal, and—when combined with the botched rollout, mass cancellations on the individual market, and questions about the president’s honesty—they add to the sense of political crisis facing the White House. Indeed, it’s all reminiscent of the moment after the election of Scott Brown in 2010. Congressional Democrats seem to be panicking, with a handful willing to support legislation that could cripple the exchanges and guarantee failure down the road. Combined with the botched rollout, mass cancellations on the individual market, and questions about the president’s honesty, the numbers add to the sense of political crisis facing the White House. It’s hard to overstate the political fallout of a Democratic retreat. If the Affordable Care Act were to collapse as the result of an ill-considered “fix” that would gut the law, the health-care market would plunge into chaos, ruin the party’s political standing, and destroy Obama’s legacy. No one would touch health-care reform for another 20 years, to the huge detriment of the country and millions of uninsured Americans. On the other hand, of course, the Affordable Care Act could still fail of its own accord. So the best choice is still a relentless effort from the administration to fix the website and a Democratic Party that’s willing to stand with the president and give the law time to work. Waiting won’t be easy, and supporters will pay a political price for Obamacare’s problems. But the potential gains to millions of Americans—uninsured and otherwise—are too great, and too important, for Democrats to retreat. Jamelle Bouie is a staff writer at The Daily Beast. His reporting and analysis has appeared in The American Prospect, The Nation, The Atlantic, CNN.com, and The Washington Post. He covers campaigns and elections, as well as policy and public opinion. He is based in Washington, D.C. You can follow Jamelle on Twitter at @jbouie.
56 votes costs a measly $100,000. It's not a bribe, think of it as a reverse campaign contribution!!! http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/20131112phoenix-set-to-allot-to-house-vets.html Phoenix set to allot $100,000 to house vets By Michelle Ye Hee Lee The Republic | azcentral.com Tue Nov 12, 2013 9:32 AM The Phoenix City Council is expected to set aside $100,000 today to help house a final group of 56 chronically homeless Valley veterans. Local, state, community and business leaders for the past two years have led an aggressive push to combat chronic homelessness among the most vulnerable veterans in Greater Phoenix, gaining national attention for their efforts. The Valley’s community of homeless-service providers is poised to become the first in the nation to get all locally identified chronically homeless veterans into housing by the end of next year. The goal is to house the final 56 by February, in time for Arizona StandDown, an annual event that brings together homeless and at-risk veterans with service providers who can help them. At the event, providers hope to find any remaining chronically homeless vets and get them into housing by the end of 2014. The federal definition for chronically homeless applies to those who have a documented disability and have been on the streets for a year or more, or have been on the streets at least four times in the past three years. In August, President Barack Obama lauded the Valley’s efforts during a speech in Phoenix about housing. Since then, three regions — Washington, D.C.; Salt Lake City; and Philadelphia — challenged Phoenix in a competition to end veteran homelessness. Salt Lake City is close, but Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton believes his city will prevail. “Phoenix will, we will, be the first city in the country to end chronic homelessness among our veteran population,” Stanton said. Stanton said during a Veterans Day event Monday that he anticipated the council would approve final funding for the program today. Half of the $100,000 appropriation would go toward street outreach for homeless veterans. The other half would pay for bridge housing, which is temporary housing intended to stabilize homeless veterans while they go through the process of qualifying for permanent housing. It takes an average of 33 days to move veterans through the process. Bridge housing is provided in various ways, including veterans facilities, apartments or motels. Social-service providers work with veterans while they are in bridge housing, helping them with tasks from filling out paperwork to getting meals. Project H3 Vets is a nationally recognized program coordinated by the Arizona Coalition To End Homelessness. Working with community organizations, it uses federal housing vouchers to get chronically homeless veterans into permanent housing. While in permanent housing, veterans receive services such as substance-abuse counseling and behavioral-health care to get them back on their feet. Since the project began, 161 veterans have been housed. But finding housing for those veterans who are currently homeless will not end demand for the services. As more veterans return home from war zones, and in anticipation of the U.S. military exit from Afghanistan by late 2014, providers are working to put enough resources in place to prevent more returning veterans from becoming homeless. “There are some veterans out there that are on the verge right now. But we have enough resources to continue to house those individuals,” said Sean Price, homeless-veterans services coordinator for the Arizona Department of Veterans Services. The Arizona Coalition To End Homelessness has been working to prevent veterans from becoming homeless by increasing the number of mental-health- care providers and substance-abuse counseling providers and enlisting more community support and health-care treatment through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Price said.
http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/free/20131113feds-have-duped-us-many-times.html Feds have duped us many times Wed Nov 13, 2013 7:45 PM The Arizona Republic editorial Sunday, “Give us facts, not apologies,” was right on. However, Americans have been duped many times by our government in the past. For example, in 1936, the Social Security pamphlet read, “Beginning November 24, 1936, the United States Government will set up a Social Security account for you. ... The checks will come to you as a right!” Americans were led to believe that Social Security is like a retirement account and that money placed in it is their property. Wrong! Thereafter, the administration — belatedly and very quietly — tried to clean up its history of deception by explaining, “Entitlement to Social Security benefits is not a contractual right!” Note the word “entitlement.” Now, the president and his administration have told us over and over, “If you like your health insurance, you can keep it.” We were led to believe that “Obamacare” allowed us to keep our present health insurance plan if we liked it! Wrong! Now, after the re-election, the Obama administration has tried to clean up its history of deception by explaining that what that meant was that if it qualifies for the plans we decide upon, you can keep it. Now, several million Americans are out on a limb, and it has been sawed off by the Affordable Care Act. Hold on, my friends, the ground is coming up to hit you! — Frank Hooper, Sun Lakes
Remember, our government masters in Washington D.C. know how to run your life better then you do. Well at least that's what they want you to think. The real truth is they could care less about your life and are busy passing laws that give YOUR money to the special interest groups that helped them get elected. And in the case of Obamacare or the ACA, those special interest groups are the doctors and medical care corporations that gave the politicians boat loads of money to pass the law. http://eastvalleytribune.com/opinion/columnists/article_7709e35a-4e5e-11e3-a344-0019bb2963f4.html Purcell: Obamacare backlash no surprise Posted: Friday, November 15, 2013 6:28 pm Commentary by Tom Purcell Sheesh, what did they expect? I speak of the backlash to the Affordable Care Act of 2010, which passed along purely partisan lines. Not one Republican in the House or Senate voted in favor of it. More than half of the American people were against it in 2010. In fact, according to Politico, ObamaCare was the most partisan bill to become law in the past 100 years. Politico points to a study conducted by JPMorgan’s Michael Cembalest, who reviewed major legislation that became law during the past century. Cembalest reviewed a variety of bills that covered civil rights, entitlement programs, welfare reform, labor relations, tax preferences and a variety of other monumental and sometimes controversial, issues. Consider: The Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which gave the federal government the ability to create money, was controversial in its day — but it was supported in the House by 99 percent of Democrats and 41 percent of Republicans. The Social Security Act of 1935, which did plenty to transform America, received support from 96 percent of House Democrats and 81 percent of House Republicans. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 received House support from 80 percent of Republicans and 61 percent of Democrats. Heck, even the Revenue Act of 1913, which established the income tax and was, before ObamaCare, the most controversial bill in the last 100 years, received support in the House from 5 percent of Republicans (and 98 percent of Democrats). “Regardless of what anyone thinks about its merits and failings, Obamacare has an ‘original sin’ problem,” says Cembalest in his report. “For the first time in 100 years, one party crammed down a bill with national implications without any agreement from the opposing party.” And now our country has a real mess on its hands. It’s not just because ObamaCare is hitting all kinds of obstacles as it is rolled out. Our incompetent government spent some $600 million on a website that still doesn’t work. It’s not just because the president promised Americans they could keep their policies and doctors — as millions are seeing their policies canceled, forcing them to buy ObamaCare-compliant policies that cost two or three times as much. And it’s not just because Americans are worried that the worst is yet to come as ObamaCare disrupts and remakes one-sixth of the U.S. economy — and that it is likely to continue to disrupt labor markets and inhibit economic growth. It is mainly because our political class — in this case, the Democrats who had control of the House, Senate and White House in 2010 — disregarded the will of the majority of the American people and rammed through a bill without the majority’s consent. Numerous polls show that more than half of Americans still do not like or want ObamaCare — and those numbers will worsen as more people find out their policies are not eligible for “grandfathering.” Rage is growing among citizens, who are losing their policies. Many are speaking out to their elected representatives and demanding that ObamaCare be repealed or, at the very least, delayed. More Americans are coming to the conclusion that it took tremendous hubris and arrogance for politicians to think that the federal government could remake the health-care sector without causing the massive chaos we are now witnessing. And so the backlash not only continues, but is growing worse. Yet, despite the backlash, ObamaCare’s creators are doubling down. The president is saying he didn’t say what he said — what he said over and over again about keeping coverage and doctors. PR flacks are showing up on news programs, trying to convince average Americans they are not experiencing what they are experiencing. This is what happens when you ram through a massive bill that is one-sided from the start. Sheesh, what did they expect? Tom Purcell, author of “Misadventures of a 1970’s Childhood” and “Comical Sense: A Lone Humorist Takes on a World Gone Nutty!” is a nationally-syndicated humor columnist. Send comments to Tom at Purcell@caglecartoons.com.
Who says our government masters aren't royalty??? From this article it sure sounds like they treat themselves like royalty, and of course force us serfs to foot the bill. http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/new-invoices-bring-taxpayer-paid-legal-bills-for-mcdonnell-gifts-scandal-to-575000/2013/11/15/ba0047ca-4e23-11e3-ac54-aa84301ced81_story.html?tid=hpModule_13097a0c-868e-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394&hpid=z11 New invoices bring taxpayer-paid legal bills for McDonnell gifts scandal to $575,000 By Rosalind S. Helderman, Published: November 15 E-mail the writer Private attorneys representing the office of Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell and other government officials grappling with federal and state investigations of McDonnell’s interactions with a wealthy political benefactor have now charged taxpayers more than $575,000. According to invoices released by McDonnell’s office Friday, two private firms representing McDonnell and his staff racked up more than $331,000 in fees in July, August and September.. That came on top of $244,000 the firms had charged earlier in the summer. McDonnell (R) has separately hired a legal team to defend him against an ongoing federal grand jury probe, a defense team being paid through a private fund established by supporters. But taxpayers are footing the bill to provide legal counsel to staff members who have been interviewed as part of the investigations or whose records have been seized. McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin stressed that the firms are not representing McDonnell in his personal capacity, the selection of the firms was approved by the attorney general and the attorneys are offering their services at discounted rates. “Virginia law provides for situations in which outside counsel must be appointed due to the Office of the Attorney General determining that it has a conflict in a specific case. That is what has occurred in this situation,” Martin said. Federal authorities are investigating whether McDonnell improperly assisted Jonnie R. Williams Sr., the chief executive of a dietary supplement company, in exchange for gifts and loans. Williams provided the McDonnell family more than $160,000 in gifts and money in 2011 and 2012 that the governor has said were loans. McDonnell has apologized for embarrassing the state through his interactions with Williams. But he has said Williams’s company, Star Scientific, received no special treatment. The two firms representing the governor’s office are part of a network of lawyers appointed to various state agencies as part of the case. Private counsel has also been appointed to represent employees at Virginia Commonwealth University, where researchers received grants to study Star Scientific’s supplement in 2011, and to represent the Virginia State Police and, separately, the state police investigator working the case alongside the FBI. But the bulk of the taxpayers’ bill is going to the two firms representing the governor and his staff. According to the heavily redacted invoices, former Democratic state attorney general Tony Troy and other members of his firm, Eckert Seamans Cherin & Merlot, spent nearly 662 hours on the case in July and August. They charged up to $250 an hour for their time, and the firm collected $148,359 for the two months. Troy was first appointed in May. A bill for Troy’s work in September was not released, nor were any bills for October. The firm Baker & McKenzie was added to the case to represent staff for the governor in July. In August and September, three lawyers for the firm worked 431 hours and the firm earned $182,806. The firm is charging the state up to $450 an hour for its work. Providing official legal counsel to the governor’s office would ordinarily be a job for Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R). But Cuccinelli has said he has a conflict of interest in the case. The Star investigation apparently grew out of a separate criminal probe of the chef at the governor’s mansion. Chef Todd Schneider was accused of stealing food from the kitchen. In response, he told investigators that he was aware of other wrongdoing at the mansion, including the relationship between the McDonnells and Williams. Cuccinelli said it would be a conflict for him to represent state employees responding to those charges since he was also prosecuting the chef. Cuccinelli appointed a special prosecutor to handle the matter in May; in September, Schneider pleaded no contest to two misdemeanors.
If you have been to the post office in the last several years you were probably angry because all the stamp vending machines have been removed from the post office. I suspect that was an attempt by the post office unions to create jobs for postal clerks. Removing the stamp vending machines from the post office creates more of those jobs. Who cares if you have to wait in like to buy stamps. Of course in the private sector they are always using robots like stamp vending machines to provide services faster and quicker and of course cheaper. But don't expect our government masters to do that. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2013/11/15/postal-service-lost-5-billion-despite-first-revenue-gain-in-five-years/?tid=hpModule_14fd66a0-9199-11e2-bdea-e32ad90da239&hpid=z13 Postal Service lost $5 billion despite first revenue gain in five years By Josh Hicks November 15 at 5:35 pm The U.S. Postal Service achieved its first revenue increase in five years but still lost $5 billion in fiscal 2013, marking seven consecutive years of red ink for the agency, according to figures released Friday. Postal unions, the USPS board of governors, and at least one Democratic lawmaker said the overall loss was due to congressional mandates, particularly a requirement that the agency pre-fund retiree benefits to the tune of about $5.6 billion per year. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who has proposed legislation to end the pre-funding obligation, said the Postal Service would have recorded a net profit of $600 million without the annual payment, which the agency has defaulted on for the past several years. “In terms of their business operations, they brought in more than they spent, but they have this burden,” Sanders said in an interview on Friday. “No other business or government agency is burdened with this mandate.” The Postal Service has pressed Congress to end the payment mandate, but USPS officials said Friday that such a move would not end the agency’s monetary woes, noting that the organization is still $40 billion in debt despite its improving finances. “We’re in a deep financial hole,” USPS Chief Financial Officer Joseph Corbett said during a media briefing. “With one year of nearly breaking even [on operating revenue], we’re not ready to declare victory. We can’t continue to remain in this precarious position.” The $5 billion loss this year represents a significant improvement over 2012, when the agency lost about $16 billion. An 8 percent increase in revenue from package delivery helped improve the numbers, and the USPS is poised to make additional progress through new agreements with online retailers such as Amazon. But the gains this year were partially offset by a revenue decline of 0.05 percent in first-class mail delivery, which remains the Postal Service’s most profitable product. The agency experienced drops in that category of about 6 percent in 2011 and 4 percent in 2012. The National Association of Letter Carriers cited this year’s more modest decline as proof that mail delivery has stabilized. “We hope Congress is paying attention to the postal turnaround,” said NALC president Fredric Rolando. “Lawmakers should reject bills that focus on slashing service and attacking postal employees, and instead focus on fixing the pre-funding fiasco.” Two top senators have proposed bipartisan legislation that would restructure the congressional mandate. The bill, introduced by Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), would also allow for a gradual end to Saturday mail and make curbside delivery or cluster boxes mandatory for businesses and new homes, with limited exceptions. Those bills largely match the Postal Service’s five-year business plan, which calls for five-day mail delivery, a restructuring of the pre-funding requirement, and authority to expand products and services. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has proposed similar legislation in the House, but the measure has received no support from Democrats, who opposed the service cuts. Follow Josh Hicks on Twitter, Facebook or Google+. Connect by e-mail at josh.hicks@washpost.com. Visit The Federal Eye, The Fed Page and Post Politics for more federal news. E-mail federalworker@washpost.com with news tips and other suggestions.
And don't count on that changing anytime soon. As long as their are 583,908 over paid, under worked US Post Office employees who our Congressmen can count on for voting for them in exchange for giving them their cushy, over paid jobs as postal workers it ain't going to change. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2013/11/15/postal-service-still-losing-money-but-no-movement-on-legislation/?tid=hpModule_308f7142-9199-11e2-bdea-e32ad90da239&hpid=z13 Postal Service still losing money, but no movement on legislation By Lisa Rein November 15 at 10:36 am The eye-opener-logo6The U.S. Postal Service announced Friday that it ended the last fiscal year $5 billion in the red, bringing its net losses since 2011 to $27 billion. Revenue from first-class mail continues to decline, and the agency has defaulted on three $5.5 billion payments into a health-care fund for future retirees. Yet Congress is unlikely to pass legislation this year to help stanch the bleeding, marking the third straight year lawmakers have failed to agree on a way forward for the struggling mail service. A leading bipartisan Senate bill has hit a setback in the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which pushed back a scheduled a vote earlier this month amid concerns from Democrats over service cuts and rate increases the legislation allows. (David Goldman/AP) (David Goldman/AP) Even if the committee votes before the Thankgiving recess, congressional aides acknowledge privately that the bill is unlikely to make it to the Senate floor this year. In the House, Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) pushed a bill through the panel in July, with only Republican support. It has not reached the House floor. The sponsors of the Senate bill, committee Chairman Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), and the panel’s top Republican, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), have said they want an agreement all sides can live with. Carper “remains hopeful that the committee can proceed with a markup on the bill later this month,” a spokeswoman said in a statement. But the long path to postal reform underscores the challenge of finding agreement on an issue that splinters lawmakers not just by party but by geography, by pro-union and pro-business sympathies, and by pro-government and anti-government philosophies. “There’s a huge divide on how to approach postal [legislation],” said Art Sackler, of the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, which represents large mailers. “There are different philosophical and business views of how the postal system can right itself financially and still deliver services the American people expect,” he said. The Senate bill, like the House measure, would reduce the burden of the health care pre-payment, which is responsible for about $11 billion of the Postal Service’s losses in 2012. It would allow the agency to eliminate Saturday delivery of letters in a year and gradually phase out mail delivery from the door to curbside boxes, to save on labor costs. It also would allow the Postal Service to ship beer and wine, sales that are now prohibited. And postal officials could hike rates for bulk mailers. Senators from rural states are raising the loudest objections to service cuts. In the last year, for example, hundreds of mail-sorting hubs have closed. Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and several colleagues say the closures have slowed mail delivery in his state to five from three days. He wants guarantees that the slow-down won’t be permitted. “I’m not going to support something that does as much bad stuff as this bill does,” Tester said in an interview. “In the end, unless there’s changes, I think the bill’s in trouble.” Tester said constituents complain routinely that they are not receiving letters and packages as quickly as they used to, especially since the Postal Service reduced plane service for mail delivery across the state and shut four of the state’s seven mail-sorting hubs. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) is developing amendments to preserve Saturday delivery and halt further closures of mail sorting plants, an aide said. In a statement, Postal Service spokeswoman Patricia Licata said “There are no standards of delivery in the state of Montana that entail 5-day delivery.” Other provisions of the the bill have rankled mailers, who oppose lifting the cap on most rates for bulk mail. That provision, Sackler said, is “totally unacceptable, and if unchanged would put the industry in the uncomfortable position of having to oppose legislation that remains urgently needed.” The Postal Service is already seeking an emergency rate increase above the rate of inflation — a move that has angered industries like banks and publishers. Under that proposal, the cost of a stamp would increase to 49 from 46 cents, while the “additional ounce” rate for letters above 1 ounce would rise one cent. On Friday, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said he will withdraw the rate hike proposal if Congress passes legislation to help stabilize the agency’s finances. “If Congress is able to act and we’re able to get the reforms we need, we would walk away from the rate increase,” he said. Donahoe said the Postal Service supports both bills now pending in Congress. He is pressing the Senate committee to add language that allows postal officials to require retired postal workers to enroll in Medicare instead of allowing them choose higher-cost insurance plans they now have access to under the federal health system. The Medicare change would save the Postal Service $8 billion annually, he said. The Senate passed a bipartisan postal bill in April 2012, only to watch last-minute negotiations with the House fall short at the end of that year. Issa’s committee also passed a bill, but it did not get to the House floor. “Members looking out for parochial issues that affect their districts,” said Aaron Fobes, a Coburn spokesman. “There’s something for everyone to be upset with. The postal service affects every town in America.”
Remember the American government is using your tax dollars to pay for this war on drugs in Mexico. During former Mexican President Felipe Calderon's 6 year term I think 50,000+ Mexican's were murdered in this insane American financed war on drugs. http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-mexico-missing-unidentified-dead-20131115,0,4652982.story#axzz2kpUMsBLO Mexico's enduring problems: The missing and the unidentified dead By Tracy Wilkinson November 16, 2013, 7:00 a.m. MEXICO CITY -- At least 25 bodies have been reported found in two clandestine graves, underscoring Mexico’s enduring problems of people who go missing and the dead who are never identified. Nineteen bodies were pulled from a mass grave on Jalisco state’s border with Michoacan state, an especially troubled region where drug cartels are battling one another, authorities and armed civilian vigilante groups. An additional six bodies were found in another clandestine burial pit near the tourist-destination city of Acapulco, authorities said Friday. The revelations come after a relative lull in the publicizing of such finds, which were especially common in 2010-12. Thousands of Mexicans and Central American migrants went missing during the six-year term of President Felipe Calderon, which ended Dec. 1, and during the first year of his successor, President Enrique Peña Nieto. Many of the missing eventually turn up in mass graves, victims of drug traffickers, kidnappers, extortionists, smugglers, corrupt law enforcement or rivals. Little has been done to identify the dead. In Jalisco, where the 19 bodies, among them at least two women, had been exhumed, officials told local media (link in Spanish) that the digging continued. Authorities were reportedly drawn to the site by information provided by 25 people arrested in Michoacan in connection with the disappearance of two federal investigators. In Acapulco, Guerrero state prosecutors said the decomposed bodies of five men and a woman were found buried in a lime grove after officials received a phone tip. The victims had been shot, and a burned car was found near the burial site, prosecutors said. Peña Nieto’s government has increasingly been thwarted in its efforts to downplay reports of violence. Addressing the issue of 26,000 people reported missing during his predecessor’s administration -- a number that Calderon’s government also sought to conceal -- Peña Nieto nine months ago announced an initiative to form a reliable database of the missing. In May, he announced the creation of a task force to search for them. But human rights groups say little action followed the announcements. New York-based Human Rights Watch, echoing complaints in Mexico, this week urged the government to follow through on its promise to examine, purge and verify a database of the missing, as a basis for a more organized, systematic search. “The Peña Nieto government took an important step toward acknowledging the scale of the disappearance crisis when it released its provisional list of disappeared and missing people,” Jose Miguel Vivanco, director of the group’s Americas office, said in a statement. “Now the government needs to live up to its promise to develop a reliable, comprehensive registry, accompanied by serious investigations to search for the disappeared and bring those responsible to justice.” Many of the missing have been seized by the military or police, never to reappear.
Politicians & Insiders get special access to event tickets Honest American politicians are not royalty. Well at least that's what the politicians tell us. Of course from this article it sounds like they are!!! http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-clout-tickets-20131117,0,2354824,full.story Insiders get special access to event tickets Politicians among those that can move to head of the line By Andy Grimm and Joseph Ryan, Chicago Tribune reporters 9:31 a.m. CST, November 16, 2013 Kelly Bailey was so blown away by Pink's recent Chicago concert that she hopped online to nab tickets to the star's Wednesday show at Rosemont's Allstate Arena. But the 30-year-old speech pathologist couldn't stomach paying scalper markups online — again. Elmwood Park Mayor Skip Saviano didn't have that problem. Saviano, a longtime friend of the Rosemont mayor's family, landed two face-value Pink tickets for someone else just by reaching out to village hall. Also scoring tickets from the village was Isaac Degen, a construction contractor who helped build most of Rosemont's ventures. And it is not just Rosemont that gives special access to tickets for the well-connected, a Tribune investigation of suburbs with major concert venues found. A village trustee in Tinley Park tapped the town's connections at least a dozen times to buy seats to shows at First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre. In Bridgeview, the mayor's office hands out free tickets to events at Toyota Park. "That's not right," Bailey said when told of the Tribune's findings. It may come as little surprise that entertainment industry types and high-level politicians get special deals to hot shows. But the Tribune's examination reveals special access also is available to local officials and their friends. In many cases, special access to tickets is considered a long-standing courtesy extended to public officials by venue operators, or as a privilege that comes when a town owns its own concert venue. The perk has become even more valuable as the prices of concerts and events have increased and the online scalping market has exploded. The Tribune reviewed ticketing practices at the suburbs' largest concert venues through contracts, policies and emails. Three suburbs — Tinley Park, Bridgeview and Rosemont — stood out in how local politicians and insiders were able to cut in line ahead of regular fans for major draws, from Baby Boomer stars such as the Eagles to boy band sensation One Direction. In most cases, the officials and insiders are paying for tickets but are still getting a benefit, especially for sold-out concerts. That's because their tickets come from a pool not available to the general public. The tickets are often for good seats and come without the luck-of-the-draw frustration of buying like everyone else or the steep markups on the secondary market. "I would imagine those folks from the public, who have paid for their tickets and more, would think it is very unfair when they show up to an event and see a mayor and his friends in the best seats," said Maryam Judar, executive director of the Citizen Advocacy Center, an Elmhurst-based legal aid and watchdog group. The ability to get tickets for friends and insiders can serve as political currency for suburban mayors. Show business When an act comes to town, the venue contract typically sets aside tickets to be given away for free, often for marketing efforts and media. (Tribune critics, entertainment reporters and editors do not pay admission to shows the newspaper attends as part of its coverage. They also sometimes bring a guest.) The contracts also can set aside what are typically called "house" or "hold" tickets for seats scattered throughout the venue, including some of the best seats. Those tickets are to be sold at face value but kept out of the pool available to the general public. Both pools of tickets exist for most shows. Rosemont is one of the top suburban entertainment hubs, boasting a convention center, two concert venues and a recently added sports dome and softball stadium. A previous investigation by the Tribune showed that the village has long had deals that benefit members of the Stephens family, whose patriarch, Donald, founded the suburb. Requests for tickets had gotten so disorderly that Mayor Bradley Stephens decided this year to write a policy for face-value tickets and keep a log of who got them. The village also gets free tickets to give away. A village attorney said no record is kept of where they go, though he said they are given only to promoters, advertisers or charities. The policy for face-value tickets allows village employees and anyone who can "enhance business and operations for the Village of Rosemont" to get them. The mayor's office has the final say. Stephens' ticket log tracks requests for at least 166 tickets this year, including more than a dozen each to popular shows including the Eagles, Selena Gomez, country star Hunter Hayes and the upcoming Pink show. The list shows tickets going to village employees and contractors, several members of the Stephens family and outside politicians, among others. Among those looking for Pink tickets were Saviano and Degen, whose construction firm helped build Allstate Arena. Degen and Saviano didn't return phone calls. Officials involved in such practices defend the benefit, saying it is a harmless practice that allows them to help residents see shows and promote the facilities. "This is the way the showbiz industry operates," said Rosemont spokesman Gary Mack. Mack said it is all done "in the public interest" because the tickets go to locals and strengthen ties with surrounding suburbs and contractors. He stressed that the tickets were paid for by the ticket user. That's cold comfort to Tami Baba and Jodi Slovin, suburbanites who found Pink tickets at the United Center to be overpriced online. "I know that people probably get tickets (through connections) and what bothers me about that is they probably go to people who would have no problem paying for tickets on their own," Baba said. "They're taking tickets off the top, and keeping them out of the public." 'Friend of a friend' Earlier this year, a phone call came in to U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski's chief of staff, Jerry Hurckes. The person on the other end of the line wanted tickets to a WWE wrestling show at the Allstate Arena, Hurckes said. Lipinski's district is about 10 miles south of Rosemont. The suburb's mayor and the congressman are in opposing political parties. Still, Hurckes said he called the village and secured the seats — helping a person he called "a friend of a friend," though he couldn't remember the name. "I didn't think it was a big issue," Hurckes said. "We try to help our constituents." Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson knew what to do when his daughter asked him to get tickets to last year's Jason Aldean concert at First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre in Tinley Park. He called Village Hall. He considered it "a courtesy." "I have done that once, maybe twice, in 12 years," Johnson said. Tinley Park officials have long had a line on tickets thanks to a relationship with venue owner Live Nation that provides the village access to a pool of seats held back from the general public, Village Manager Scott Niehaus said. A Live Nation general manager said the company gives village officials special access because the company considers them like other close vendors they want to assist, such as record labels. "If it's something they want access to, we offer it to them as a sort of shortcut," said Brian Rutkowski, who oversees several Live Nation Midwest venues. "They pay all the fees like anyone." The available tickets are usually prime seats, often near the stage, according to a review of order forms and emails from the village. In most cases, the requests were processed by Mayor Ed Zabrocki's secretary, who also frequently picks up tickets from the First Midwest box office. The requests the Tribune reviewed often came from town employees, sometimes explicitly asking for "good seats." They covered 30 shows, from Kid Rock's "Best Night Ever" concert to Jimmy Buffett. "I have looked at LiveNation and we would love seats in sections 101, 102, 104 or 105," reads one email to a village secretary. "Obviously, if this isn't possible, we might end up trying to get good seats through StubHub, but if we don't have to pay those prices, that would be great." Village officials rank among the top ticket requesters. One was Treasurer Brad Bettenhausen, who in the past two years used the Village Hall connection to buy about 35 tickets to a half-dozen shows. Bettenhausen said he does so for convenience. Trustee Thomas Staunton bought tickets to more than a dozen shows over the last two years, including Kiss, Toby Keith and Miranda Lambert. "I'm a big music fan," said Staunton while attending the Country Music Awards in Nashville. "I would go to a lot of shows before I was on the board. This is more of a convenient thing than getting them on the Internet." Niehaus said any Tinley Park residents could get the same help from the village, if they knew to ask for tickets. Village records indicate that out of 57,000 residents, only about 50 different people requested tickets over two years, some of them not even village residents. The village doesn't publicize that residents have that option because, Niehaus said, if everyone knew, the staff would be inundated with requests. "We don't want to get into that. That's what Ticketmaster is for," he said. In certain cases, potential conflict of interest issues can arise. Tinley Park officials are in charge of dealing with noise and traffic issues at the 28,000-seat amphitheater. Yet, the venue's operator gives the same officials special access to tickets. Tinley Park's mayor disputed any conflict. Zabrocki said local officials have always been able to get tickets to shows at the venue, dating to when it opened in the 1990s. But he acknowledged the practice might need to be reviewed, as the ticket market has changed and the value of the perk has increased. "We should probably take a look at it. All good things must come to an end sometimes," he said. "This may be one of those things." In best practice, officials should only get special access to tickets if it is for a clear public purpose, such as observing how a facility is run, said David Morrison, deputy director of the watchdog group Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. "If it is just to get tickets to a show that everyone else wants, then this is nothing more than a perk," Morrison said. "There should be better rules policing who has access." Officials in Hoffman Estates, who oversee the Sears Centre Arena, and Highland Park, home to Ravinia Festival, don't appear to have regular access to such tickets. Free tickets In Bridgeview, hundreds of free tickets are given out for games and concerts at the southwest suburb's 20,000-seat Toyota Park. Mayor Steven Landek said giving away the seats is better than having them go empty. At least, he said, the attendee might buy a beer or pay for parking, which makes money for the village. Yet, the tickets can also serve to bolster the mayor's standing with residents, who have faced higher taxes as the stadium has struggled to live up to promises. A Tribune investigation last year showed the stadium and other developments saddled the small suburb with more than $200 million in debt while the stadium was not making enough to pay back the money. Village emails show one point person for free tickets was a village manager who tried to kick Landek's primary opponent off the ballot in the mayor's successful state Senate bid. Landek said the manager was a point person to hand out tickets to residents who complained about Toyota Park traffic. Landek said he doesn't try to capitalize on the free tickets politically. "I don't come up and stand in front of them and say, 'I got you the tickets, what a great guy I am,'" Landek said. A particularly sought-after show this year was the B96 Summer Bash, featuring Grammy winner Ne-Yo and hosted by Miley Cyrus. The show's contract set aside at least 500 free tickets. Emails reflect where roughly 60 of those went. According to one email chain, Landek passed along a request from the chairman of his local party's political committee. The man wanted 12 tickets for his granddaughters and their friends — "done," read a village employee's reply. In another Summer Bash example, the village mailed tickets to one of Bridgeview's financial consultants. The consultant's firm was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for work on financing for Toyota Park. Asked about those tickets, Landek said: "I've known him for years." agrimm@tribune.com jbryan@tribune.com Twitter @RyanReport
Says Texas: “It is perfectly constitutional for a Republican-controlled legislature to make partisan districting decisions, even if there are incidental effects on minority voters who support Democratic candidates.” Well at least the Republican crooks in the Texas legislator are honest!!!! In Arizona the Republics pretty much said the same thing when they passed a law effectively making it illegal for Libertarians and Greens to run for office because Libertarians were stealing votes from Republicans causing them to loose elections. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/16/opinion/voter-suppressions-new-pretext.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0 Voter Suppression’s New Pretext By RICHARD L. HASEN Published: November 15, 2013 IRVINE, Calif. — IT’S the latest fad among state officials looking to make voting harder: We’re not racist, we’re just partisan. Some background: In June, the Supreme Court struck down a core provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, under which nine states and portions of others had to get federal approval before changing their election laws. One of those states, Texas, is again in court, facing a Justice Department suit seeking to get the state under federal oversight again. To do so, the Justice Department must prove intentional racial discrimination. Texas’ defense? It’s discrimination, all right — but it’s on the basis of party, not race, and therefore it’s O.K. Says Texas: “It is perfectly constitutional for a Republican-controlled legislature to make partisan districting decisions, even if there are incidental effects on minority voters who support Democratic candidates.” Leaving aside that whopper — laws that dilute black and Hispanic voting power have more than an “incidental” impact — the statement, part of a court filing in August, was pretty brazen. Minority voters, in Texas and elsewhere, tend to support Democrats. So Republican officials, especially but not only in the South, want to reduce early voting; impose voter-identification requirements; restrict voter registration; and, critically, draw districts either to crowd as many minority voters into as few districts as possible, or dilute concentrations of minority voters by dispersing them into as many white-controlled districts as possible. The Supreme Court decision unleashed all manner of new efforts to suppress minority voting — and a new batch of legal challenges. Just this week, a federal judge in Milwaukee considered whether Wisconsin’s tough new voter-ID law violates the 1965 law by placing illegal burdens on minority voters. As in the Texas suit, the Justice Department has sued North Carolina, which in August passed the toughest set of voting rules since the passage of the Voting Rights Act, arguing that the law was passed with racist intent. If successful, Texas and North Carolina could be put back under federal supervision. Unlike with race-based discrimination, which, if proved, could violate both the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution, the Supreme Court has refused to recognize a standard for policing even nakedly partisan gerrymandering. But now, supporters of strict voter-ID, registration and other voting laws are trying to use the same defense they have used to defend gerrymandering. They can claim ostensibly good reasons for their laws: preventing fraud or saving money. As a fallback, they can claim, like Texas, they are engaged in permissible partisan discrimination, not impermissible race discrimination. But this is specious. First, it is artificial to separate race and party under current political conditions. When Don Yelton, a Republican official in North Carolina, recently told “The Daily Show” that if the state’s strict new voter-ID law “hurts a bunch of lazy blacks,” then “so be it,” it was easy to see old-fashioned Southern racism. But just as significant was Mr. Yelton’s saying that the new law “is going to kick the Democrats in the butt.” Second, courts should alleviate unnecessary burdens on voters whatever the state’s asserted motive. The Supreme Court has said that, in redistricting, it cannot distinguish between permissible partisan considerations (for example, grouping “communities of interest”) and unconstitutional gerrymandering. But outside redistricting, partisanship has no place. Our elections should be conducted such that all eligible voters (and only eligible voters) can easily register, and cast a vote that will be accurately counted. Few states will be as bold as Texas and admit naked partisanship. Most will engage in polite obfuscation. Federal judges should see through these cynical pretexts. They should hold that when a state passes a law that burdens voters, it must demonstrate, with credible evidence, that the burdens are justified by a good reason and that the laws are tailored to their intended purpose. When North Carolina says it needs a strict voter-ID law to prevent fraud, courts should be skeptical, both because such laws haven’t been found to stop much impersonation fraud (there isn’t a lot) and because the same law eased absentee voting, which increases the risk of fraud. Shifting the debate away from the “race versus party” question toward protecting voters has many virtues. The Supreme Court isn’t interested in expanding race-based remedies these days, and the Justice Department’s suits against North Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin face an uphill battle. Yet the justices might well find a voter protection principle appealing. In 2012, lower courts started to push back against Republican overreach in voting laws. Richard A. Posner, a federal appellate judge in Chicago, recently expressed doubts about having upheld Indiana’s voter-ID law, which he now sees as a means of voter suppression. The pivotal swing vote on the Supreme Court, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, also seems troubled by partisan considerations in state election law. If courts accepted my proposal to protect all voters, the Justice Department would not have to prove some legislators are racists. It would give new life to the goals of the Voting Rights Act and would protect not only minorities, but also other populations — for example, college students, who appear to bear the brunt of voter-ID laws. If Republican legislatures were full of Don Yeltons who mouth off to “The Daily Show,” proving a racial motivation would be easy. But they are not, and we need a new tool beyond race or party to protect everyone’s voting rights. Richard L. Hasen is a professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine.
Socialist Kyrsten Sinema crosses party lines and votes Republican??? I doubt if socialist Kyrsten Sinema has changed. But I suspect she realizes she will be booted out of office if she continues to support socialized medicine, or Obamacare. Kyrsten Sinema when she was an Arizona politician tried to pass a law that would slap a 300 percent tax on medical marijuana. For that she is pretty well hated by the legalize marijuana groups in Arizona. http://www.azcentral.com/insiders/azdc/2013/11/15/82784/ AZ Dems split once again on health-care vote Rebekah L. Sanders, of the Arizona Republic’s politics team, filed this post: The U.S. House’s vote Friday to alter the president’s health-care law once again split Arizona’s swing Democrats. The GOP-initiated legislation, which passed 261-157, would allow insurance companies through 2014 to keep Americans’ existing policies and sell new policies that do not meet the new federal requirements. The proposal drew support from 39 Democrats, including U.S. Reps. Kyrsten Sinema and Ron Barber, D-Ariz. The two represent toss-up districts where crossing the aisle on the Affordable Care Act could help their re-election prospects. But Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, a Democrat who also represents a toss-up Arizona district, held the party line, opposing the measure. The proposal may sound familiar: the bill sponsored by Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., is similar to the president’s announcement Thursday that he would allow insurance companies to extend for a year their plans cancelled under the Affordable Care Act. The main difference, pushed by the GOP, is that new customers could also purchase those plans, which Democrats complained would undercut the law’s implementation and intent. Republicans said their legislative fix was better than the president’s and should be trusted more by the public. Friday’s vote reinforces a pattern of health-care votes in recent months in which Sinema and Barber have backed Republicans on some health-care changes and Kirkpatrick has opposed them. The GOP bills are largely symbolic, as the Democratic-controlled Senate has refused to take them up and the president has vowed to veto them. Sinema and Barber have characterized the proposals as commonsense fixes, while Kirkpatrick has described them as political point-scoring which she won’t condone. In 2009 and 2010, Sinema and Kirkpatrick touted the president’s promise that Americans could keep the insurance plans they liked. Kirkpatrick’s office issued press releases saying, “Those who like their plans will be able to keep them,” and “This legislation will preserve existing coverage and strengthen consumer protections.” Kirkpatrick voted for the law in 2010. Sinema, as part of a White House task force to promote health-care reform in Arizona, was quoted as saying, “President Obama has said time and time again that for people like myself, who have health care plans that we enjoy — if you like what you have, you can keep it.” (That story was written by then-reporter Daniel Scarpinato, who now works at the National Republican Congressional Committee to attack Democrats like Sinema.) On Friday, Sinema acknowledged she and others told Arizonans they could keep their plans, so she supported the GOP bill. “We promised that individuals who like their plans would be able to keep them and this bill keeps that promise,” she said in a statement. Barber said he supported the change because it is “only fair” for people to keep their plan until issues like the health-care website are resolved. Kirkpatrick called the rollout of the health-care marketplace a “disaster” of “stunning ineptitude.” But she said in a statement that Friday’s bill would “neither fix nor improve” the health-care law. Instead “it would raise premiums and undermine market reform – by discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions, restoring annual caps on care, and forcing women to pay more than men for the same coverage.” The rest of Arizona’s delegation split along party lines: Republicans Matt Salmon, David Schweikert and Trent Franks voted Yes, while Democrats Raul Grijalva and Ed Pastor voted No. Republican Paul Gosar missed the vote. (Photo: President Barack Obama speaks about the federal health care law on Oct. 30, 2013. AP Photo/Stephan Savoia) Follow Rebekah on Twitter at @RebekahLSanders.
Don't these government nannies have any real criminals to hunt down???? http://www.azcentral.com/news/arizona/free/20131117flagstaff-cracks-down-night-lighting-violators.html Flagstaff cracks down on night lighting violators Associated Press Sun Nov 17, 2013 7:25 AM FLAGSTAFF — The city of Flagstaff is enforcing its nighttime lighting rules. The city conducted a partial audit of outdoor lighting last week and found 29 businesses in violation of the rules. Sixteen of the businesses were repeat violators. City code requires businesses to turn off lighted signs at closing time, or at 11 p.m., whichever comes later. The city’s code compliance manager, Tom Boughner, tells the Arizona Daily Sun (http://bit.ly/1ijSF7I the primary cause for the violations was automatic timers being out of adjustment. First-time offenders have 10 days to come into compliance. Repeat violators must comply immediately or face a day in civil court. The lighting ordinance date back to 2001, when Flagstaff was designated the first International Dark Sky City. The ordinance was updated in 2011. ——— Information from: Arizona Daily Sun, http://www.azdailysun.com/
Stop throwing people into prison for victimless drug war crimes and none of this would be needed. According to Federal statistics 51 percent of the people in Federal prisons are there for victimless drug war crimes. The same statistics says that 80 percent of those in Federal prisons for victimless drug war crimes are their for simple possession of an illegal drug. I suspect those statistics are cooked by the Feds. According to Reason Magazine 66 percent of the people in American prisons are there for victimless drug war crimes. http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/20131115arizona-prisons-officers-sought.html?nclick_check=1 Arizona prisons request additional officers By Craig Harris The Republic | azcentral.com Sat Nov 16, 2013 9:56 PM The state Department of Corrections wants to hire 296 new correctional officers for its close- and maximum-custody units — those that house the most-violent inmates — because of concerns about the safety of staff and prisoners, Director Charles Ryan said. Ryan has asked Gov. Jan Brewer for $18 million to cover the new hires as part of a roughly $60 million budget increase requested for fiscal 2015, which begins July 1, 2014. Ryan, who manages a $1 billion annual budget, also is asking for $18.7 million to operate a private prison in Eloy slated to begin taking inmates from Arizona on Jan. 1. He also wants to move more inmates into that facility sooner than anticipated because of a projected increase in the inmate population. Ryan hopes to have 1,000 inmates housed at the Red Rock Correctional Center next year, rather than splitting that increase over two years, through 2015. If approved, the move would be a financial boon to Corrections Corporation of America, the Nashville-based private operator. Further, Ryan wants more money to operate a new 500-inmate, maximum-security prison slated to open at the Lewis Complex in Buckeye in October, and to cover the operating costs for an estimated 300 additional inmates in the state prison system. The new money also would cover additional costs projected for inmate health care, new technology for an inmate-management system, and substance-abuse treatment services. “We have conveyed our concerns. It’s about public safety, staff safety and maintaining an effective control of the inmate population,” Ryan said in an interview. Brewer, who will present her budget to the Republican-controlled Legislature in early 2014, was noncommittal on Ryan’s request. “We’re analyzing all agency proposals. However, we are not going to discuss them until the unveiling of the governor’s budget and policy agenda in January,” said Andrew Wilder, her spokesman. Senate Finance Chairman Steve Yarbrough, R-Chandler, said Ryan was making a big request. “Yikes. That’s a lot of money,” Yarbrough said when told of the request by The Arizona Republic. “You will have to make a real compelling case, with our limited resources. ... But I will keep my powder dry until I get more information.” Ryan said he is seeking the additional hires as the department continues to recover from the reduction of about 500 correctional officers in fiscal 2006 under previous Director Dora Schriro. The state currently employs 5,954 correctional officers. The new employees would allow the DOC to increase the number of “floor officers” from one to two in close- and double-bunked maximum-custody units, according to Ryan. “This will assist in the effort to further reduce suicides, inmate-on-staff assaults and staff injuries resulting from these assaults. It will improve response time and may reduce the severity of violent incidents,” according to a document prepared to support the request. Other records show the number of violent offenders in the prison system has increased from about 66 percent of the inmate population in 2009 to 71 percent of the population this year. As of Friday, Arizona housed 41,029 inmates, with 6,516 of those in private prisons that accept only minimum- and medium-security inmates. Records also indicate that inmate-on-inmate assaults increased from fiscal 2010 to 2012, but inmate-on-staff assaults and staff injuries resulting from assaults declined in fiscal 2012 and 2013. The new staff members would be dispersed among close-custody state units at Tucson, Yuma, Eyman (Florence), Lewis (Buckeye), Perryville (Goodyear), Winslow and Phoenix, as well as a maximum-custody unit at Eyman. One outspoken critic of Arizona’s prison system questioned whether additional staff was needed, while another expressed concern about potentially putting new hires in with violent criminals. Caroline Isaacs, program director of Arizona’s American Friends Service Committee, said there would not be a need for more prisons or staff if the state eased tough sentencing requirements. “I would argue that a better approach would be to reduce the number of people in our prison system,” said Isaacs, who advocates for more drug treatment and probation opportunities. Donna Hamm, executive director of Middle Ground Prison Reform, said new correctional officers with no experience will not be prepared to work in close-custody and maximum-security units. “If they do it right, they will have to shift experienced officers,” Hamm said. “Our concern is about the training and whether they will be put online too soon.” Doug Nick, a DOC spokesman, said officers are trained and placed in facilities as needed. Budget increase Corrections Director Charles Ryan is seeking about $60 million in additional funding from Gov. Jan Brewer and the Legislature. The 2014-15 request includes: Operating costs for a new 1,000-bed medium-security private prison in Eloy: $18.7 million. Hiring of 296 new correctional officers for close- and maximum-custody units: $18 million. Operating costs, including 115 new correctional officers, for a new, 500-bed maximum-security state prison in Buckeye: $11.3 million. New technology for inmate-management system: $8 million. Additional operating costs, including health care, for a projected 300 more inmates in state prisons: $3.46 million. Substance-abuse treatment services: $635,200.
Sadly it ain't about making Arizona a better place to live. It's all about money, power and politics. http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/20131104arizona-medical-board-queried.html Pressure on Arizona Medical Board queried By Mary K. Reinhart and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez The Republic | azcentral.com Sat Nov 16, 2013 9:33 PM When the state Medical Board ousted its executive director last month, it did more than end Lisa Wynn’s six-year tenure and spark an outcry over lax physician licensing practices. The vote to fire Wynn also underscored the influence that political pressure and public perception can have on state boards and commissions that regulate everything from medical and dental professionals to funeral-home operators. An October report from the Arizona Ombudsman-Citizens’ Aide found that Wynn and a former deputy director violated more than 20 state laws and rules in an attempt to streamline the board’s licensing process. Wynn has denied wrongdoing, saying state officials and board members sanctioned her efforts to sidestep outdated rules in order to accelerate the licensing of physicians while protecting public safety. During an Arizona Republic interview last month, Wynn said she believes Sen. Nancy Barto, who chairs the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, has too much influence over the Medical Board, which reviews physicians’ license applications and investigates complaints, and Wynn asserted that the senator improperly used her clout to seek Wynn’s termination. Wynn said she believes the board fired her to appease Barto and the ombudsman and to publicly show it took the allegations seriously. Immediately following the scathing report, the Phoenix Republican called for Wynn’s termination. “A couple of the legislators, I remember, (said), ‘Senator Barto has you in her crosshairs,’ ” Wynn said. “I didn’t know whether they meant me, Lisa Wynn, or ‘you,’ the Medical Board. But two or three different legislators said that.” While acknowledging she was concerned about the report’s findings, Barto denied involvement in Wynn’s firing. “I didn’t pull any strings,” she said. “It was a surprise to me.” Generally, Gov. Jan Brewer nominates regulatory-board members, and the Legislature votes to approve or reject the governor’s nominations. Beyond that, boards are to operate independently. A lawmaker’s perceived efforts to influence a regulatory board raises questions about how independent such panels are. “I would argue that we shouldn’t be involved,” Rep. Eric Meyer, a physician and Paradise Valley Democrat, said of the Medical Board controversies. “We appoint a board; they should do their job without influence from the Legislature.” Andrew Wilder, the governor’s spokesman, did not respond to requests for comment. Barto has taken a strong hand with the Medical Board. Earlier this year, she effectively ended the terms of two board members with whom she disagreed by not scheduling their confirmation hearings before her committee. Without confirmation, their terms expire next month. The two board members, Drs. William Thrift and Harold Magalnick, voted against Wynn’s firing, which the board approved 5-4 during a hastily called meeting on Oct. 12. Thrift, a Prescott family physician, said Barto asked him to become more involved with board operations during a meeting at her Capitol office in February, citing an earlier ombudsman’s report and an ongoing allegation of law and rule violations. When he declined, Barto told him his confirmation was at stake, he said. “She wanted me to capitulate,” Thrift told The Republic. “The senator decided this was a cause she wanted to champion, and off she went.” Barto agreed with Thrift’s account of their meeting but defended her actions, saying she was stunned that board members weren’t more concerned about an ombudsman’s report in July 2012 that first raised concerns about the Medical Board’s shortcuts in doctor licensing. “There didn’t seem to be a lot of concern about how things were going,” Barto said. “There was a lot of support for the status quo. The status quo is what got us here.” The 12-member Medical Board and its staff regulates the state’s 21,000 physicians. The recent ombudsman’s probe stemmed from complaints by several current and former board employees. The 2012 ombudsman report found that Wynn improperly reviewed doctors’ work history. The most recent ombudsman report, released Oct. 9, concluded that Medical Board staff, under the direction of Wynn and former Deputy Director Amanda Diehl, didn’t perform an adequate review of key information about doctors’ education and disciplinary actions. It also concluded that staff allowed physicians to illegally dispense prescription drugs and not provide adequate documentation of citizenship. The ombudsman recommended that the state Auditor General’s Office review the qualifications of all physicians licensed by the board since fall 2011. The ombudsman’s office also recommended that the Attorney General’s Office investigate allegations of violations of state law by Wynn and Diehl. After the ombudsman’s office released its report, Barto made no secret of her stance that Wynn should be fired, and she publicly criticized the board for its unanimous Oct. 2 vote to keep Wynn in her job with a reprimand. Barto said she spoke with only one board member — Tucson attorney Jodi Bain — in the days between the first vote, on Oct. 2, regarding Wynn’s performance and at the board’s Oct. 12 meeting, where the board voted to fire Wynn. Barto said she told Bain she was disappointed the board initially decided to issue just a reprimand. Bain said she and Barto did not discuss how the board would act on Wynn’s employment with the board. Bain said Barto did ask via text message for information about calling in to the public Oct. 12 teleconference meeting. Dr. Gordi Khera, chairman of the Medical Board, has said he asked for Wynn’s resignation, and ultimately moved to fire her, because he believed the public had lost confidence in the Medical Board. Khera, through a spokesman, declined to talk with The Republic about perceived politics surrounding the board. In a statement e-mailed by the board’s publicist, Khera said, “I am unaware of any one legislator having any influence over the board.” Barto said she became involved in the investigation “simply because my office was informed by these employees” who initially reported the Medical Board’s issues. “They weren’t getting satisfaction from their board, obviously,” Barto said. “The first ombudsman’s report — they blew that off.” Barto said she could not bring Thrift and Magalnick forward for confirmation hearings before she knew how they would respond to the ombudsman’s report. “It’s certainly not a personal thing,” she said. “Not knowing the outcome of that ombudsman’s report and what (board members) would do ... there was no way we could act.” That both doctors opposed Wynn’s firing, Barto said, illustrates the soundness of her decision to block their confirmations. Barto held confirmation hearings last session for board members Bain, Dr. Richard Perry and Wanda Salter, who were confirmed by the full Senate. Barto added that she didn’t see any larger political issues stemming from the Medical Board drama. “I don’t see a big witch hunt in the future for any particular board,” she said. Thrift defended his vote to keep Wynn, saying many of the licensing problems raised in the report predated Wynn’s tenure and he believed she was working hard to fix outstanding issues. Magalnick did not return calls seeking comment. Thrift said he was concerned about Barto’s involvement in the board and at her insistence that board members more closely manage day-to-day operations of the agency. Thrift said he has served on many boards and commissions. One of the key tenets of service, he said, is that board members should work with CEOs or executive directors to correct problems in an organization — not go around them. Wynn made mistakes, Thrift acknowledged, but he doesn’t believe those mistakes have jeopardized public safety. “Do I think that anyone was harmed? I don’t think so,” Thrift said. “Do I think that Lisa did not follow the statute and she should have? Absolutely, she should have. And she paid for it with her job.” He added that the political influence was unwelcome. “To have to worry about what a senator thinks of my ability to function on a board is really distracting,” Thrift said. It’s not the first time a lawmaker has helped overthrow a Medical Board director, but it raises the question of how much politics and public perception influence board decisions. And some political observers worry that the latest controversy could discourage people from serving on state boards and commissions, which are supposed to be insulated from political ideologies and partisan squabbles. Meyer, the state representative, said qualified candidates for boards and commissions, as well as their staff, may think twice about applying after the Medical Board wrangling. Regulatory boards should make rulings on complaints and licenses without fear of political interference, he said. “In some cases, they make decisions that make people unhappy. You don’t want legislators involved in that,” Meyer said. “Why would you want to work for the Medical Board right now? Why would you want that job, with the risk that at someone’s whim you could be fired because you didn’t do what they wanted?” Former state Rep. Deb Gullett was chair of the House Health Committee when a Medical Board director was forced out in 2004 after high employee turnover and other management issues soured relations with the Governor’s Office and key lawmakers. Gullett, now executive director of the Arizona Association of Health Plans, said legislative oversight is a critical part of the process. The governor appoints board and commission members, and lawmakers have oversight over the agencies and their funding. “The Legislature sets them up, and the Legislature passes the laws that govern them,” Gullett said. “So, ultimately, it is up to the Legislature to make sure they’re doing what they’re required to do.” She said Barto’s decision to not schedule confirmation hearings for Thrift and Magalnick also is within her purview. Gullett likened it to a committee chair holding up a bill. Last session, other committee chairmen, most notably Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Rick Murphy, R-Peoria, blocked confirmation of dozens of Brewer’s appointees. “It’s not as if you’d go in not knowing there would be legislative oversight,” she said. “The connection of the Legislature shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody.” Barto has scheduled a meeting for Wednesday with the Senate Health and Human Services Committee and the House Health Committee to discuss the Medical Board and the ombudsman’s report. She said it is unclear at this point if lawmakers will be satisfied with the board’s own review of doctors’ licenses, which has found that under strict reading of the rules, no licenses were improperly issued. There will be four openings on the Medical Board next year. When Thrift suggested to a Yuma surgeon that the surgeon serve on the board, Thrift said the doctor replied: “Are you kidding me? I’m not going near that thing.”
Wonder how often this will happen when Sheriff Joe and the DEA are using drones to patrol the skys of Arizona looking for people that commit victimless drug war crimes. http://www.azcentral.com/news/free/20131117malfunctioning-drone-hits-navy-ship-while-training.html Malfunctioning drone hits Navy ship while training Associated Press Sun Nov 17, 2013 7:23 AM LOS ANGELES — The Navy says an aerial target drone malfunctioned and struck a guided missile cruiser during training off Southern California, causing two minor injuries. Lt. Lenaya Rotklein of the U.S. Third Fleet said the accident on the USS Chancellorsville happened Saturday afternoon while the ship was testing its combat weapons system off Point Mugu. She said two sailors were treated for minor burns after the ship was struck. She said the ship was heading back to Naval Base San Diego so that officials can assess the damage. The Navy was investigating the cause of the drone malfunction. Rotklein said the drone was being used to test the ship’s radar. She had no immediate information on whether the drone has malfunctioned before. About 300 crew members were aboard the ship.
Gun grabbers at work!!!! I wonder if Kyrsten Sinema is behind this???? At the Amnesty International Concert in Tempe last week where Scott Henderson falsely arrested me and accused of of stealing a t-shirt they had at least one sign up banning guns. Bullies always want to disarm their victims to make their criminal acts safer. Scott Henderson detained me, accused me of stealing an Amnesty International t-shirt that was given to because I was a volunteer. Scott Henderson then ripped off my volunteer band, and then ripped off the t-shirt. To add insult to injury Scott Henderson then asked me to hang around for the rest of the day and drink beer. Beer which Scott Henderson was selling and would make money off of. http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/free/20131117ban-printed-d-guns-ends-extension-sought.html As ban on printed 3-D guns ends, extension sought Associated Press Sun Nov 17, 2013 7:23 AM ALBANY, N.Y. — As the technology to print 3-D firearms advances, a federal law that banned the undetectable guns is about to expire. U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer says he’s seeking an extension of the law before it expires Dec. 9. He said the technology of so-called 3-D printing has advanced to the point anyone with $1,000 and an Internet connection can access the plastic parts that can be fitted into a gun. Those firearms can’t be detected by metal detectors or X-ray machines. Schumer says that means anyone can download a gun cheaply, then take the weapons anywhere, including high-security areas. The Democrat is pushing the extension along with Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Bill Nelson of Florida. The effort was announced Sunday. The technology has recently advanced to create handguns capable of shooting several shots, rather than just one, before it ceases to function. Schumer also says the guns can now be made with all plastic parts, and no metal. A blueprint for one such firearm was recently downloaded more than 100,000 times, Schumer says. “We are looking at a world in which anyone with a little bit of cash can bring an undetectable gun that can fire multiple bullets anywhere — including planes, government buildings, sporting events and schools,” Schumer said. “3-D printers are a miraculous technology that have the potential to revolutionize manufacturing, but we need to make sure they are not being used to make deadly, undetectable weapons. “
The article doesn't say it, but I suspect the only reason rip offs like this are allowed is because of laws that the special interest groups got passed that allow it. I know that several years back a law was passed that allows hospitals to put a lien on your home for money they claim you owe them for emergency services provided. http://www.azcentral.com/business/call12foraction/articles/20131116air-evac-patient-transport-protests-call12.html Call 12: Air-evac service transported patient despite her protests By Robert Anglen The Republic | azcentral.com Sat Nov 16, 2013 6:46 PM Laura Karr was wheeled out of an ambulance toward a waiting helicopter. She was lying on a gurney, wrists strapped down, immobilized. She said she was aware of what was happening and tried everything she could to stop it. Over her verbal protests, she said she was loaded into an AirEvac Services helicopter and flown from Casa Grande to Phoenix. The bill for the 20-minute flight: $32,700. “I was very alert. ... I told them, ‘You need to let me out of here,’ ” the 55-year-old Arizona City resident said. “I gave them my phone number. I said to call my husband and he would come and get me. They told me it was against the rules to let me out and they started the propellers.” Arizona lawyers and medical professionals said restraining and transporting coherent people against their will could violate state law and be grounds for civil lawsuits. They said laws prohibit ambulance companies and hospitals from forcing people to accept medical treatment, including transportation, when they are competent and refuse it. “If someone treats you against your will, it could constitute civil or criminal battery under the law,” said Steven Perlmutter, a Scottsdale lawyer and doctor. “If someone is coherent and has the presence of mind to give consent, he or she can refuse to give medical consent on the spot.” The only exception to this rule would be if there were extraordinary mitigating circumstances, such as someone who was about to die, Perlmutter said. AirEvac is owned by PHI Air Medical in Phoenix. Company officials would not comment on Karr’s case, citing privacy concerns. Even after confirming that they had received a release from Karr allowing them to discuss her case, officials said they would not comment. “We follow state and federal laws and regulations on how and when we transport people,” PHI Air Medical spokesman Brad Deutser said in a statement. “Our primary focus is on providing safe critical-care transport to the patient we are called on to serve, regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay.” Karr said she told emergency medical technicians repeatedly she did not need to be transported and said that she was physically prevented from walking away during the September incident. When the helicopter landed at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, she said one of the EMTs apologized for putting her in the helicopter. “She said, ‘I hope you’re not mad at me.’ I said, ‘Hell yeah, I’m mad at you. Lord forgive me, I want you out of my room,’ ” Karr said. “I kept telling them to unstrap these straps and let me out of here.” The problems started when Karr, who works as an in-home care provider, suffered a seizure at a client’s home. Her client called 911, and Karr was loaded into an ambulance. Karr said she regained consciousness as the ambulance arrived at Casa Grande Regional Medical Center. But instead of going to the emergency room, the ambulance drove toward the helipad. Karr said she told emergency medical technicians that she didn’t need to be transported out of town because she knew what had happened. She said she’d had a reaction to an old medication and it had happened before. She said her immediate concern was the potential bill for a helicopter medical flight. She said she believed there was nothing going on that couldn’t be treated at Casa Grande. “They had me strapped down like I was some kind of mummy,” Karr said. “They wouldn’t let me go. They said it was against policy, regulation, whatever.” She said when the helicopter landed at St. Joseph’s, she initially refused treatment. Karr said she knew her insurance would not cover much of the costs of the emergency and she didn’t want to rack up any more large bills. She later relented, agreed to undergo procedures and was released the next day. The hospital bill was $17,000. “All of this was for nothing,” she said. “They could have just taken me to Casa Grande.” Arizona State University law professor Betsy Grey said cases such as these hinge on “informed consent” and patients’ ability to articulate their desire not to be treated. “An EMT can’t restrain you and take you away involuntarily,” Grey said. “The notion is, you can consent to no treatment. ... The question is, does she (the patient) understand what she is refusing?” Transporting patients against their wishes could constitute a crime in Arizona, Grey said. It could also leave a company open to civil lawsuits for unlawful restraint, false imprisonment and battery, she said. Grey added that potential damages extend beyond the helicopter bill and could include emotional distress and other bills, such as the $17,000 hospital bill. PHI Air Medical officials would not answer specific questions about the decision to transport a patient who declines treatment, saying only that their employees are trained to follow the law. Deutser said AirEvac Services has operated in Arizona for 45 years and serves as “a critical part” of the state’s emergency response. “PHI Air Medical is called by first responders and others in the field who have the duty to determine when it is appropriate to transport a patient,” Deutser said in his statement. “First responders are tasked with the difficult job of evaluating the nature of each individual case and determining the most appropriate action to be taken relative to treatment and transport.” After Call 12 for Action contacted PHI last week, company officials called Karr and informed her they had dismissed the $37,000 bill. She said officials told her she qualified for a bill reduction under a company program that helps low-income individuals. Deutser would not confirm that Karr’s bill had been erased. He said the company works with patients to address their financial needs. “We have a robust special consideration program to help individuals who have a financial hardship,” he said in the statement. “Through this process alone, we have been able to produce very favorable outcomes with and for our patients, as it relates to the settlement of their bill with us.” Karr said she was surprised to hear from PHI on Wednesday. She said she doubts the call would have been made without Call 12 for Action’s involvement. “It is a breath of fresh air. I wish they wouldn’t do this to anyone else,” Karr said. “I am thankful that my husband had the presence of mind to e-mail you (Call 12 for Action).” Robert Anglen and Veronica Sanchez lead the Call 12 for Action team, focused on issues important to Arizona consumers. Reach the reporter at robert.anglen@arizonarepublic.com.
Huh???? In a frozen wasteland like Poland you would figure they would be all for a little global warming??? It would be nice to go surfing in December on the Danube River instead of ice skating. http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/activists-march-warsaw-climate-change-20911078 Activists March in Warsaw Against Climate Change WARSAW, Poland November 16, 2013 (AP) Associated Press Hundreds of climate activists braved cold winds Sunday to march through Warsaw to campaign against global warming. The march was held alongside a two-week U.N. conference that is to prepare the groundwork for a new climate deal expected in 2015. Singing and dancing, protesters walked past the National Stadium, the venue for the talks. The march was organized by Poland's small Green Party and gathered activists from Europe. It was heavily escorted by police to ensure security. The main banner called for "Social Justice and Positive Energy for Everyone." German activists with the Friends of the Earth organization were rolled a giant globe. Greenpeace members carried pictures of the 30 people arrested in Russia following their protest in the Arctic and demanded their release.
Hey, he was Black, and even if he was innocent of this crime, he probably committed some other crime which he deserved to be executed for. Well at least that's probably what the cops are saying. Gee, this reminds of of Scott Henderson, who falsely arrested me last week at an Amnesty International Concert. I suspect Scott Henderson thinks I must be a criminal because I have long hair, my mother dresses me funny and because I think all drugs should be legalized. F*ck you Scott Henderson, you are an embarrassment to Amnesty International! You seem to be just as bad as the tyrants that AI writes letters to. http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/16/21479144-advocates-push-for-retrial-to-clear-name-of-14-year-old-killer-executed-in-1944 Advocates push for retrial to clear name of 14-year-old 'killer' executed in 1944 South Carolina Dept. of Archives and History via AP George Stinney Jr., the youngest person executed in the U.S. in the 20th Century. By Hannah Rappleye, Lisa Riordan Seville and Mark Potter, NBC News The 95-pound boy wore stripes as the sheriffs walked him to the electric chair, sat him on books to prop him up, and electrocuted him in June 1944. Nearly 70 years after the execution of 14-year-old George Junius Stinney Jr. for the killing of two white girls, advocates have taken the unprecedented step of asking a South Carolina court to grant a new trial to clear his name. Stinney is often cited as the youngest person executed in this country in the 20th century. For years, family, advocates and lawyers have said that South Carolina put an innocent boy to death. “We just want what is right,” said Ray Brown, a filmmaker who is writing a script based on Stinney’s story and recently joined efforts to persuade the state to grant a new trial. Advertise | AdChoices The effort stems from the brutal slaying of Betty June Binnicker, 11, and Mary Emma Thames, 8, in the spring of 1944. Stinney and his younger sister were the last witnesses known to have seen the girls alive. Police in Alcolu, S.C., arrested Stinney the day the girls were found, and an all-white jury convicted him on the basis of what police described as a confession. Less than three months after the crime, Stinney went to the chair. "We want them to consider the possibility that he was wrongly convicted and executed for something he did not do," said Brown, who describes the case as a symbol of our history’s deep racial injustices. "You have to correct these kind of things if you ever expect any change." The request for a new trial is the culmination of a lengthy investigation, started years ago by local historian George Frierson, whose work brought attention to what he calls the barbaric death of a child. “This was a courthouse lynching,” said Frierson. “I want his name cleared, and I want an apology from the state of South Carolina for putting a child to death.” George Stinney, Jr. was 14 years old when South Carolina executed him in 1944, making him the youngest person executed in the U.S. in the 20th century. He was convicted of murdering two girls. Now there's a move to clear his name. NBC's Mark Potter reports. Stinney’s execution was legal at the time in South Carolina, where 14 was the age of criminal responsibility. In 2005, the U.S. abolished execution of children under 18. Brown followed in Frierson’s footsteps, beginning his own investigation, as well as petitioning Gov. Nikki Haley for a pardon. The motion for a new trial marks a shift in strategy to correct what advocates say is a grave wrong. “After numerous disappointments, blind alleys and dead ends, we believe that we now have sufficient evidence to support a motion to seek judicial review of George Stinney Jr.’s trial,” local attorney Ray E. Chandler said in a statement from Coffey, Chandler and McKenzie. The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment. The quest for a new trial faces several legal hurdles. South Carolina law allows a defendant to ask for a retrial if new evidence is uncovered, but it requires the motion be filed within a year of the discovery. Attorneys in Stinney’s case have based their request on affidavits from two of his siblings who provide an alibi for him at the time. The filing states that the affidavits taken in 2009 constitute new evidence because the family’s fear at the time prevented them from speaking out. NBC News Charles Stinney said that his parents and George's siblings were afraid to speak out when the 14-year-old was arrested, and for many years afterward. Advertise | AdChoices “I wish I could have come forward much sooner,” said Charles Stinney, George’s brother, who is now in his 80s. “George’s conviction and execution were something my family believed could happen to any of us in the family. Therefore, we made the decision for the safety of the family to leave it be.” It also attributes the delays in requesting a retrial to efforts to obtain a statement from another witness who eventually refused to come forward, citing fear of the Ku Klux Klan. “You have to explain why you couldn’t have presented the evidence before — that’s a big problem,” said Kenneth W. Gaines, a professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law. “It’s probably a long shot but I give them credit for trying.” The effort to win a new trial is a one-shot deal. Such requests are a discretionary matter in the state, Gaines said. Once the decision is made, it cannot be appealed. A spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office, which would likely be tasked with arguing the state’s case in the event of a retrial, said the office has not received notice of the filing and does not comment on ongoing or potential litigation. In a 2011 interview with NBC News, Ernest “Chip” Finney, the solicitor for Clarendon County, where the trial took place, said that nearly all evidence and transcripts in the case had either disappeared or been destroyed, meaning it would almost certainly be impossible to prove Stinney’s innocence or guilt by reopening the investigation. “I would need to have something in order to move the case back to court, something more than just the emotion in the community about it,” Finney said at the time. The emotion still echoes through Alcolu. Once the quintessential small company town, Alcolu was split in half. White workers lived on one side of the tracks and black families, including the Stinneys, lived on the other. All lived in cabins owned by the local timber mill, and used coins stamped with an “A” to shop at the company store. On the day of the murders, two little white girls -- Binnicker and Thames -- crossed those tracks looking for wildflowers. Stinney and his younger sister, Amie, sat on the railroad tracks after school as their cow Lizzie grazed. The girls wheeled their bicycle up to them and asked where they could find maypop flowers, Amie remembered. Advertise | AdChoices "It was strange to see them in our area,” she said in an affidavit filed as part of the case, using her married surname, Ruffner. “Because white people stayed on their side of Alcolu and we knew our place." News stories from the time said when the girls were reported missing, mill owner B.G. Alderman organized a search party of about 200 people, including black residents. They found the children’s bodies the next day, when, in the early morning light, they followed a trail of small footsteps in damp soil. The girls had been struck repeatedly in the heads and dumped in a watery ditch. Their bike was smashed and thrown atop their bodies, the flowers they had gathered scattered across the ground. Stinney and his older brother were arrested that night. His brother was released. George was not. Law enforcement reported that George had immediately confessed to killing the girls with a railroad spike. In a 2009 affidavit, Ruffner said she was with her brother that day, and he could not have committed the murders. But his siblings said nothing then, apparently fearing for their lives. The night George was arrested, his father was fired and the Stinneys fled from their company house. “For my family, Friday March 24, 1944 and the events that followed were our personal 9/11,” said brother Charles Stinney, now in his 80s, said in an affidavit in 2009. Thirty days after the murders, George Stinney stood trial in Clarendon County. Some 1,500 packed the small courtroom to watch, news reports said. Prosecutors presented two conflicting statements made by Stinney: one that he had killed the girls in self-defense and the other, that he had chased the girls into the woods and attacked them. No records remain of either confession. The boy’s court-appointed attorney did not present a defense. Ten minutes after retiring to deliberate, the jury declared Stinney guilty of murder. Soon after, a judge signed his death sentence. On June 16, 1944, four months shy of his 15th birthday, the state of South Carolina electrocuted Stinney. Reporters present at his death noted the executioners had difficulty strapping the electrodes to the boy’s small frame. They sat him on a book to prop him up high enough to take his life. Stinney’s attorney, a tax commissioner with political ambitions but no trial experience, failed to file a notice of appeal, which would have at least delayed the boy’s execution. Several local churches and the NAACP petitioned then-Gov. Olin Johnson to stop the execution. He declined. Advertise | AdChoices The Stinneys were forced to stand by as the state put their son to death. "My parents were simply helpless to do anything about it,” said Charles Stinney in his affidavit. “They had no money. The law was against them, and they were black in the American South in 1944.”
Again, this isn't about protecting the environment, it's a government welfare program for the farmers that grow corn. http://www.tricities.com/news/national/article_9fb85d2c-4b2f-11e3-a21a-001a4bcf6878.html The secret, dirty cost of Obama's green power push Posted: Saturday, November 16, 2013 10:15 am Associated Press | The hills of southern Iowa bear the scars of America's push for green energy: The brown gashes where rain has washed away the soil. The polluted streams that dump fertilizer into the water supply. Even the cemetery that disappeared like an apparition into a cornfield. It wasn't supposed to be this way. With the Iowa political caucuses on the horizon in 2007, presidential candidate Barack Obama made homegrown corn a centerpiece of his plan to slow global warming. And when President George W. Bush signed a law that year requiring oil companies to add billions of gallons of ethanol to their gasoline each year, Bush predicted it would make the country "stronger, cleaner and more secure." But the ethanol era has proven far more damaging to the environment than politicians promised and much worse than the government admits today. As farmers rushed to find new places to plant corn, they wiped out millions of acres of conservation land, destroyed habitat and polluted water supplies, an Associated Press investigation found. Five million acres of land set aside for conservation — more than Yellowstone, Everglades and Yosemite National Parks combined — have vanished on Obama's watch. Landowners filled in wetlands. They plowed into pristine prairies, releasing carbon dioxide that had been locked in the soil. Sprayers pumped out billions of pounds of fertilizer, some of which seeped into drinking water, contaminated rivers and worsened the huge dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico where marine life can't survive. In South Dakota, for instance, farmers planted 1.3 million more acres of corn last year than they did the year before the ethanol mandate was passed. More than 400,000 acres of conservation land were lost. The consequences are so severe that environmentalists and many scientists have now rejected corn-based ethanol as bad environmental policy. But the Obama administration stands by it, highlighting its benefits to the farming industry rather than any negative impact. Farmers planted 15 million more acres of corn last year than before the ethanol boom, and the effects are visible in places like south central Iowa. The hilly, once-grassy landscape is made up of fragile soil that, unlike the earth in the rest of the state, is poorly suited for corn. Nevertheless, it has yielded to America's demand for it. "They're raping the land," said Bill Alley, a member of the board of supervisors in Wayne County, which now bears little resemblance to the rolling cow pastures shown in postcards sold at a Corydon pharmacy. All energy comes at a cost. The environmental consequences of drilling for oil and natural gas are well documented and severe. But in the president's push to reduce greenhouse gases and curtail global warming, his administration has allowed so-called green energy to do not-so-green things. In some cases, such as its decision to allow wind farms to kill eagles, the administration accepts environmental costs because they pale in comparison to the havoc it believes global warming could ultimately cause. Ethanol is different. The government's predictions of the benefits have proven so inaccurate that independent scientists question whether it will ever achieve its central environmental goal: reducing greenhouse gases. That makes the hidden costs even more significant. "This is an ecological disaster," said Craig Cox with the Environmental Working Group, a natural ally of the president that, like others, now finds itself at odds with the White House. But it's a cost the administration is willing to accept. It believes supporting corn ethanol is the best way to encourage the development of biofuels that will someday be cleaner and greener than today's. Pulling the plug on corn ethanol, officials fear, might mean killing any hope of these next-generation fuels. "That is what you give up if you don't recognize that renewable fuels have some place here," EPA administrator Gina McCarthy said in a recent interview with AP. "All renewable fuels are not corn ethanol." Still, corn supplies the overwhelming majority of ethanol in the United States, and the administration is loath to discuss the environmental consequences. "It just caught us completely off guard," said Doug Davenport, a Department of Agriculture official who encourages southern Iowa farmers to use conservation practices on their land. Despite those efforts, Davenport said he was surprised at how much fragile, erodible land was turned into corn fields. Shortly after Davenport spoke to The Associated Press, he got an email ordering him to stop talking. "We just want to have a consistent message on the topic," an Agriculture Department spokesman in Iowa said. That consistent message was laid out by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who spoke to ethanol lobbyists on Capitol Hill recently and said ethanol was good for business. "We are committed to this industry because we understand its benefits," he said. "We understand it's about farm income. It's about stabilizing and maintaining farm income which is at record levels." The numbers behind the ethanol mandate have become so unworkable that, for the first time, the EPA is soon expected to reduce the amount of ethanol required to be added to the gasoline supply. An unusual coalition of big oil companies, environmental groups and food companies is pushing the government to go even further and reconsider the entire ethanol program. The ethanol industry is fighting hard against that effort. Industry spokesman Brooke Coleman dismissed this story as "propaganda on a page." An industry blog in Minnesota said the AP had succumbed "to Big Oil's deep pockets and powerful influence." To understand how America got to an environmental policy with such harmful environmental consequences, it's helpful to start in a field in Iowa. ___ Leroy Perkins, a white-haired, 66-year-old farmer in denim overalls, stands surrounded by waist-high grass and clover. He owns 91 acres like this, all hilly and erodible, that he set aside for conservation years ago. Soon, he will have a decision to make: keep the land as it is or, like many of his neighbors, plow it down and plant corn or soybeans, the major sources of biofuel in the United States. "I'd like to keep it in," he said. "This is what southern Iowa's for: raising grass." For decades, the government's Conservation Reserve Program has paid farmers to stop farming environmentally sensitive land. Grassy fields naturally convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, which helps combat global warming. Plus, their deep root systems prevent topsoil from washing away. For Perkins and his farmer neighbors in Wayne County, keeping farmland in conservation wasn't just good stewardship. It made financial sense. A decade ago, Washington paid them about $70 an acre each year to leave their farmland idle. With corn selling for about $2 per bushel (56 pounds) back then, farming the hilly, inferior soil was bad business. Many opted into the conservation program. Others kept their grasslands for cow pastures. Lately, though, the math has changed. "I'm coming to the point where financially, it's not feasible," Perkins said. The change began in 2007, when Congress passed a law requiring oil companies to blend billions of gallons of ethanol into gasoline. Oil prices were high. Oil imports were rising quickly. The legislation had the strong backing of the presidential candidate who was the junior senator from neighboring Illinois, the nation's second-largest corn producer. "If we're going to get serious about investing in our energy future, we must give our family farmers and local ethanol producers a fair shot at success," Obama said then. The Democratic primary field was crowded, and if he didn't win the Iowa caucuses the road to the nomination would be difficult. His strong support for ethanol set him apart. "Any time we could talk about support for ethanol, we did," said Mitch Stewart, the battleground states director for Obama's 2008 campaign. "It's how we would lead a lot of discussions." President Bush signed the bill that December. It would fall on the next president to figure out how to make it work. ___ President Obama's team at the EPA was sour on the ethanol mandate from the start. As a way to reduce global warming, they knew corn ethanol was a dubious proposition. Corn demands fertilizer, which is made using natural gas. What's worse, ethanol factories typically burn coal or gas, both of which release carbon dioxide. Then there was the land conversion, the most controversial and difficult-to-predict outcome. Digging up grassland releases greenhouse gases, so environmentalists are skeptical of any program that encourages planting more corn. "I don't remember anybody having great passion for this," said Bob Sussman, who served on Obama's transition team and recently retired as EPA's senior policy counsel. "I don't have a lot of personal enthusiasm for the program." At the White House and the Department of Agriculture, though, there was plenty of enthusiasm. One of Obama's senior advisers, Pete Rouse, had worked on ethanol issues as chief of staff to Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota, a major ethanol booster and now chair of the DuPont Advisory Committee on Agriculture Innovation and Productivity. Another adviser at the time, Heather Zichal, grew up in northeast Iowa — as a child, she was crowned "sweet corn princess" — and was one of the Obama campaign's leading voices on ethanol in her home state. The administration had no greater corn ethanol advocate than Vilsack, the former Iowa governor. "Tom understands that the solution to our energy crisis will be found not in oil fields abroad but in our farm fields here at home," Obama said in 2008. "That is the kind of leader I want in my Cabinet." ___ Writing the regulations to implement the ethanol mandate was among the administration's first major environmental undertakings. Industry and environmental groups watched closely. The EPA's experts determined that the mandate would increase demand for corn and encourage farmers to plow more land. Considering those factors, they said, corn ethanol was only slightly better than gasoline when it came to carbon dioxide emissions. Sixteen percent better, to be exact. And not in the short term. Only by 2022. By law, though, biofuels were supposed to be at least 20 percent greener than gasoline. From a legal standpoint, the results didn't matter. Congress exempted existing coal- and gas-burning ethanol plants from meeting this standard. But as a policy and public relations issue, it was a real problem. The biofuel-friendly Obama administration was undermining the industry's major selling point: that it was much greener than gasoline. So the ethanol industry was livid. Lobbyists flooded the EPA with criticism, challenging the government's methods and conclusions. The EPA's conclusion was based on a model. Plug in some assumed figures — the price of corn, the number of acres planted, how much corn would grow per acre — and the model would spit out a number. To get past 20 percent, the EPA needed to change its assumptions. The most important of those assumptions was called the yield, a measure of how much corn could be produced on an acre of land. The higher the yield, the easier it would be for farmers to meet the growing demand without plowing new farmland, which counted against ethanol in the greenhouse gas equation. Corn yields have inched steadily upward over the years as farms have become more efficient. The government's first ethanol model assumed that trend would continue, rising from 150 bushels per acre to about 180 by the year 2022. Agriculture companies like Monsanto Co. and DuPont Pioneer, which stood to make millions off an ethanol boom, told the government those numbers were too low. They predicted that genetically modified seeds — which they produce — would send yields skyrocketing. With higher yields, farmers could produce more corn on less land, reducing the environmental effects. Documents show the White House budget office also suggested the EPA raise its yield assumptions. When the final rule came out, the EPA and Agriculture officials added a new "high yield case scenario" that assumed 230 bushels per acre. The flaw in those assumptions, independent scientists knew, was that a big increase in corn prices would encourage people to farm in less hospitable areas like Wayne County, which could never produce such large yields. But the EPA's model assumed only a tiny increase in corn prices. "You adjust a few numbers to get it where you want it, and then you call it good," said Adam Liska, assistant professor of biological systems engineering at the University of Nebraska. He supports ethanol, even with its environmental trade-offs. When the Obama administration finalized its first major green-energy policy, corn ethanol barely crossed the key threshold. The final score: 21 percent. "If you corrected any of a number of things, it would be on the other side of 20 percent," said Richard Plevin of the Transportation Sustainability Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley. "Is it a coincidence this is what happened? It certainly makes me wonder." It didn't take long for reality to prove the Obama administration's predictions wrong. The regulations took effect in July 2010. The following month, corn prices already had surpassed the EPA's long-term estimate of $3.22 a bushel. That September, corn passed $4, on its way to about $7, where it has been most of this year. Yields, meanwhile, have held fairly steady. But the ethanol boom was underway. ___ It's impossible to precisely calculate how much ethanol is responsible for the spike in corn prices and how much those prices led to the land changes in the Midwest. Supporters of corn ethanol say extreme weather — dry one year, very wet the next — hurt farmers and raised prices. But diminishing supply wasn't the only factor. More corn than ever was being distilled into ethanol. Historically, the overwhelming majority of corn in the United States has been turned into livestock feed. But in 2010, for the first time, fuel was the No. 1 use for corn in America. That was true in 2011 and 2012. Newly released Department of Agriculture data show that, this year, 43 percent of corn went to fuel and 45 percent went to livestock feed. Forty-four percent last year's corn crop was used for fuel, about twice the rate in 2006, according to the Department of Agriculture. The more corn that goes to ethanol, the more that needs to be planted to meet other demands. Scientists predicted that a major ethanol push would raise prices and, in turn, encourage farmers like Leroy Perkins to plow into conservation land. But the government insisted otherwise. In 2008, the journal Science published a study with a dire conclusion: Plowing over conservation land releases so much greenhouse gas that it takes 48 years before new plants can break even and start reducing carbon dioxide. For an ethanol policy to work, the study said, farmers could not plow into conservation land. The EPA, in a report to Congress on the environmental effects of ethanol, said it was "uncertain" whether farmers would plant on farmland that had been set aside for conservation. The Department of Energy was more certain. Most conservation land, the government said in its response to the study, "is unsuitable for use for annual row crop production." America could meet its ethanol demand without losing a single acre of conservation land, Energy officials said. They would soon be proven wrong. Before the government ethanol mandate, the Conservation Reserve Program grew every year for nearly a decade. Almost overnight, farmers began leaving the program, which simultaneously fell victim to budget cuts that reduced the amount of farmland that could be set aside for conservation. In the first year after the ethanol mandate, more than 2 million acres disappeared. Since Obama took office, 5 million more acres have vanished. Agriculture officials acknowledge that conservation land has been lost, but they say the trend is reversing. When the 2013 data comes out, they say it will show that as corn prices stabilized, farmers once again began setting aside land for conservation. ___ Losing conservation land was bad. But something even worse was happening. Farmers broke ground on virgin land, the untouched terrain that represents, from an environmental standpoint, the country's most important asset. The farm industry assured the government that wouldn't happen. And it would have been an easy thing for Washington to check. But rather than insisting that farmers report whenever they plow into virgin land, the government decided on a much murkier oversight method: Washington instead monitors the total number of acres of cropland nationwide. Local trends wash away when viewed at such a distance. "They could not have designed a better approach to not detect land conversion," said Ben Larson, an agricultural expert for the National Wildlife Federation. Look closely at the corn boom in the northern Great Plains, however, and it's clear. Farmers are converting untouched prairie into farmland. The Department of Agriculture began keeping figures on virgin land only in 2012 and determined that about 38,000 acres vanished that year. But using government satellite data — the best tool available — the AP identified a conservative estimate of 1.2 million acres of virgin land in Nebraska and the Dakotas alone that have been converted to fields of corn and soybeans since 2006, the last year before the ethanol mandate was passed. "The last five years, we've become financially solvent," said Robert Malsam, a farmer in Edmunds County, S.D., who like others in the central and eastern Dakotas has plowed into wild grassland to expand his corn crop. The price of corn is reshaping the land across the Midwest. In Wayne County, Iowa, for example, only the dead can stop the corn. A gravel road once cut through a grassy field leading to a hilltop cemetery. But about two years ago, the landowners plowed over the road. Now, visiting gravesites means walking a narrow path through the corn. People have complained. It's too narrow for a hearse, too rutted for a wheelchair, too steep for the elderly. But it's legal, said Bill Alley from the board of supervisors. "This is what the price of corn does," he said. "This is what happens, right here." ___ When Congress passed the ethanol mandate, it required the EPA to thoroughly study the effects on water and air pollution. In his recent speech to ethanol lobbyists, Vilsack was unequivocal about those effects: "There is no question air quality, water quality is benefiting from this industry," he said. But the administration never actually conducted the required air and water studies to determine whether that's true. In an interview with the AP after his speech, Vilsack said he didn't mean that ethanol production was good for the air and water. He simply meant that gasoline mixed with ethanol is cleaner than gasoline alone. In the Midwest, meanwhile, scientists and conservationists are sounding alarms. Nitrogen fertilizer, when it seeps into the water, is toxic. Children are especially susceptible to nitrate poisoning, which causes "blue baby" syndrome and can be deadly. Between 2005 and 2010, corn farmers increased their use of nitrogen fertilizer by more than one billion pounds. More recent data isn't available from the Agriculture Department, but because of the huge increase in corn planting, even conservative projections by the AP suggest another billion-pound fertilizer increase on corn farms since then. Department of Agriculture officials note that the amount of fertilizer used for all crops has remained steady for a decade, suggesting the ethanol mandate hasn't caused a fertilizer boom across the board. But in the Midwest, corn is the dominant crop, and officials say the increase in fertilizer use — driven by the increase in corn planting — is having an effect. The Des Moines Water Works, for instance, has faced high nitrate levels for many years in the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers, which supply drinking water to 500,000 people. Typically, when pollution is too high in one river, workers draw from the other. "This year, unfortunately the nitrate levels in both rivers were so high that it created an impossibility for us," said Bill Stowe, the water service's general manager. For three months this summer, workers kept huge machines running around the clock to clean the water. Officials asked customers to use less water so the utility had a chance to keep up. Part of the problem was that last year's dry weather meant fertilizer sat atop the soil. This spring's rains flushed that nitrogen into the water along with the remnants of the fertilizer from the most recent crop. At the same time the ethanol mandate has encouraged farmers to plant more corn, Stowe said, the government hasn't done enough to limit fertilizer use or regulate the industrial drainage systems that flush nitrates and water into rivers and streams. With the Water Works on the brink of capacity, Stowe said he's considering suing the government to demand a solution. In neighboring Minnesota, a government report this year found that significantly reducing the high levels of nitrates from the state's water would require huge changes in farming practices at a cost of roughly $1 billion a year. "We're doing more to address water quality, but we are being overwhelmed by the increase in production pressure to plant more crops," said Steve Morse, executive director of the Minnesota Environmental Partnership. The nitrates travel down rivers and into the Gulf of Mexico, where they boost the growth of enormous algae fields. When the algae die, the decomposition consumes oxygen, leaving behind a zone where aquatic life cannot survive. This year, the dead zone covered 5,800 square miles of sea floor, about the size of Connecticut. Larry McKinney, the executive director of the Harte Institute at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, says the ethanol mandate worsened the dead zone. "On the one hand, the government is mandating ethanol use," he said, "and it is unfortunately coming at the expense of the Gulf of Mexico." The dead zone is one example among many of a peculiar ethanol side effect: As one government program encourages farmers to plant more corn, other programs pay millions to clean up the mess. ___ Obama administration officials know the ethanol mandate hasn't lived up to its billing. The next-generation biofuels that were supposed to wean the country off corn haven't yet materialized. Every year, the EPA predicts millions of gallons of clean fuel will be made from agricultural waste. Every year, the government is wrong. Every day without those cleaner-burning fuels, the ethanol industry stays reliant on corn and the environmental effects mount. The EPA could revisit its model and see whether ethanol is actually as good for the environment as officials predicted. But the agency says it doesn't have the money or the manpower. Even under the government's optimistic projections, the ethanol mandate wasn't going to reduce greenhouse gas right away. And with the model so far off from reality, independent scientists say it's hard to make an argument for ethanol as a global warming policy. "I'd have to think really hard to come up with a scenario where it's a net positive," said Silvia Secchi, a Southern Illinois University agriculture economist. She paused a few moments, then added, "I'm stumped." In June, when Obama gave a major policy speech on reducing greenhouse gas, he didn't mention ethanol. Biofuels in general received a brief, passing reference. What was once billed as an environmental boon has morphed into a government program to help rural America survive. "I don't know whether I can make the environmental argument, or the economic argument," Vilsack said in an interview with the AP. "To me, it's an opportunity argument." Congress and the administration could change the ethanol mandate, tweak its goals or demand more safeguards. Going to Congress and rewriting the law would mean picking a fight with agricultural lobbyists, a fight that would put the administration on the side of big oil companies, which despise the ethanol requirement. So the ethanol policy cruises on autopilot. Bob Dinneen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association, the ethanol lobbying group, said there's no reason to change the standards. Ethanol still looks good compared to the oil industry, which increasingly relies on environmentally risky tactics like hydraulic fracturing or pulls from carbon-heavy tar sands. Leroy Perkins, the farmer agonizing about what to do with his 91 acres, says he likes ethanol as a product and an industry. But he knows it fuels the corn prices that are transforming his county. "If they do change the fuel standard, you'll see the price of corn come down overnight," he said. "I like to see a good price for corn. But when it's too high, it hurts everybody." Investors from as far away as Maryland and Pennsylvania have bought thousands of acres in Wayne County, sending prices skyrocketing from $350 per acre a decade ago to $5,000 today. One in every four acres of in the county is now owned by an out-of-towner. Those who still own land often rent it to farming companies offering $300 or more per acre. Perkins could make perhaps $27,000 a year if he let somebody plant corn on his land. That's nothing to dismiss in a county where typical household income is $36,000. But he knows what that means. He sees the black streaks in his neighbor's cornfields, knowing the topsoil washes away with every rain. He doesn't want that for his family's land. "You have to decide, do you want to be the one to. ." He doesn't finish his sentence. "We all have to look at our pocketbooks." Associated Press writers Jack Gillum in Washington and Chet Brokaw in Roscoe, S.D., contributed to this report.
Again you can blame this problem on the American government. From what I have read the only reason the Russians started their own GPS system, was because the American's made our GPS system to be a two tiered system which gave much better accuracy to the military then to civilians. Since then I believe the American's have been giving civilians the same accuracy that the American military gets, but at any time the military could degrade that and shut off the system to civilians. Of course the solution to this problem is to get the government out of GPS services and let civilians provide GPS services to the world. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/world/europe/a-russian-gps-using-us-soil-stirs-spy-fears.html?hp A Russian GPS Using U.S. Soil Stirs Spy Fears By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and ERIC SCHMITT Published: November 16, 2013 WASHINGTON — In the view of America’s spy services, the next potential threat from Russia may not come from a nefarious cyberweapon or secrets gleaned from the files of Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor now in Moscow. Instead, this menace may come in the form of a seemingly innocuous dome-topped antenna perched atop an electronics-packed building surrounded by a security fence somewhere in the United States. In recent months, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon have been quietly waging a campaign to stop the State Department from allowing Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, to build about half a dozen of these structures, known as monitor stations, on United States soil, several American officials said. They fear that these structures could help Russia spy on the United States and improve the precision of Russian weaponry, the officials said. These monitor stations, the Russians contend, would significantly improve the accuracy and reliability of Moscow’s version of the Global Positioning System, the American satellite network that steers guided missiles to their targets and thirsty smartphone users to the nearest Starbucks. “They don’t want to be reliant on the American system and believe that their systems, like GPS, will spawn other industries and applications,” said a former senior official in the State Department’s Office of Space and Advanced Technology. “They feel as though they are losing a technological edge to us in an important market. Look at everything GPS has done on things like your phone and the movement of planes and ships.” The Russian effort is part of a larger global race by several countries — including China and European Union nations — to perfect their own global positioning systems and challenge the dominance of the American GPS. For the State Department, permitting Russia to build the stations would help mend the Obama administration’s relationship with the government of President Vladimir V. Putin, now at a nadir because of Moscow’s granting asylum to Mr. Snowden and its backing of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. But the C.I.A. and other American spy agencies, as well as the Pentagon, suspect that the monitor stations would give the Russians a foothold on American territory that would sharpen the accuracy of Moscow’s satellite-steered weapons. The stations, they believe, could also give the Russians an opening to snoop on the United States within its borders. The squabble is serious enough that administration officials have delayed a final decision until the Russians provide more information and until the American agencies sort out their differences, State Department and White House officials said. Russia’s efforts have also stirred concerns on Capitol Hill, where members of the intelligence and armed services committees view Moscow’s global positioning network — known as Glonass, for Global Navigation Satellite System — with deep suspicion and are demanding answers from the administration. “I would like to understand why the United States would be interested in enabling a GPS competitor, like Russian Glonass, when the world’s reliance on GPS is a clear advantage to the United States on multiple levels,” said Representative Mike D. Rogers, Republican of Alabama, the chairman of a House Armed Services subcommittee. Mr. Rogers last week asked the Pentagon to provide an assessment of the proposal’s impact on national security. The request was made in a letter sent to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Secretary of State John Kerry and the director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr. The monitor stations have been a high priority of Mr. Putin for several years as a means to improve Glonass not only to benefit the Russian military and civilian sectors but also to compete globally with GPS. Earlier this year, Russia positioned a station in Brazil, and agreements with Spain, Indonesia and Australia are expected soon, according to Russian news reports. The United States has stations around the world, but none in Russia. Russian and American negotiators last met on April 25 to weigh “general requirements for possible Glonass monitoring stations in U.S. territory and the scope of planned future discussions,” said a State Department spokeswoman, Marie Harf, who said no final decision had been made. The Russian government offered few details about the program. In a statement, a spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Washington, Yevgeniy Khorishko, said that the stations were deployed “only to ensure calibration and precision of signals for the Glonass system.” Mr. Khorishko referred all questions to Roscosmos, which did not respond to a request for comment last week. Although the Cold War is long over, the Russians do not want to rely on the American GPS infrastructure because they remain suspicious of the United States’ military capabilities, security analysts say. That is why they have insisted on pressing ahead with their own system despite the high costs. Accepting the dominance of GPS, Russians fear, would give the United States some serious strategic advantages militarily. In Russians’ worst fears, analysts said, Americans could potentially manipulate signals and send erroneous information to Russian armed forces. Monitor stations are essential to maintaining the accuracy of a global positioning system, according to Bradford W. Parkinson, a professor emeritus of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University, who was the original chief architect of GPS. As a satellite’s orbit slowly diverges from its earlier prediction, these small deviations are measured by the reference stations on the ground and sent to a central control station for updating, he said. That prediction is sent to the satellite every 12 hours for subsequent broadcast to users. Having monitor stations all around the earth yields improved accuracy over having them only in one hemisphere. Washington and Moscow have been discussing for nearly a decade how and when to cooperate on civilian satellite-based navigation signals, particularly to ensure that the systems do not interfere with each other. Indeed, many smartphones and other consumer navigation systems sold in the United States today use data from both countries’ satellites. In May 2012, Moscow requested that the United States allow the ground-monitoring stations on American soil. American technical and diplomatic officials have met several times to discuss the issue and have asked Russian officials for more information, said Ms. Harf, the State Department spokeswoman. In the meantime, C.I.A. analysts reviewed the proposal and concluded in a classified report this fall that allowing the Russian monitor stations here would raise counterintelligence and other security issues. The State Department does not think that is a strong argument, said an administration official. “It doesn’t see them as a threat.”
Great pay for lousy work??? What did you expect??? It's a government job! http://www.azcentral.com/news/arizona/articles/20131122bonuses-okd-pension-staffers.html Bonuses OK’d for pension staffers By Craig Harris The Republic | azcentral.com Fri Nov 22, 2013 10:02 PM Ten investment managers at the Arizona State Retirement System, which provides pensions for teachers and government employees, will be eligible to receive performance bonuses of up to 25 percent of their base pay if they exceed benchmarks and if the underfunded trust makes money. The ASRS board voted 4-2 Friday to approve the program, which could provide bonuses ranging from $17,500 to $48,625 for the employees, according to records obtained by The Arizona Republic. The total cost could approach $350,000 annually for the trust if all employees obtain a maximum bonus, according to ASRS Director Paul Matson. Friday’s vote came on the heels of a 4-3 vote Wednesday by the Public Safety Personnel Retirement System board to give raises to five of its investment-staff members. A key state lawmaker and pension-reform proponent said he was stunned by Wednesday’s vote and hoped Gov. Jan Brewer’s administration would review the proposal before it goes into effect. Matson said ASRS sought the new pay program approved Friday to attract and retain high-caliber investment professionals. Those employees are paid from $70,000 to $194,500 a year, and a bonus could be paid in September 2014 based on results from this fiscal year. Maricopa County Manager Tom Manos, who chairs the ASRS board, voted against the program, saying the potential bonuses would be hard to justify to ASRS members and government employers who have been required to pay more into the trust to offset investment losses in prior years. Manos added it also would not go over well with retirees, who have not received a cost-of-living adjustment since 2005. “For a number of people we work with, and our customers, this is not going to be well-received,” Manos said. “There will be a lot of negative push-back in the community with someone getting a $25,000 bonus.” But board member Richard Jacob, a former Arizona State University physics professor, said having quality investment staff ultimately will improve retirement benefits and keep pension contribution rates down. Voting yes with Jacob were Michael Smarik, Marc Boatwright and Tom Connelly. The other no vote came from Kevin McCarthy. Absent were board members Dennis Hoffman, Jeff Tyne and Brian McNeil. Steve Ramos, a retired Mesa High School teacher who attended Friday’s meeting, said he was fine with creating a bonus program because retirees depend on smart money managers. But Ramos added it still will be a hard sell among retirees. “We will have to go out and get the members informed,” said Ramos, who retired in 2006 after 31 years in the classroom. The trust’s investment staff this past fiscal year produced a 13.1 percent rate of return, just more than 5 percentage points better than projected. Financial returns at ASRS also bettered the much smaller Public Safety Personnel Retirement System and state retirement systems in Washington, Colorado, Iowa, Missouri and Pennsylvania, ASRS records show. However, Charlie Chittenden, an actuarial consultant, provided bad news for retirees, telling the board a permanent benefit increase is not expected until at least 2018. Further, contribution rates for current employees and employers will increase slightly on July 1, 2014, to 11.6 percent of a worker’s pay, because government raises and new hires were lower than expected and are not bringing in sufficient added revenue to the trust. The current rate is 11.54 percent. The PSPRS vote earlier in the week was intended to beef up pay for investment staff handling that trust, which provides retirement benefits for police officers, firefighters, corrections officers and elected officials. That trust also is significantly underfunded, and the Legislature has suspended cost-of-living increases for its retirees until the trust’s financial health improves. Some cities, such as Phoenix, have had to make such large payments to the underfunded public-safety workers’ trust that it has impaired their ability to hire police officers and firefighters. Under terms of the public-safety trust’s pay proposal, one employee would receive a pay hike of nearly 27 percent while another would get a salary increase of roughly 20 percent. Wednesday’s vote came two months after the PSPRS board voted unanimously to end a controversial bonus program that rewarded investment staff even when the trust had lost money in 2008, 2009 and 2012. State Rep. Phil Lovas, R-Peoria, who has worked on public-pension reform proposals, questioned why the public-safety pension board granted the raises, given the trust’s financial situation. The roughly $7.5 billion public-safety trust has a shortfall of at least $6 billion in the amount needed to cover all current pension liabilities. Its funded ratio — the percentage of current and future liabilities for which money is on hand — is about 59 percent. By comparison, the $32.4 billion ASRS has a shortfall of about $10 billion and a 76 percent funded ratio. A public-pension fund is considered “healthy” when it is funded at 80 percent or more. A lower funded ratio means more tax dollars and member contributions are needed to keep the trust fund healthy. Lovas, chairman of the House Insurance and Retirement Committee, said the PSPRS board seemed “tone-deaf” in approving the raises amid public concern about the trust’s health. Lovas said he contacted Brewer’s office to determine if she had a position on the raises or would get involved. Brewer appointed all seven members to the public-safety retirement board. Her spokesman, Andrew Wilder, said Friday that the Department of Administration is charged with overseeing and reviewing any issues involving state workers’ pay. “We intend on letting it do a proper review and analysis,” Wilder said. Lovas, meanwhile, said he was OK with a new bonus system for ASRS staff as long as the trust earns a profit, staff hits benchmarks and safeguards are in place to make sure financial figures cannot be inflated to create a bonus. Matson, the ASRS director, said his staff will be measured on how well it manages the overall trust and certain investment portfolios, as well as how they work together. He told The Republic that he changed his incentive proposal so that staff could receive a bonus only if the trust made money. He said the public, by and large, would not accept financial rewards for employees if there is a financial loss. Matson also said staff would not be involved in valuing assets, providing a safeguard so financial figures cannot be calculated or manipulated. He said he asked the Department of Administration to vet his plan prior to seeking ASRS board approval. McNeil, an ASRS board member, also heads the Department of Administration. He was absent at Friday’s board meeting because of U.S. Army Reserve duties in Texas.
Screw those silly little laws passed by voters. After all we are member of the royal Tempe City Council and can do whatever we feel like!!!! http://www.azcentral.com/community/tempe/articles/20131120tempe-withholding-arts-funds.html Tempe withholding arts funds By Dianna M. Náñez The Republic | azcentral.com Fri Nov 22, 2013 9:59 PM Tempe is withholding at least $2.7 million, and is poised to withhold hundreds of thousands of dollars more, from a fund that was created in 1988 to ensure that each year a small portion of the city’s budget is reserved for public art. This week, the Tempe City Council chose not to fully fund the arts account, which has been used to pay for art installations at the Tempe Transit Center, an annual ballet performance and other arts programs and projects. The council has maintained contributions to the Municipal Arts Fund from the city’s water fund, but suspended contributions from the general and transit funds. A similar move this fiscal year removed nearly a half-million dollars intended for public art. Council members pointed to the fund’s reserve of $1.5 million and cited overall budget constraints as its motivation, though records show the city’s sales-tax collections have returned to near pre-recession amounts. Exactly how much money has been withheld since the arts fund was established is unclear because of incomplete financial records. The city’s financial system only includes arts-fund contributions dating back to fiscal year 1999-2000, though the city created the fund in 1988, Tempe Finance and Technology Director Ken Jones told The Arizona Republic. If the account had been fully funded for fiscal year 2013-14 alone, the contributions would have amounted to $499,000, according to Jones. Tempe has long promoted its reputation for supporting public art. The arts fund was established by a 1988 council resolution, which was amended in 1995 when elected officials wanted to boost the city’s commitment to the arts. “An amount equal to 1 percent of the total capital-improvements budget for each fiscal year shall be appropriated into this (municipal arts) account on an annual basis,” according to the 1995 resolution, which increased the contribution from .5 percent. The Tempe City Council did not amend the resolution when it suspended contributions to the fund. Tempe City Attorney Judi Baumann told The Republic that the council is within its right because the contributions were not required by state law, the state Constitution or the city charter. “The Charter does not expressly require a formal legal action by Council to suspend the appropriation of funds,” Baumann wrote in an e-mail. Public-interest attorney Tim Hogan said the council might have had the authority to suspend the contribution, but added that altering the funding model without a formal vote on the change may have violated the public’s trust. “As a matter of accountability, it seems to me that when you have an ordinance on the books and you’re not going to follow it, some kind of public notice should be provided,” he said. “That surely would have been more transparent.” The axed contributions came to light at an Oct. 24 study session at which Jones provided the council with a financial forecast, which included a council memo with information on the arts fund, in advance of drafting a proposed budget for next fiscal year. Jones seemed to share Hogan’s concerns about the council’s informal suspension of the funding. “I don’t have an official document that says how long that should have been suspended,” he said. “So, I feel like I have to make that contribution unless you tell me to continue suspending that contribution.” Public records provided to The Republic show that the city has suspended the contributions several other times over the past 15 fiscal years. Councilwoman Onnie Shekerjian proposed that the council cut in half contributions made from the one city account that still supports the arts fund. “They have over $1.5 million sitting in the fund that they (the commission) haven’t even used currently for any projects, so does it make sense for us to contribute any more until such time as they decide to do something?” she asked. Mayor Mark Mitchell and Councilwoman Shana Ellis, worried that the Municipal Arts Commission had not received Jones’ financial update, asked that the city consult with commission members before the council decided on the funding. Since the October meeting, members of Tempe’s public-arts commission have balked at Jones’ report, calling it a misrepresentation of the commission’s power to control the fund, which they said is actually managed by city staff. Hotchy Kiene, chairman of the commission, and arts commissioner David Kephart told The Republic they were aware that the fund had a $1.5 million savings, but they said the city, not the commission, controls the fund’s budget. Commissioner David Lucier was surprised to learn of the unused money. “I certainly was not aware we have a million dollars in the (account),” he said. “It is something that we ought to address in a public ... way.”
Don't these pigs have any real criminals to hunt down??? Well, besides pot smokers!!! http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/free/20131122utah-man-who-fiddled-genitals-not-guilty.html Man who fiddled with genitals not guilty Associated Press Fri Nov 22, 2013 9:32 AM SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah man who says he exposed himself on a plane because he accidentally got peppermint oil on his private parts has been cleared of wrongdoing. The Salt Lake Tribune reports a judge ruled Thursday that 49-year-old Stuart Ronald Clarke is not guilty of indecent exposure. The incident happened on a Delta flight from Minneapolis to Salt Lake City last November, when a seatmate says she spotted Clarke fiddling with his genitals. Prosecutors say he told investigators he put oil on his forehead for a headache and then went to the bathroom with the oil still on his hands. He told authorities he unbuttoned his jeans as he became uncomfortable. The judge cited several reasons for the not guilty finding, including that Clarke covered himself with a jacket.
Want to encrypt your phone calls and text messages??? Personally I say that if you are doing anything that is even slightly illegal don't post it on the Internet or broadcast it on the airwaves using a cell phone or radio phone in you home. The Patriot Act has made the Bill of Rights null and void and the folks at the NSA try to monitor everything we do. If you have an android phone here is some software that allows you to encrypt your text messages and phone calls for free. My initial fear about stuff like this was that it was created by the government so they can spy on you while you think your conversations are secret. And that might be true. But the software is open source so in theory smart people will probably review it and attempt to determine if the software is spy-ware create by the government. https://whispersystems.org/
Another one of those "You think you’re going to get a fair trail??? Don't make me laugh!!!" articles!!! http://www.azcentral.com/news/free/20131122massachusetts-chemist-pleads-guilty-drug-lab-scandal.html Mass. chemist pleads guilty in drug-lab scandal Fri Nov 22, 2013 10:48 AM BOSTON — A chemist at a Massachusetts drug lab accused of faking test results in criminal cases has pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, perjury and tampering with evidence. Annie Dookhan, of Franklin, entered guilty pleas Friday in Suffolk Superior Court. Dookhan sent the state’s criminal justice system into a tailspin last year when state police shut down the state Department of Public Health lab she worked at after discovering the extent of her misconduct. Prosecutors said Dookhan admitted “dry labbing,” or testing only a fraction of a batch of samples, then listing them all as positive for illegal drugs. They said she did it to “improve her productivity and burnish her reputation.” Since the lab closed in August 2012, at least 1,100 criminal cases have been dismissed or not prosecuted because of tainted evidence or other fallout from the lab’s shutdown.
Sadly if you are a doctor and you are doing your best to make people in pain feel better there is some *sshole cop in the DEA or a local police agency who thinks it his mission to put you in prison for helping "fakers" get high. Of course the solution to that problem it to stop letting government bureaucrats and cops from playing doctor. The only person who should be allowed to decide what drugs you are going to take or not take is YOU. Some *sshole cop who gets a bonus every time he arrests a drug user shouldn't even be in the loop!!!! http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/articles/20131123medical-pot-arizona-mecagni.html Arizona's medical-pot program actually works like this Doctor: Republic's editorial was dead wrong marijuana By Dr. Gina Mecagni My Turn Fri Nov 22, 2013 12:56 PM As medical students at Georgetown University, we were indoctrinated with the traditions and values of our attending physicians. It was there that I was taught how to care for patients. It was there that I first heard and would hear repeatedly throughout my training: Pain is what the patient says it is. That value is critical to the practice of medicine. It establishes a foundation of trust between physician and patient. It begins the conversation with, “I believe you,” so that you can move forward to “How can I help you?” That value is what made reading The Arizona Republic editorial board’s comments about patients who use Arizona’s medical-marijuana law for chronic pain treatment so upsetting (“Cheech and Chong would love Arizona's medical-pot law,” Nov. 12). I have been an emergency medicine physician for 12 years. One thing almost every one of my patients has in common is that they are in pain. Pain is the warning signal our bodies use to let us know that something is wrong. Many patients present to the ER with chronic pain. Old injuries (reflex sympathetic dystrophy, arthritis, malocclusion, poor wound healing), adhesions (any abdominal surgery), migraines, chest pain, joint and extremity pain (rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune disorders, septic joints, bone spurs), pelvic pain. Chronic pain encompasses all of these things as well as many others. Does that make it less real? Should I turn them away from the emergency room because chronic pain just couldn’t be a reason someone would turn to a physician for help and relief? Fakers. Con artists. Drug addicts. Unless you are old. Or have cancer. Right? The 20-year-old with chronic pain due to spasticity from cerebral palsy. Wait. Sorry. He’s 20. Couldn’t be in that much pain yet. Faker. Con artist. Young, male recreational-drug user working the system. According to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain. Fakers. “Inherently dishonest” con artists. Or maybe it is that the Institute of Medicine is “chronically gullible,” to use a phrase in The Republic’s editorial. These same patients are often encouraged by their physicians to seek alternative therapies when it seems that Western medicine has explored all of its options. When Vicodin turns to Oxycontin turns to Fentanyl, and then you are chemically dependent and out of options. Yet these same doctors won’t write you a “recommendation.” It’s scary as a physician. I wouldn’t do it. Risk my license? Be reported to the Arizona Department of Health Services? Scrutinized? Exposed? Definitely not worth losing my job! So these same doctors print out patient records and hand them to their patients. “Go to a recommendation center. I can’t do it.” Will Humble, director of the ADHS, is disingenuous when he says he wants the primary-care physicians to write medical-marijuana recommendations. That will not happen as long as the physician receives federal reimbursement for services (e.g. Medicare) and fears this will be taken away. That will not happen until physicians can speak freely without fear of reprisal. Mr. Humble is a smart guy. He knows this. The patients who jump through the hoops to get their cards are then sent out to the dispensaries. Usually these are located in an industrial area. Surrounded by chain-link fences with cameras following your every move while a security guard looks you up and down. Dispensaries are kept away from the normal daily traffic of people. Away from the God-fearing, upstanding citizens we must protect from this ... non-lethal plant. Why can’t they just go to a pharmacy where all the other drugs are? Simple. Because it’s still federally illegal. But Arizona voters stood up three years ago and said, “Enough.” The federal government is wrong. The Drug Enforcement Agency is wrong. The propaganda of the “Reefer Madness” hysteria of the 1930s is just that — propaganda. If you would do a little research, you would know there is no way to meaningful therapeutic research because the National Institute on Drug Abuse won’t release the “study drug” for research that does not specifically address drug abuse. They are the only ones with a federally authorized cannabis farm! You want a dose-controlled pharmaceutical product? Did you know that cannabis concentrates are currently illegal under the Arizona criminal code? I would guess from The Republic’s uninformed editorial that editorial-board members do not. Please, Republic editorial board, do readers a favor and use your platform responsibly. The editorial was sloppy journalism even as an opinion piece. If you disagree with how the Arizona Medical Marijuana Program works, you can at least make a respectable argument instead of throwing around judgments, accusations and raunchy references to pop culture. The readers of The Arizona Republic deserve better. Gina Mecagni has practiced emergency medicine in the Valley for 12 years.
Sadly about the only person demanding that the NSA end it's illegal spying on us is the ACLU. I have read about a few Senators and Congressmen faking outrage of the issue, but they mostly seem more concerned about being reelected then ending the government's illegal spying on us. If Congress was really doing their job they would have repealed the Patriot Act, and fired everybody in the NSA, CIA, FBI and other Federal agencies that have flushed the Bill of Rights down the toilet and illegally spied on us. But that ain't going to happen. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/aclu-asks-court-to-end-nsa-surveillance-program-that-collects-phone-call-data/2013/11/22/deb972b4-53b7-11e3-9e2c-e1d01116fd98_story.html ACLU asks court to end NSA surveillance program that collects phone call data By Ellen Nakashima, Published: November 22 E-mail the writer NEW YORK — Civil liberties advocates on Friday asked a federal court here to end the National Security Agency counterterrorism program that collects data on billions of phone calls by Americans, arguing that it violates the Constitution and was not authorized by Congress. The case was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union after the publication in June of a court order to Verizon Business Network Services that showed the phone company was required to turn over to the NSA all call detail records of its customers, including the length and time of calls but not the content. The sweeping nature of that collection, which was placed under court supervision in secret in May 2006, set off a furious public discussion over whether the agency’s efforts to thwart terrorist attacks have overstepped the legal and common-sense boundaries of privacy. The ACLU, which is a Verizon Business customer, said the NSA program violates the Constitution’s guarantees of privacy and of freedom of association. In the most significant legal challenge to the NSA’s collection, the ACLU also said that the program, which covers all major phone companies, exceeds the scope of its authorizing legislation. That statute, Section 215 of the Patriot Act, was passed in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. “This vast dragnet is said to be authorized by Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, but nothing in the text or legislative history of that provision remotely suggests that Congress intended to empower the government to collect information on a daily basis, indefinitely, about every American’s phone calls,” said Jameel Jaffer, one of two ACLU attorneys arguing the case before U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III in lower Manhattan. A Justice Department attorney countered that the program is constitutional and that Congress was fully informed when it authorized and reauthorized Section 215. Moreover, he said, the ACLU has no standing to bring the case because it cannot prove that its members have been harmed by the NSA’s use of the data. “The program is carefully calibrated for the purpose [of counterterrorism] and is not the kind of indiscriminate use of the data that the plaintiffs suggest,” said Assistant Attorney General Stuart F. Delery. In just over two hours of arguments, Pauley showed some skepticism of the government’s assertion that Congress really understood it was approving a mass call-tracking program when it reauthorized the Patriot Act in 2010 and 2011. Delery argued that Congress was provided classified briefings and papers laying out the program’s scope. He also said intelligence committees of both houses, which “stand in the shoes of the public,” were fully briefed. Pauley noted, however, that “a veteran congressman,” Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), submitted an amicus brief in the case “in which he said he had no idea of what was happening” when he voted to reauthorize Section 215. Delery argued that the ACLU’s claims of harm are “speculative” because it had no evidence that the NSA ever reviewed any of its members’ call records or that anyone was dissuaded from calling the civil liberties group because of fear their calls would be monitored. He also said that the program was constitutional because the Supreme Court in a 1979 case, Smith v. Maryland, concluded that phone records of the sort at issue here were not protected by the Fourth Amendment. He said that the program was useful and necessary “to find connections between known and unknown terrorists” and “unless you can collect records over time” and across carriers, the NSA’s analytic tools to identify those connections would not work effectively. But Alex Abdo, another ACLU lawyer, argued that the mere fact that the organization’s records were collected on a sustained basis is an invasion of privacy under the Fourth Amendment. He said that the Supreme Court in 1979 was not addressing mass collection but rather the calls of one suspect over a few days. Jaffer also argued that if the government’s view of the statute is upheld, then the door is open to the bulk collection of other types of records under other legal authorities — not just Section 215. “The Supreme Court has admonished many times that the Congress doesn’t hide elephants in mouse-holes,” he said. “I think that’s what the government is proposing here.”
Slavery is still alive in the modern world even in high tech countries like Japan!!! http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/11/22/3395188/foreign-trainees-in-japan-face.html Foreign trainees in Japan face exploitation By MALCOLM FOSTER Associated PressNovember 22, 2013 KAIZU, Japan — When Chinese textile worker Wang Mingzhi heard he could more than triple his income with a three-year stint working in Japan as an apprentice, he eagerly paid a broker $7,300 in fees and deposit money. From afar, Japan seemed a model of prosperity and order. Japanese government backing of the training program he would enter the country under helped ease worries about going abroad. But when he joined the ranks of 150,000 other interns from poor Asian countries working in Japan, Wang was in for a series of shocks. Promised a clothing factory job, the 25-year-old wound up at a huge warehouse surrounded by rice paddies where he was told to fill boxes with clothing, toys and other goods. Wang and other new arrivals weren't given contracts by their Japanese boss and monthly wages were withheld, except for overtime. Anyone who didn't like the conditions could return to China, their boss told them. But then Wang would have lost most of his deposit. And how could he face his family, who were counting on sharing in the $40,000 he hoped he would earn for three years work. "We didn't have any choice but to stay," Wang said from his bunk in a cramped house he shared with a dozen others in Kaizu, a small city in central Gifu prefecture. Wang's story is not unusual. Faced with a shrinking workforce and tight restrictions on immigration, Japanese employers such as small companies, farms and fisheries are plugging labor shortages by relying on interns from China, Vietnam and elsewhere in Asia. The training program is intended to help developing countries by upgrading the technical expertise of their workers but critics say it is abused by some employers who see it as a source of cheap labor. Employers committing violations such as failing to pay wages numbered 197 last year, down more than half from 452 in 2008, according to Japanese officials. Lawyers and labor activists say the true number is many times higher and interns fear being sent home if they speak up despite government attempts to prevent abuses. In interviews with The Associated Press, eight current and former interns described being cheated of wages, forced to work overtime, having contracts withheld or being charged exorbitant rents for cramped, poorly insulated housing. Some said they were prohibited from owning cellphones. The internship system has been criticized by the U.N. and the U.S. State Department, which in its annual "Trafficking in Persons Report" said Japan is failing to stop cases of forced labor. "The program is portrayed as way to transfer technology, and that Japan is doing a wonderful thing, but in reality many are working like slaves," said Shoichi Ibusuki, a lawyer who has represented several interns in court cases. Some say the plight of the interns highlights the need for Japan to rethink its deep-seated resistance to immigration, out of sheer economic necessity. A government institute projects Japan's workforce will plummet by nearly half to 44 million over the next 50 years as the population ages and birthrates remain low. At that rate, many companies will run out of workers. Foreign workers and first generation immigrants make up less than 2 percent of Japan's workforce. In the United States, the percentage is 14.2 percent, and in Germany it is 11.7 percent, according to U.N. figures. Unions and others have called for the training program, established in 1993, to be abolished and replaced with a formal system for employment of foreign workers. That will better meet the demand for low-skilled laborers as young Japanese flock to the cities and shun work that is dirty, dangerous or difficult, they say. "We need to stop the deception," said Ippei Torii, vice president of ZWU All United Workers Union, which has battled on behalf of interns. "If we need to bring in foreign workers, then we should call them workers and treat them so." Hidenori Sakanaka, former chief of the Tokyo Immigration Bureau who has become a champion for immigration, said Japan needs 10 million immigrants over the next 50 years or its economy will collapse. "That's really our only salvation," said Sakanaka, now head of a think tank. "We should allow them to enter the country on the assumption that they could become residents of Japan." The chances of that happening are low. Immigration is perceived as a threat to Japan's prized social harmony, and opponents paint scenarios of rising crime and other problems. About 20 years ago, Japan granted special visas to Latin Americans of Japanese descent but many had difficult fitting in. After the 2008 global financial crisis they were offered money to return home. The training program got public attention earlier this year after a Chinese intern stabbed to death his boss and another Japanese employee at a fishery in Hiroshima but its ongoing problems have not been front page news. The government strengthened laws covering the program in 2010, including prohibiting trainees from paying deposits to labor brokers. Japanese employers are expected to pay the third-party agencies. A panel of experts and officials is reviewing the program again to see if it needs further changes. "There are some who go against the objectives of this program and use it as a source of cheap labor," said Jun Nakamura, an immigration bureau official. "We have tried to strengthen the legal framework." After not receiving their regular wages for 16 months, Wang and about a dozen others at the distribution company in Gifu confronted their boss, Akiyoshi Shibata, demanding their back pay. They said he gave them a choice: return to China or drop their complaints, apologize and stay on. Wang and three others chose to go home. A few days later they were taken to the airport, where Shibata paid them each 750,000 yen ($7,500), barely enough to cover the broker fee, according to Zhen Kai, an official with the Gifu Ippan Labor Union who helped in negotiations between the two sides. In a phone interview, Shibata said he withheld 50,000 yen (about $500) every month from each trainee's wages for the first year as a security deposit due to problems in the past, including cases where trainees ran away. He said he paid the remaining regular wages on time and in the end paid them all they had earned. After "all this trouble," Shibata said he has decided against using foreign interns any more. "I think it may be better to scrap the program since there's a risk both sides will just be unhappy."
Just because you have an election and America's majority 90 percent White population votes that the 10 percent Black population is going to be their slaves doesn't make it right. Sure, it's "democracy" at work, but it's also a perfect example of what Libertarians call "tyranny of the majority". http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/lamar-alexander-without-the-senate-filibuster-its-a-tyranny-of-the-majority/2013/11/22/3491bc2c-5396-11e3-9fe0-fd2ca728e67c_story.html?hpid=z2 Without the filibuster, a tyranny of the majority By Lamar Alexander, Published: November 22 Lamar Alexander, a Republican, represents Tennessee in the Senate. Thursday’s stunning rules change by Senate Democrats can best be described as Obamacare II: another exercise of partisan political power to permit the majority to do whatever it wants. This time, the goal was advancing its agenda unchecked through the courts and executive agencies. With all Republican members opposed, the Senate voted 52 to 48 to invoke the “nuclear option,” allowing a majority of senators present and voting (so, not necessarily 51) to approve presidential nominees except for Supreme Court justices. For those positions, this eliminated the filibuster, which required 60 votes to proceed to an up-or-down majority vote. This was the most dangerous restructuring of Senate rules since Thomas Jefferson wrote them. It creates a perpetual opportunity for “tyranny of the majority,” which Alexis de Tocqueville called one of the greatest threats to American democracy. As Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) noted, quoting former senator Arthur Vandenberg on Thursday: “If a majority of the Senate can change its rules at any time, there are no rules.” It is as if the Red Sox, finding themselves behind in the ninth, added a few innings to make sure they could defeat the Cardinals in the World Series. Future majorities could, for example, end the filibuster for legislation, removing any obstacle to tyranny of the majority. Democrats offered flimsy excuses, many of which are untrue: Excuse No. 1: President Obama’s appointees have been unfairly denied seats by failed cloture votes, or filibusters. According to the Congressional Research Service, no Supreme Court nominee has been defeated by filibuster in the Senate. None. (An arguable exception is Abe Fortas’s doomed nomination as chief justice, about which President Lyndon Johnson engineered a face-saving cloture vote.) The number of federal district judge and Cabinet nominees defeated by filibuster? Zero. Regarding sub-Cabinet nominees, there were two for President Obama, three for George W. Bush and two for Bill Clinton. That’s it. As for appeals court judges, Republican filibusters have blocked five, but that happened only after Democrats first blocked five. Beginning in 2003, Democrats blocked 10 Bush nominees. This was the first time that a president’s circuit court nominees were blocked by the failure to obtain cloture. Republicans considered the nuclear option, decided against it, and five of the 10 were confirmed. Excuse No. 2: President Obama’s nominees have waited too long for confirmation. According to the Congressional Research Service, Obama’s second-term Cabinet nominees have been confirmed at about the same pace as those of Presidents Clinton and Bush. This year, the Senate has confirmed 36 of Obama’s second-term nominees to circuit and district courts, compared with 14 for Bush at this point in 2005. On Friday, the Senate’s executive calendar listed 54 nominees who have been waiting less than three weeks for confirmation, 16 who had waited for up to nine weeks and only eight who have been waiting more than nine weeks. Two of those eight nominees were being “held” by Democratic senators. Excuse No. 3: Republican obstruction left the Democratic majority leader unable to act. Only Democratic committee majorities can place nominees on the executive calendar. Only the majority leader can move their confirmation. He may do so anytime he chooses. What if obstructionist Republicans were to place holds on 10 sub-Cabinet nominees? Under the rules that existed before Thursday, the majority leader could have filed a cloture motion on those nominees on Monday and confirmed them by Friday — unless 41 Republicans voted against cloture. Again, that has happened to only two Obama nominees for non-judicial sub-Cabinet positions and only seven times in Senate history. In his last Senate speech, former majority leader Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) warned against destroying the filibuster, which he called the “necessary fence” against the executive and popular passions. Majority leaders could do whatever they needed to do under the rules, Byrd said. Excuse No. 4: Republicans have unfairly blocked the president from filling vacancies on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. In 2006, Democrats insisted on doing precisely what Republicans are asking in 2013: moving judges from courts where they are not needed to where they are needed most. They did not think this unfair then. In 2006, Democrats on the Judiciary Committee, including Sens. Patrick Leahy, Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin, said that “under no circumstances” should new judges be confirmed to the D.C. court because its workload was half the national average and there were judicial emergencies elsewhere. With Bush’s approval, the Senate reduced the number of seats on the D.C. Circuit by one, moving that slot to the 9th Circuit. The D.C. Circuit hears fewer cases today than it did in 2007. So why would Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) engineer a rules change that he said in 2006 “would be the end of the Senate”? Because the vote was not about the filibuster. It was about permitting the majority to do whatever it wants. Call it Obamacare II, for which the only cure is a referendum next November.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/23/opinion/surveillance-goes-on-trial.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0 Surveillance Goes on Trial By THE EDITORIAL BOARD Published: November 22, 2013 103 Comments There was a lot that was ordinary about the hearing in Courtroom 20B of the Manhattan federal courthouse on Friday morning: a team of lawyers at the plaintiff’s table, spectators in the gallery. What was extraordinary was the defendant, the United States government, and the lawsuit it is facing over the National Security Agency’s seven-year-old, once top-secret phone-surveillance program, which until this week it never had to defend in open court. Until Edward Snowden, a disaffected N.S.A. contractor, came along and documented the stunning scope of the phone program — which vacuums up information about every call made in the United States every day for the purpose of identifying possible terror suspects — intelligence and law-enforcement officials were accustomed to operating in the friendlier confines of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. That is not a court by any standard definition. A rotating slate of federal judges considers secret warrant applications from the government and issues secret opinions, without hearing any opposing argument. In 2012, the court approved 1,855 of 1,856 requests that came before it. [but hey, it's not a kangaroo court!!! Well at least that's what member of Congress and the NSA love to tell us!!!] The environment on Friday was very different, as lawyers for the A.C.L.U. vigorously contested the legality of the phone-data sweep, and Federal District Judge William Pauley III expressed a proper skepticism of the government’s claim that the program raised no constitutional concerns. When a government lawyer argued that Congress twice reauthorized the Patriot Act section under which the phone program has been approved, Judge Pauley reminded him that several members of Congress have said publicly they were not made aware of what was in the program. Others have said they believe it is being abused. The A.C.L.U., which filed its suit days after the revelation of the phone-data sweep, called the program a “vast dragnet” that violates both federal law and the Constitution. The fact that the government must show a higher level of suspicion before it can examine a specific call’s data is irrelevant, the group’s lawyers said. The collection of so much data on millions of innocent Americans is itself an unconstitutional search, they argued, and under the government’s theory, the power to collect even more is “absolutely without limit.” In the wake of the Snowden disclosures and the ensuing public debate, the agency and the intelligence court have declassified some rulings and other documents in an attempt to justify the various surveillance programs. But far from providing comfort, the releases have only highlighted the dubious grounds on which the programs have been approved, and how often and how systematically the N.S.A. violates the court’s orders. However Judge Pauley and the other federal judges facing similar litigation eventually rule, the most important reforms to the programs must come from Congress, which has the power to end or drastically curtail the bulk data collection and to strengthen oversight and transparency of an agency that needs much more of both.
N.S.A. Report Outlined Goals for More Power http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/23/us/politics/nsa-report-outlined-goals-for-more-power.html?hp N.S.A. Report Outlined Goals for More Power By JAMES RISEN and LAURA POITRAS Published: November 22, 2013 WASHINGTON — Officials at the National Security Agency, intent on maintaining its dominance in intelligence collection, pledged last year to push to expand its surveillance powers, according to a top-secret strategy document. In a February 2012 paper laying out the four-year strategy for the N.S.A.’s signals intelligence operations, which include the agency’s eavesdropping and communications data collection around the world, agency officials set an objective to “aggressively pursue legal authorities and a policy framework mapped more fully to the information age.” [Translation - permanently flush the Bill of Rights down the toilet???] Written as an agency mission statement with broad goals, the five-page document said that existing American laws were not adequate to meet the needs of the N.S.A. to conduct broad surveillance in what it cited as “the golden age of Sigint,” or signals intelligence. “The interpretation and guidelines for applying our authorities, and in some cases the authorities themselves, have not kept pace with the complexity of the technology and target environments, or the operational expectations levied on N.S.A.’s mission,” the document concluded. Using sweeping language, the paper also outlined some of the agency’s other ambitions. They included defeating the cybersecurity practices of adversaries in order to acquire the data the agency needs from “anyone, anytime, anywhere.” The agency also said it would try to decrypt or bypass codes that keep communications secret by influencing “the global commercial encryption market through commercial relationships,” human spies and intelligence partners in other countries. It also talked of the need to “revolutionize” analysis of its vast collections of data to “radically increase operational impact.” The strategy document, provided by the former N.S.A. contractor Edward J. Snowden, was written at a time when the agency was at the peak of its powers and the scope of its surveillance operations was still secret. Since then, Mr. Snowden’s revelations have changed the political landscape. Prompted by a public outcry over the N.S.A.’s domestic operations, the agency’s critics in Congress have been pushing to limit, rather than expand, its ability to routinely collect the phone and email records of millions of Americans, while foreign leaders have protested reports of virtually unlimited N.S.A. surveillance overseas, even in allied nations. Several inquiries are underway in Washington; Gen. Keith B. Alexander, the N.S.A.’s longest-serving director, has announced plans to retire; and the White House has offered proposals to disclose more information about the agency’s domestic surveillance activities. The N.S.A. document, titled “Sigint Strategy 2012-2016,” does not make clear what legal or policy changes the agency might seek. The N.S.A.’s powers are determined variously by Congress, executive orders and the nation’s secret intelligence court, and its operations are governed by layers of regulations. While asserting that the agency’s “culture of compliance” would not be compromised, N.S.A. officials argued that they needed more flexibility, according to the paper. Senior intelligence officials, responding to questions about the document, said that the N.S.A. believed that legal impediments limited its ability to conduct surveillance of terrorism suspects inside the United States. Despite an overhaul of national security law in 2008, the officials said, if a terrorism suspect who is under surveillance overseas enters the United States, the agency has to stop monitoring him until it obtains a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. “N.S.A.’s Sigint strategy is designed to guide investments in future capabilities and close gaps in current capabilities,” the agency said in a statement. “In an ever-changing technology and telecommunications environment, N.S.A. tries to get in front of issues to better fulfill the foreign-intelligence requirements of the U.S. government.” Critics, including some congressional leaders, say that the role of N.S.A. surveillance in thwarting terrorist attacks — often cited by the agency to justify expanded powers — has been exaggerated. In response to the controversy about its activities after Mr. Snowden’s disclosures, agency officials claimed that the N.S.A.’s sweeping domestic surveillance programs had helped in 54 “terrorist-related activities.” But under growing scrutiny, congressional staff members and other critics say that the use of such figures by defenders of the agency has drastically overstated the value of the domestic surveillance programs in counterterrorism. Agency leaders believe that the N.S.A. has never enjoyed such a target-rich environment as it does now because of the global explosion of digital information — and they want to make certain that they can dominate “the Sigint battle space” in the future, the document said. To be “optimally effective,” the paper said, “legal, policy and process authorities must be as adaptive and dynamic as the technological and operational advances we seek to exploit.” Intent on unlocking the secrets of adversaries, the paper underscores the agency’s long-term goal of being able to collect virtually everything available in the digital world. To achieve that objective, the paper suggests that the N.S.A. plans to gain greater access, in a variety of ways, to the infrastructure of the world’s telecommunications networks. Reports based on other documents previously leaked by Mr. Snowden showed that the N.S.A. has infiltrated the cable links to Google and Yahoo data centers around the world, leading to protests from company executives and a growing backlash against the N.S.A. in Silicon Valley. Yet the paper also shows how the agency believes it can influence and shape trends in high-tech industries in other ways to suit its needs. One of the agency’s goals is to “continue to invest in the industrial base and drive the state of the art for high performance computing to maintain pre-eminent cryptanalytic capability for the nation.” The paper added that the N.S.A. must seek to “identify new access, collection and exploitation methods by leveraging global business trends in data and communications services.” And it wants to find ways to combine all of its technical tools to enhance its surveillance powers. The N.S.A. will seek to integrate its “capabilities to reach previously inaccessible targets in support of exploitation, cyberdefense and cyberoperations,” the paper stated. The agency also intends to improve its access to encrypted communications used by individuals, businesses and foreign governments, the strategy document said. The N.S.A. has already had some success in defeating encryption, The New York Times has reported, but the document makes it clear that countering “ubiquitous, strong, commercial network encryption” is a top priority. The agency plans to fight back against the rise of encryption through relationships with companies that develop encryption tools and through espionage operations. In other countries, the document said, the N.S.A. must also “counter indigenous cryptographic programs by targeting their industrial bases with all available Sigint and Humint” — human intelligence, meaning spies. The document also mentioned a goal of integrating the agency’s eavesdropping and data collection systems into a national network of sensors that interactively “sense, respond and alert one another at machine speed.” Senior intelligence officials said that the system of sensors is designed to protect the computer networks of the Defense Department, and that the N.S.A. does not use data collected from Americans for the system. One of the agency’s other four-year goals was to “share bulk data” more broadly to allow for better analysis. While the paper does not explain in detail how widely it would disseminate bulk data within the intelligence community, the proposal raises questions about what safeguards the N.S.A. plans to place on its domestic phone and email data collection programs to protect Americans’ privacy. N.S.A. officials have insisted that they have placed tight controls on those programs. In an interview, the senior intelligence officials said that the strategy paper was referring to the agency’s desire to share foreign data more broadly, not phone logs of Americans collected under the Patriot Act. Above all, the strategy paper suggests the N.S.A.’s vast view of its mission: nothing less than to “dramatically increase mastery of the global network.” Other N.S.A. documents offer hints of how the agency is trying to do just that. One program, code-named Treasure Map, provides what a secret N.S.A. PowerPoint presentation describes as “a near real-time, interactive map of the global Internet.” According to the undated PowerPoint presentation, disclosed by Mr. Snowden, Treasure Map gives the N.S.A. “a 300,000 foot view of the Internet.” Relying on Internet routing data, commercial and Sigint information, Treasure Map is a sophisticated tool, one that the PowerPoint presentation describes as a “massive Internet mapping, analysis and exploration engine.” It collects Wi-Fi network and geolocation data, and between 30 million and 50 million unique Internet provider addresses — code that can reveal the location and owner of a computer, mobile device or router — are represented each day on Treasure Map, according to the document. It boasts that the program can map “any device, anywhere, all the time.” The documents include addresses labeled as based in the “U.S.,” and because so much Internet traffic flows through the United States, it would be difficult to map much of the world without capturing such addresses. But the intelligence officials said that Treasure Map maps only foreign and Defense Department networks, and is limited by the amount of data available to the agency. There are several billion I.P. addresses on the Internet, the officials said, and Treasure Map cannot map them all. The program is not used for surveillance, they said, but to understand computer networks. The program takes advantage of the capabilities of other secret N.S.A. programs. To support Treasure Map, for example, the document states that another program, called Packaged Goods, tracks the “traceroutes” through which data flows around the Internet. Through Packaged Goods, the N.S.A. has gained access to “13 covered servers in unwitting data centers around the globe,” according to the PowerPoint. The document identifies a list of countries where the data centers are located, including Germany, Poland, Denmark, South Africa and Taiwan as well as Russia, China and Singapore. Despite the document’s reference to “unwitting data centers,” government officials said that the agency does not hack into those centers. Instead, the officials said, the intelligence community secretly uses front companies to lease space on the servers. Despite the N.S.A.’s broad surveillance powers, the strategy paper shows that N.S.A. officials still worry about the agency’s ability to fend off bureaucratic inertia while keeping pace with change. “To sustain current mission relevance,” the document said, Signals Intelligence Directorate, the N.S.A.’s signals intelligence arm, “must undertake a profound and revolutionary shift from the mission approach which has served us so well in the decades preceding the onset of the information age.”
Drone strikes - An American oxymoron where the government is the cop, the judge, the jury and the executioner and gives a suspected criminal a fair trial before executing him or her with a drone missile strike!!! Well, at least that's what our government masters want us to think!!! My only question is when is the government going to bring these "fair trials" by drone strikes to America and use them in their unconstitutional war on drugs. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/23/world/middleeast/a-yemenis-long-trip-to-seek-answers-about-a-drone-strike.html?hp&_r=0 Questions on Drone Strike Find Only Silence By ROBERT F. WORTH and SCOTT SHANE Published: November 22, 2013 WASHINGTON — Standing on the marble floor just outside the House chamber, Faisal bin Ali Jaber looked lost in the human river of hard-charging lobbyists, members of Congress and staffers. It is not every day that a victim of American drone strikes travels 7,000 miles to Washington to look for answers. Now he stood face to face with Representative Adam B. Schiff — a California Democrat who had carved out 20 minutes between two votes on natural gas policy — to tell his story: how he watched in horror last year as drone-fired missiles incinerated his nephew and brother-in-law in a remote Yemeni village. Neither of the victims was a member of Al Qaeda. In fact, the opposite was true. They were meeting with three Qaeda members in hopes of changing the militants’ views. “It really puts a human face on the term ‘collateral damage,’ ” said Mr. Schiff, looking awed after listening to Mr. Jaber. A gaunt civil engineer with a white mustache, Mr. Jaber spent the past week struggling to pierce the veil of secrecy and anonymity over the Obama administration’s drone strike program, which targets militants in the hinterlands of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen. He did not have much luck. He met at length with a half-dozen members of Congress, as well as officials from the National Security Council and the State Department. Everywhere, he received heartfelt condolences. But no one has been able to explain why his relatives were killed, or why the administration is not willing to acknowledge its mistake. It was an error with unusual resonance. Mr. Jaber’s brother-in-law was a cleric who had spoken out against Al Qaeda shortly before the drone killed him. The nephew was a local policeman who had gone along in part to offer protection. The strike, in August 2012, drew widespread indignation in Yemen, and was documented in The New York Times and later by human rights groups, along with a number of other strikes that accidentally killed innocent people. A Yemeni counterterrorism official called Mr. Jaber hours after the strike to apologize for the mistake. Mr. Jaber wrote an open letter to President Obama, but received no answer. The same is true of a Pakistani family who lost a grandmother in a drone strike and visited Washington briefly late last month, in what appears to be the first such visit to Congress. In May, Mr. Obama responded to rising criticism of the targeted killing program and acknowledged in a speech at the National Defense University in Washington that some innocent people had been killed. The president promised greater transparency, but the administration still refuses to discuss specific strikes or to apologize or pay compensation for strikes that went wrong. When American officials have offered estimates of civilian casualties in drone strikes, their numbers have been far lower than those given by research groups and journalists. Mr. Jaber’s visit — and that of the Pakistani family — comes as a congressional effort is building to force the administration’s hand. Early this month, the Senate Intelligence Committee added to the annual intelligence policy bill a requirement for an annual report giving the number of “combatants” and “noncombatant civilians” killed or injured in the previous year in drone strikes outside conventional wars. The report would give only total numbers, not details of each strike or the names of those killed. Mr. Schiff, who met Mr. Jaber on Wednesday, plans to sponsor a similar bill in the House. Mr. Jaber’s visit was sponsored by the peace group Code Pink, which organized an accompanying protest in front of the White House last week, and Reprieve, a human rights group based in London. Unlike some of the activists who embraced him and apologized to him wherever he went, Mr. Jaber strikes a very humble and unassuming attitude about his family’s tragedy. He says he does not presume to pass judgment on the drone strike program itself, but wants acknowledgment and an apology. “I learned two things,” he said when asked to sum up his week in Washington. “First, the American people and their organizations are very kind and well meaning, and the Congress members also were very sympathetic. But on the other side, there are politicians who seem to be trying to keep everything secret.” Mr. Jaber offers a harrowing account of the drone strike. It was the day after his son’s wedding in his native village, Khashamir, and he was eating dinner at home with several relatives when they heard a whirring from the sky. Looking out the window, he and his relatives saw a flash, and then heard a series of terrific crashes, “as if the whole mountain had exploded.” The village erupted in panic. Mr. Jaber’s daughter, who was very close to the strike, was so traumatized that she did not get out of bed for three weeks, he said. The mother of one of the dead men went into a coma after she heard the news and died a month later. When Mr. Jaber arrived on the scene that night, less than a mile from his house, he found bits of charred human flesh spread on the ground, he said. It was not until two hours later, through the accounts of witnesses, that the identities of the dead men and what had happened to them became clear. Mr. Jaber’s brother-in-law, the imam, had been approached earlier that evening by three Qaeda militants who were angry about a speech the imam had delivered condemning terrorism. The imam reluctantly agreed to talk to the men, but just in case he was accompanied by Mr. Jaber’s nephew, the policeman. The volley of missiles killed all five men. Like most Yemenis, Mr. Jaber deplores the influence of Al Qaeda in his country, which is one of the world’s poorest. He fears that the drone strikes are fostering greater militancy and anger at America. But above all, he finds the administration’s silence baffling. At one point during his week in Washington, Mr. Jaber got a tour of the National Mall and other landmarks with another Yemeni who had been flown over for the visit, a young woman named Entesar al-Qadhi. Both of them said they were overwhelmed by the dignity and calm of the Mall, so different from the crowds and poverty of Yemen. “They have such a beautiful country here, such a beautiful city,” Ms. Qadhi said as she strolled along. “Why do they need to go chasing someone with bombs in the desert?”
Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema swims in Tempe Town Toilet???? When US Congressman Kyrsten Sinema was an Arizona Senator she attempted to slap a 300 percent tax on medical marijuana in an attempt to flush Arizona's Medical Marijuana Act down the toilet. Needless to say Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema is pretty well hated by the people in Arizona that want to legalize marijuana. http://eastvalleytribune.com/local/article_9f616b2c-50b4-11e3-a807-0019bb2963f4.html Sinema becomes first member of Congress to complete triathlon Arizona Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema Posted: Monday, November 18, 2013 5:50 pm By ABC15.com Arizona Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema is heading back to Washington after completing the grueling Ironman Arizona triathlon in suburban Phoenix. Sinema finished Sunday in 15 hours, 12 minutes, 34 seconds to become what organizers of the Ironman international competition say is the first sitting member of Congress to complete the event. The first-term Democratic lawmaker representing Arizona's 9th Congressional District completed a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile cycling ride and a 26.2-mile run. She had hoped to complete the race in less than 16 hours. Sinema says she didn't even know how to swim before beginning to train for the event about a year ago. She hired Olympic gold medalist Misty Hyman as her coach. Sinema spokesman Justin Unga said she was on a plane bound for Washington on Monday morning.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101221235?__source=yahoo|finance|headline|headline|story&par=yahoo&doc=101221235|Trailblazers?%20First%20retai First recreational marijuana seller in US expects sky-high revenue boost Friday, 22 Nov 2013 | 10:27 AM ET Cue the "Rocky Mountain High" jokes. A medical marijuana dispensary in Central City, Colo.—a small gambling town nestled in the mountains near Denver—just became the first business in the United States licensed to sell marijuana to patrons without a note from their doctors. Erin Phillips, the co-founder of medical marijuana chain Strainwise, announced this week that the Colorado Department of Revenue's marijuana enforcement division accepted the company's application for a recreational marijuana license on Nov. 15. She told CNBC on Friday that industry insiders estimate business can triple with the new license. "We've done all kind of internal projections," Phillips said on "Squawk on the Street." "It's hard to say since nothing like this has ever happened before." The store, called The Annie's, will begin to sell recreational marijuana on Jan 1, and should expect plenty of out-of-state traffic. In-state customers can buy up to an ounce of marijuana each day while Annie's will limit out-of-state patrons to a quarter-of-an-ounce each day. Colorado and Washington became the first states in the U.S. to allow recreational marijuana use last year, and Colorado voters recently approved a 25 percent tax on recreational marijuana. Phillips told CNBC that she believes recreational marijuana can bring in half-a-billion dollars in taxable income to the state, despite a lower number of medical marijuana dispensaries applying for recreational licenses than first expected. "The license process is very similar to what it was for medical marijuana," Phillips said. "We basically had to go through an extensive application process at both the state and the local jurisdiction level." Recreational marijuana outlets cannot sell to customers younger than 21. The legal age for medical marijuana is 18. That meant The Annie's has had to revamp its customer screening process before the new year. "Internally, that has caused us to put different security measures in place," Phillips said. "All of my staff have had to been trained similar to how bouncers are trained in bars to check for fake IDs. We also had to install magnetic ID readers to make sure that they're not fake." (Read more: Astrodome doomed, Colorado schools go to pot) The company's recreational license comes as the U.S. grows increasingly more lax toward marijuana use and enforcement. Twenty states now allow medical marijuana use. Colorado is the only state that allows growers to sell recreational marijuana directly to consumers. —By CNBC's Jeff Morganteen. Follow him on Twitter at @jmorganteen and get the latest stories from "Squawk on the Street." The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Remember Obama's last promise not shake down legal marijuana users in Colorado and Washington state??? OK, Obama's a habitual liar!!! http://news.yahoo.com/denver-pot-businesses-raided-ahead-legal-sales-232109833.html Denver pot businesses raided ahead of legal sales Associated Press By COLLEEN SLEVIN and KRISTEN WYATT 15 hours ago DENVER (AP) — Federal agents raided an unknown number of marijuana dispensaries and growing sites on Thursday in Colorado, confiscating piles of marijuana plants and cartons of cannabis-infused drinks just weeks before the state allows sellers of recreational marijuana to open their doors. The action appeared to send a message that federal authorities would be keeping a close watch on the industry as a state law legalizing pot is implemented. The raids, conducted on a frigid, snowy morning, were the first in Colorado since the U.S. Department of Justice said in August that it wouldn't interfere with state marijuana laws as long as the drug is kept away from children, the black market and other states, among other guidelines. In a statement, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Denver said the criminal investigations unit of the Internal Revenue Service, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and Denver authorities were involved in executing the sealed search and seizure warrants. The raided businesses were suspected of violating more than one of the eight guidelines issued by the Justice Department. "Although we cannot at this time discuss the substance of this pending investigation, the operation under way today comports with the department's recent guidance regarding marijuana enforcement matters," spokesman Jeff Dorschner said in a statement. Deirdre Stepter, an IRS spokeswoman, declined to elaborate. Daria Serna, a spokeswoman for Colorado's revenue department, which regulates the industry, said the agency was aware of the raids and would "continue to cooperate with the ongoing investigation." Retail marijuana sales are set to begin on Jan. 1 in Colorado, though not all municipalities will be ready to regulate sales by then. For now, dispensaries are supposed to sell only to people with medical permission to use the drug. Many of the state's 500 or so existing dispensaries are making plans to convert to recreational sales. At one of the raided dispensaries, VIP Cannabis in Denver, agents loaded boxes into a rental truck. One officer wore a surgical mask. Several operators, including some at VIP Cannabis, didn't return calls seeking comment. In Boulder, agents raided a number of marijuana-growing warehouses, leaving a chest-high pile of pot plants on the side of a road before loading them into trucks, The Daily Camera reported. View gallery." A federal agent enters VIP Cannabis dispensary in Denver … A federal agent enters VIP Cannabis dispensary in Denver on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013 during a raid on … People involved in Colorado's marijuana industry were quick to point out that the raids did not necessarily mean the federal government was going back on its word or planning to interfere with Colorado's recreational pot market. Mike Elliott, a spokesman for the Medical Marijuana Industry Group, said the industry itself has pushed for robust regulations and expects compliance with lengthy state regulations on how the drug and be grown and sold. "While everyone involved in these raids should be considered innocent until proven guilty, enforcement is a sign that this program is working and maturing," he said in a statement. Mason Tvert of the Marijuana Policy Project said it wasn't clear how many businesses were raided. Many dispensaries and growing warehouses were operating as usual Thursday. He said in a statement that he hopes federal authorities were "sticking to their word and not interfering with any state-regulated, law-abiding businesses." ___ Colleen Slevin can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/colleenslevin. Kristen Wyatt can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/APkristenwyatt.
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_24575965/federal-case-against-two-san-mateo-county-employees Federal case against two San Mateo County employees accused of stealing valuables from the dead goes to jury By Bonnie Eslinger Daily News Staff Writer Posted: 11/22/2013 03:00:00 AM PST A jury today will begin deliberating in a federal case against two former San Mateo County employees accused of stealing dozens of valuable items such as jewelry, old Mercury dimes and savings bonds -- as well as a $206,412 check from the estates of dead residents. Mandy Natchi Yagi, 55, of San Mateo, and Peter Wong, 44, of Daly City, were arrested by FBI agents on June 22, 2012, and charged with conspiracy to commit theft from a federally funded program, and theft concerning a federally funded program. Charges of mail fraud and aggravated identity theft were added later against Wong. The two worked for the San Mateo County Public Administrator program, which handles the estates of county residents who die without heirs willing or able to wrap up their affairs. Among items allegedly stolen was the non-cashed $206,412 check that should have gone to an estate handled by Wong, jewelry and other personal possessions from 19 estates that were found stashed in a metal box in the home of one of the decedents. "This is a public corruption case," U.S. Attorney Andrew Caputo told a 12-member jury Wednesday in his closing arguments. "They breached the public trust by taking those assets for themselves, instead of for the heirs." The defense attorneys countered that Yagi and Wong were overworked yet labored to do the best they could under demanding caseloads and simply misplaced some items, but didn't steal them. The government's case was a witch hunt that threatened the good names of their clients without strong evidence that Yagi and Wong profited from the discovered assets, they said. Wong's attorney, Dean Johnson, said federal prosecutors' argument made "no sense." "These are people who had access on a daily basis to millions of dollars in assets: houses, objects of art, jewelry, watches, Rolexes, vehicles, boats, planes, apartments in Paris, apartments and houses in New York. So if they're going to steal, they're going to fill up a little box and hide it in a cabinet?" Johnson rhetorically asked the jury during his closing remarks. "Does that sound to you like the type of thing that someone who has access to millions of dollars is going to steal?" Yagi and Wong were friends, having met nearly 20 years ago when they both worked at Macy's, according to Wong's testimony. Yagi was hired by the county in 2000 and she later recommended Wong for a job, who was hired in 2008. They were the county's only deputy public administrators. About a year before their arrests, the two drew attention when the county's Health System office assumed responsibility for the Public Administrator program, which had been operated under the auspices of the District Attorney's Office. Their new supervisor was Jeffrey Krup, who "became concerned about the lack of 'checks and balances' the Public Administrator had under the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office for the estates they were handling," according to a statement of probable cause submitted by the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office to obtain a warrant to search Yagi and Wong's homes. Six months after the July 1, 2011, department transfer, both left the job: Wong quit in mid-November and Yagi retired weeks later. Yagi testified in court that a few days after her Dec. 5 retirement she left a message for one of the managers in her department saying she had accidentally taken some estate property home. About that same time, two county employees found the metal box that Yagi and Wong had locked inside a filing cabinet in the home of an estate Wong had previously managed, according to the warrant. Inside the box, county employees found dozens of jewelry items including a gold wedding band and a cross pendant, along with several watches. They also found bags containing varying amounts of currency, one with $4.21 in coins and another with $444 in bills. Collectible coins were found too, including Mercury dimes dating from 1916 to 1945 and a "Massachusetts coin" dated 1788, according to the testimony of FBI Special Agent Supervisor Douglas Cook. Stock certificates, $50 travelers' checks and 14 savings bonds with a total value of $7,530 were also tucked inside the box. Many of the items were from estates that had been marked "closed" years before, Cook said. Yagi and Wong's homes were subsequently searched. Jewelry, identification documents and a small bag with some baby teeth were among items found at Yagi's condominium, Cook said. House keys, the $206,412 check, a $10,000 savings bond, a $5,613 cashier's check and three Rolex watches -- two later revealed as fakes -- were among estate items found inside Wong's townhouse. Both defendants took the witness stand and testified that the items in the box were taken out of the county safe on June 30, the day they moved from one department's jurisdiction to the other's. The plan was to have the items appraised, Yagi said, but they didn't get around to it by the end of the day so they locked the valuables up in one of the estate homes. Under cross-examination, both said they never moved the box back into county safekeeping because they had forgotten about the stash. "Storing is not stealing," said Yagi's defense attorney, John Calabria, during his closing statements. "Mandy Yagi never converted anything for her own use. That's what theft is." The defendants' lawyers also said their clients were each dealing with health concerns during in their last months of county employment: Yagi was diagnosed with breast cancer, a doctor testified in court. Wong was struggling with work-related anxiety and depression, his medical doctor and psychiatrist each testified. At the same time, Wong was preparing to start his own business as an estate administrator and had contacted families of the county-administered estates to see if they were interested in having him privately manage them instead. One of those estates was where the metal box had been hidden. Wong said he had accidentally taken home the cashier's check, savings bond and the $206,412 check. During the trial, he and Yagi each testified that their caseloads were so heavy they had to do some work at home. The mail fraud and identity theft charges filed against Wong are related to a letter he sent to a bank in Terre Haute, Indiana, that resulted in him securing the $206,412 check. A significant amount of time during the two-week trial was spent discussing the efforts Yagi made to find a home for a Bedlington terrier that had belonged to one deceased resident. The defense used it as an example of the care she took in her job, but the prosecution focused on the fact that the animal was ultimately placed in the home of Wong and his domestic partner and that Yagi paid them $5,000 out of the estate, which she testified, was for the dog's care.
Hey, screw that First Amendment thing!!! You don't want commoners taking photos of the royal American Emperor!!!! http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/22/us/politics/photographers-protest-white-house-restrictions.html?hpw&rref=politics&_r=0 Photographers Protest White House Restrictions By MARK LANDLER Published: November 21, 2013 WASHINGTON — A mutiny has erupted among photographers who cover President Obama over what they say is the White House’s increasing practice of excluding them from events involving the president and then releasing its own photos or video. Doug Mills, a staff photographer at The New York Times, took this picture of the Obama family on the same day as Mr. Souza's photograph. A complaint has been filed with the press secretary, Jay Carney, over the increasing practice of excluding press photographers from events. On Thursday, the White House Correspondents’ Association and 37 news organizations submitted a letter to the press secretary, Jay Carney, protesting what photographers said amounted to the establishment of the White House’s own Soviet-style news service, which gets privileged access to Mr. Obama at the expense of journalists who cover the president. “As surely as if they were placing a hand over a journalist’s camera lens,” the three-page letter said, “officials in this administration are blocking the public from having an independent view of important functions of the executive branch of government.” The Obama administration has embraced social media as a way to get its message to the public beyond the traditional news media. Senior officials post tweets and blog items, while the chief White House photographer, Pete Souza, posts photos of the president on Facebook, Flickr and Instagram, often minutes after they are taken. The White House defended its policy, arguing it is not logistically feasible to give photographers access to every event. The deputy spokesman, Josh Earnest, said, “We’ve taken advantage of new technology to give the American public even greater access to behind-the-scenes footage or photographs of the president doing his job.” “I understand why that is a source of some consternation to the people in this room,” Mr. Earnest said during the daily White House briefing. “But to the American public, that is a clear win.” Mr. Earnest faced persistent questioning from reporters who said the White House was setting a precedent on access and was substituting a government photographer for those from news agencies. Mr. Souza, a former photographer for The Chicago Tribune who became close to Mr. Obama when he was a senator from Illinois, referred questions to Mr. Earnest. The letter cited seven recent examples of newsworthy events from which photographers were banned, including an outdoor lunch for Mr. Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, a meeting with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, and a session in the Oval Office at which Malala Yousafzai, a young Pakistani human rights campaigner, spoke with Mr. Obama, his wife, Michelle, and their daughter Malia. Administration officials have said these were private meetings. But in all of the cases, a White House photographer recorded the event and posted the pictures on Flickr or other social media sites. Major news organizations regularly publish the photos. “They’re excluding photographers from events at the White House, which is a problem in and of itself,” said Steve Thomma, the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association. “But now they’re sending in their photographers and video crews and then releasing the photos and video. That sets up their own media operation.” Tensions between the photographers and the White House have simmered for months. They flared during Mr. Obama’s visit to South Africa last summer, when photographers were allowed to take a single shot of the president in Nelson Mandela’s jail cell on Robben Island, but were excluded from the cell when he hugged his daughter Sasha. That moment was caught by Mr. Souza and widely distributed. White House photographers have historically captured private moments of the president, with his family or conferring with advisers in the Oval Office or the Situation Room. During the debate over the civil war in Syria, Mr. Souza’s images of internal meetings provided a revealing account of the tensions felt by the president and his staff. But the news organizations argue that the White House has expanded its restrictions to everyday activities, like the time when Mr. Obama went for a swim off Panama City, Fla., in 2010 to demonstrate that the water had been cleaned up after the BP oil spill. “The way they exclude us is to say that this is a very private moment,” said Doug Mills, a photographer for The New York Times who has covered the White House since the Reagan administration. “But they’re making private moments very public.” In a tense meeting late last month with Mr. Carney, Mr. Mills and other board members of the White House Correspondents’ Association showed a stack of photos that they said illustrated the problem. “I said, ‘Jay, this is just like Tass,’ ” Mr. Mills said, referring to the Soviet state news agency. “It’s like government-controlled use of the public image of the president.”
More of the "do as I say, not as I do" from our royal government masters in Washington D.C. And while we are talking about hypocrites could all the Homeland Security goons that illegally read these emails please respond to this email if you also do illegal drugs like many of the people you illegally spy on do??? http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/rep-trey-radels-arrest-inspires-a-brilliant-idea-lets-drug-test-members-of-congress/2013/11/21/8f19c51e-52e6-11e3-9e2c-e1d01116fd98_story.html?hpid=z4 Drug testing is a great idea. Thanks, Rep. Radel. Radel, the Florida Republican whose campaign was heavy on balancing the budget, would be the first to save the government some money on that plan. The 37-year-old congressman who describes himself on Twitter as a “Hip Hop Conservative” — whatever that is — lasted just 10 months in the nation’s capital before his Nose Snow Rewards Card balance tripped the radar of law enforcement. He was busted last month after buying $250 worth of cocaine from a federal agent. And it apparently wasn’t his first time on this particular sleigh ride. Radel was described in charging documents as a routine buyer in Dupont Circle, purchasing for himself and for his pals. He pleaded guilty in D.C. Superior Court this week, was sentenced to a year of probation and announced a leave of absence. Ho-hum. Nothing new, politics and drugs. Thanks to former D.C. mayor Marion Barry and Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, we can mention more than just weed in this list. And the roll call of politicians who’ve admitted to smoking pot — whether they inhaled or not — is too huge to tackle in this space. Radel, a former TV reporter and conservative radio gabber, isn’t an aberration when it comes to using coke. About 1.6 million Americans admitted to being regular cocaine users in a survey by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration last year. The same survey said that about 1,800 try cocaine for their first time every day. It’s not just boxy boyfriend blazers that are coming back from the ’80s. Plus, Radel was described as an energetic new lawmaker who was quickly making a name for himself on Capitol Hill. And he’s got a 2-year-old at home. Who couldn’t use a little coke to stay wired? Radel’s drug use isn’t even his worst transgression. It’s attaining a level of hypocrisy that usually takes politicians years — decades — to achieve. This is a guy whose campaign ads lambasted “typical politicians.” “Washington’s full of them,” he lamented. He said he’d bring American values to Washington, “Values that come with integrity, especially when we talk about cuts.” Like, the kind you make with a razor blade, Hip Hop Man? Seriously — this is a guy who preaches about the dysfunction in Washington, and then look at what he does once he gets to Our Town. The tea party darling is one of the Republicans who voted in favor of a devastating $39 billion cut to the nation’s food stamp program and later voted for another bill requiring mandatory drug testing for food stamp recipients. Yup, in Radel’s version of Absurdistan, it’s totally okay for a guy in a suit to use coke and collect a government paycheck, but a single mom who needs help buying milk for her kids has to be drug-tested before she gets one government dime. Drug-testing food stamp and welfare recipients is a mean-spirited, political potshot at our nation’s most vulnerable families. And it doesn’t work. In Utah, from August 2012 to July, the state spent more than $30,000 testing nearly 5,000 welfare applicants for drug use. The haul? Twelve people. The same thing was tried in Florida, where drug tests cost the state more money than was saved. Those tests turned up more positives than in Utah. (Come on, it’s Florida!) There, about 100 of 4,000 recipients tested dirty. Maybe Radel was a ringer, taking that test to increase the numbers and bolster his spending cuts. Why, exactly, don’t we require a drug test for our lawmakers? They get paid by the taxpayers. They make important decisions. I’m sure the electronic voting machines they use to cast their yeas and nays count as heavy machinery. Or the members-only elevator does. In America, if you stack apples, cut meat, pitch a baseball, carry a weapon, drive a forklift, answer phones, sweep streets or do any number of other jobs, you’ve got to pee in a cup to assure your employer that you are drug-free and worthy of the job. The Partnership at Drugfree.org estimated that 84 percent of employers in America drug-test their employees. Why don’t we hold our members of Congress to the same standards? I’m not alone in thinking this. Go to petitiononline.com, find the petition to drug-test members of Congress and read the comments of people angry about the consistent double standard that politicians live by. If we tested everyone in Congress at an average cost of $40 a test, the bill would be about $21,400. And even if Radel was the only one (ha!) who tested positive for drugs, the taxpayers would come out ahead by withholding his $174,000 salary. You were right, congressman Radel. Drug testing is an excellent idea. Just make sure you target the right people.
What's next is Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery going to say Prop 203 didn't legalize smoking of marijuana and that medical marijuana users may only purchase, but not use the drug?? And of course arrest medical marijuana patients who smoke the drug??? Sure that's silly, but it's just as silly as saying Prop 203 didn't legalize concentrated forms for marijuana. Let's face it Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery doesn't want the insane, unconstitutional "war on drugs" to end because it's a jobs program for cops and prosecutors like himself. http://eastvalleytribune.com/arizona/capitol_media_services/article_fa82dedc-5136-11e3-a0fc-0019bb2963f4.html Mesa boy's access to marijuana extract faces new challenge Posted: Tuesday, November 19, 2013 9:15 am | Updated: 5:49 pm, Tue Nov 19, 2013. By Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services PHOENIX — Maricopa County's chief prosecutor is asking a judge to throw out a bid by the parents of a 5-year-old Mesa boy who suffers from seizures to be able to get an extract of marijuana from dispensaries. County Attorney Bill Montgomery is not disputing whether or not Zander Welton needs the drug. His parents have received the proper recommendation from a doctor to sign him up as a patient under the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act. But Montgomery said Monday that those who crafted the statute legalized only marijuana for patients, which means the plant. He said any extract falls under a separate definition of the state's criminal code, a section that was not altered by the voter-approved law. Montgomery said if Jacob and Jennifer Welton think the extract works better, they should take their case to the Legislature, which can alter the law with a three-fourths vote of both the House and Senate and concurrence of the governor. Attorney Dan Pochoda of the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the family, said Montgomery is legally off base. He said it's unnecessary to seek legislative intervention because the ACLU believes the law does allow for the sale and use of marijuana extracts — and that a judge will side with the family. The 2010 law clearly allows those with a doctor's recommendation to obtain marijuana, and it specifically permits the drug to be used in food products rather than being smoked. But the initiative never legalized “cannabis,” which is described as the extract of the plant. So Montgomery has advised police departments which monitor state-regulated dispensaries that his office might prosecute those who sell products which contain only extract and no plants. The result, according to the ACLU, is the family can no longer obtain the extract Zander needs. Zander's parents say that extract is not only more palatable than grinding up the dried plant and putting it in applesauce but also contains only the chemicals he needs and not those in the whole plant that get him “high.” The ACLU wants Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper to essentially block Montgomery and others, including the state health department, from doing anything that precludes Zander from getting the extract. But the court fight will also affect in what form the approximately 40,000 other medical marijuana patients can obtain their drugs. Montgomery said there's no basis for a lawsuit. “All I've done so far is just provide guidance to a law enforcement agency” of how his office reads the law and what action it might take if police refer a case to his lawyers, he said. At this point, Montgomery said, there is no case. “I've received nothing to review ... and so there's no guarantee there would be a prosecution,” he said. “It's entirely a hypothetical.” Montgomery acknowledged that dispensary owners have reacted to his advice to police by pulling the extracts off their shelves, but he said that's their decision, not his. He said if the family wants access to extracts they should ask lawmakers to tweak the voter-approved law to legalize cannabis as well as marijuana for patients, correcting what he said was apparently an oversight when the initiative was drafted. Pochoda questioned the practicality of getting a three-fourths vote from the Legislature, but he said it isn't necessary. “The normal thing is not going to the Legislature when some prosecutor is improperly, and, in our view, illegally interpreting a law that clearly decriminalized not only marijuana but things made from marijuana,” Pochoda said. Morgan Fox of the Marijuana Policy Project which crafted the 2010 initiative also contends Montgomery is misinterpreting the law. He said the statute allows use of any “preparation” of the drug, which he said includes extracts. Montgomery said it very well may be that those who drafted the law intended to include food products which contain no marijuana leaves but only an extract. But he said his role is to enforce the law as written, not to interpret what those who crafted it meant in the first place. No date has been set for a hearing.
Kyrsten Sinema shovels the BS??? Of course the real reason Kyrsten Sinema voted against Obamacare or the ACA turkey was she realizes that she is going to be booted out of office if she continues to support it. Last but not least when Kyrsten Sinema was an Arizona senator she attempted to flush Arizona's Medical Marijuana Act down the toilet by attempting to slap a 300 percent tax on medical marijuana. http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/articles/20131121obamacare-krysten-sinema.html Kyrsten Sinema: Why I voted to fix Obamacare By U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema My Turn Thu Nov 21, 2013 9:41 AM The headline of Robert Robb's Nov. 18 blog, “Sinema to Obamacare: Good riddance,” mischaracterizes my support of fixes to the Affordable Care Act as a desire to repeal or dismantle the entire law. That is simply not the case. In my 2012 congressional campaign I repeatedly stated the need to fix certain elements of the law to make it work better for people -- not to repeal it -- and that is exactly what I have worked to do since taking office in January. A recent poll by Forbes magazine showed that only one-third of Americans favor a full repeal of the ACA. Most Americans, like me, want to see the law work so that hard-working families can get access to quality health insurance and receive help to pay for it if they cannot afford it. I supported the Keep Your Plan Act last week because individuals were promised they would be able to keep their insurance policies, and this bill fixes the law and keeps that promise. Health care reform should work for Arizona’s families, and Democrats and Republicans must be willing to listen to new ideas to fix this law. I encourage people to thoroughly review their options. Arizona has the second-lowest premiums and the highest number of choices of any state through the marketplace, but if people prefer to keep their existing coverage, they should be able to make that choice. Readers should contact our office if they have questions or need assistance with health insurance reform or any other federal issue. Democratic U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema represents Arizona's Ninth Congressional District.
Got a better label for Bibles other then fiction??? Superstition?? Rubbish?? Nonsense??
http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/free/20131121california-bibles-fiction-costco.html
Bibles labeled as 'fiction' at Costco
Associated Press Thu Nov 21, 2013 9:00 AM
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — A Costco store in Southern California drew some unwanted attention this week after labeling some of its Bibles as fiction.
The Los Angeles Times reports Wednesday that Discovery Church pastor Caleb Kaltenbach recently came across the Bibles with "Fiction" written on the price tag while shopping for a gift at a Costco store in Simi Valley. He took a photo and posted it on social media with the comment: "Costco has Bibles for sale under the genre of FICTION Hmmmm..."
Costco has since apologized, saying in a statement a distributor mislabeled a small percentage of Bibles before they were sent to the store. The company said it is correcting the mistake for future distribution.
http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-costco-apologizes-for-labeling-bibles-fiction-20131121,0,1596330.story#axzz2lNuUAw6z
Costco apologizes for labeling Bibles 'fiction'
By Carolyn Kellogg
November 21, 2013, 2:33 p.m.
Costco has apologized for labeling Bibles for sale in a Southern California store as "fiction."
Caleb Kaltenbach, pastor of Discovery Church in Simi Valley, saw the Bibles with "fiction" on the price tag and took note. "Costco has Bibles for sale under the genre of FICTION Hmmmm...," he tweeted.
One member of his congregation felt more strongly about it. “I was completely offended. It’s wrong, and I believe that the Bible is real,” Shellie Dungan told KTLA-TV.
The discount retailer was not trying to offend Christian shoppers. While it took responsibility for the labels, it said the action took place within its supply change.
“Costco’s distributor mislabeled a small percentage of the Bibles, however we take responsibility and should have caught the mistake. We are correcting this with them for future distribution,” Costco said in a statement. “In addition, we are immediately relabeling all mislabeled Bibles. We greatly apologized for this error."
The cops are cooking their books??? Of course if a civilian accountant overstated their books by $24 million they would be charged with fraud. But don't count on anybody getting more then a slap on the wrist when the police do it. http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/20131121states-public-safety-pension-system-restate-its-financial-books.html State’s public-safety pension system to restate its 2012 financial books Thu Nov 21, 2013 9:31 PM The Public Safety Personnel Retirement System will restate its financial books for 2012, following advice from the Auditor General’s Office on a controversy regarding the reported value of real-estate assets. The system, which provides pension benefits for police officers, firefighters, corrections officers and elected officials, said Thursday it will report that it overvalued its real-estate portfolio managed by Desert Troon Cos. by $24.7 million. Administrator Jim Hacking said the system would correct the error though its auditor concluded it was not a material event for a portfolio exceeding $7.5 billion. Hacking in July asked the Auditor General’s Office for help after a staff dispute over whether management reported inflated real-estate values, which could have influenced bonuses. — Craig Harris
Cops pretend to be accountable for their actions??? Do you really think if a cop beats up somebody, illegally searches someone or commits other crimes he is going to his the SAVE button to keep a copy of his crimes??? This is just another publicity ploy where the cops pretend that they are accountable to the people that they pretend to serve. http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/nevius/article/S-F-police-seek-cameras-to-capture-whole-picture-4997404.php S.F. police seek cameras to capture whole picture C.W. Nevius Updated 10:39 pm, Wednesday, November 20, 2013 A brawl broke out Friday between San Francisco police officers and residents of the Valencia Gardens public housing complex. There were videos of police punching angry residents, handcuffing a distraught 20-year-old bicyclist and leading away a man, his face covered in blood. Frankly, it didn't look good for the cops. But Police Chief Greg Suhr has an interesting response. He wants more video - he wants his officers to wear cameras. He's about to get his wish. In two weeks, with the help of a $250,000 federal grant, the Police Department will begin equipping some officers with wearable cameras in a pilot program. Initially the small, cigar-shaped cameras will be issued to 50 plainclothes officers who execute search warrants and parole checks and who might enter people's homes. The idea is to blunt suggestions that officers aren't identifying themselves properly when they knock on doors. Suhr contends that if a camera - and not one from the cell phone of a bystander - had been present at Valencia Gardens, it would have recorded what really happened: A man riding his bike on a sidewalk started to fight when a plainclothes officer tried to stop him, "the guy biting the officer as soon as he touched him." Camera always running That may be true, although the plainclothes officer who can be seen raining punches on a witness has some explaining to do. But the chief's point is that most witnesses don't start filming until fists start to fly. "It's always the second punch," he says. "When the cell phones go on, we're in the middle of a response and we're losing the argument." The new cameras will catch the second punch, the first punch and whatever started the altercation - because they'll always be running. That is just the start. If the cameras are as successful in San Francisco as they've been elsewhere, they will become standard issue. BART Deputy Chief of Police Benson Fairow says that when the transit agency began to roll out video cameras last year after two fatal police shootings, "there was a little apprehension" among officers. There was a two-month pilot program last November, with full implementation in June. "It's been wonderful," Fairow says. "This is the future in law enforcement, just like when we introduced radios, cars and bulletproof vests. People say they are worried that video is looking at them all the time. Really? Today? There's video looking at us right now." Valuable evidence SFPD will be using the same system as BART, the Axon Flex by Taser International. The camera is light enough to clip to the bill of a cap or a shirt lapel. There's also an important feature called the pre-event video buffer. The camera, always on, records half-minute clips. If nothing happens, the piece is erased and the camera starts over. But if an officer spots something and hits the record button, the previous 30 seconds is preserved at the beginning of the recording. BART Sgt. Tanzanika Carter says she was patrolling this week when "my camera showed a guy jumping over the rail." She hit the record button and captured the whole sequence for posterity. That pretty much ended any discussion of whether he was a fare evader. SFPD Commander Mikail Ali, whom Suhr calls his "gadget guy," says that after the short pilot program, the plan is to give cameras to traffic control officers. "You see a guy run a red light, you activate, and it captures him," Ali said. "In terms of best evidence, that's huge." Even for a city that has always been concerned with protecting privacy, the video plan seems to have broad support. Public Defender Jeff Adachi, who has criticized the police for giving cursory or nonexistent identification when serving search warrants in the past, is behind the concept. "Absolutely. It makes sense," Adachi said. "It will protect both the individual that is being approached as well as the officer. Instead of a 'he said, she said,' you will have an objective record." Reducing complaints In fact, a news story this year says that studies by a criminologist at the University of Cambridge show that when cameras are in use, there is a decrease in citizen complaints against officers as well as a reduction in the use of force by the police. Adachi wonders if officers would be required to tell subjects that a video camera is running. BART's Carter says that turns out to be an advantage. "I've had cases where someone is causing a problem and I hold up the camera and say, 'You know I'm recording this, right?' " she says. "And they calm right down." There are potential problems. "If I am in close proximity to having shots fired, the last thing I am thinking about is turning on a camera," Ali says. "There will be occasions when the officer doesn't capture the event." Conspiracy theories That brings us back to the Valencia Gardens controversy. When video of an encounter is not available, Suhr says, conspiracy theories abound. "We've gone through this before in a place where there were three cameras and some are not working," he says. "If the cameras malfunction or the officer forgets to turn them on, then the suggestion is that it was deliberate." At Valencia Gardens, Suhr says, there was a camera that could have recorded the initial encounter. Unfortunately, the view was blocked by a tree. "And," Suhr says, "we did not put the tree there." C.W. Nevius is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. His columns appear Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail: cwnevius@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @cwnevius
Insurers restricting choice of doctors and hospitals to keep costs down If you believe in Santa Claus you probably also think Obamacare or the ACA will give you almost free health care for almost nothing. Dream on sucker!!! The only thing Obamacare is going to give you is a big hole in your wallet, along with sh*tty, over priced socialized medicine. http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/insurers-restricting-choice-of-doctors-and-hospitals-to-keep-costs-down/2013/11/20/98c84e20-4bb4-11e3-ac54-aa84301ced81_story.html?hpid=z1 Insurers restricting choice of doctors and hospitals to keep costs down By Sandhya Somashekhar and Ariana Eunjung Cha, Published: November 20 E-mail the writers As Americans have begun shopping for health plans on the insurance exchanges, they are discovering that insurers are restricting their choice of doctors and hospitals in order to keep costs low, and that many of the plans exclude top-rated hospitals. The Obama administration made it a priority to keep down the cost of insurance on the exchanges, the online marketplaces that are central to the Affordable Care Act. But one way that insurers have been able to offer lower rates is by creating networks that are far smaller than what most Americans are accustomed to. The decisions have provoked a backlash. In one closely watched case, Seattle Children’s Hospital has filed suit against Washington’s insurance commissioner after a number of insurers kept it out of their provider networks. “It is unprecedented in our market to have major insurance plans exclude Seattle Children’s,” said Sandy Melzer, senior vice president. The result, some argue, is a two-tiered system of health care: Many of the people who buy health plans on the exchanges have fewer hospitals and doctors to choose from than those with coverage through their employers. A number of the nation’s top hospitals — including the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, and children’s hospitals in Seattle, Houston and St. Louis — are cut out of most plans sold on the exchange. In most cases, the decision was about the cost of care. In Seattle, the region’s predominant insurer, Premera Blue Cross, decided not to include the children’s hospital as an in- network provider except in cases where the service sought cannot be obtained anywhere else. “Children’s non-unique services were too expensive given the goal of providing affordable coverage for consumers,” spokesman Eric Earling said in an e-mail. For example, a pediatric appendectomy at Children’s costs about $23,000, he said. At another community hospital, the cost is closer to $14,100. Melzer said his hospital often bills more than community hospitals for comparable procedures because the children it treats are often gravely ill, so even a routine tonsillectomy may be more complicated. But as a result, families like Jeffrey Blank’s, which has relied on Seattle Children’s since his daughter, Zoe, received a diagnosis of a rare bone disorder, face difficult decisions. Under some of the new law’s health plans, the family would no longer be able to take Zoe to Children’s for her routine checkups, or it could count as an “out-of- network” visit, saddling the family with huge bills. “It just stresses me,” said Blank, 53, a self-employed massage therapist who is sorting through his options but readily admits that his family has benefited from other parts of the health law. “I hope things continue wonderfully for my daughter and that she doesn’t need the level of care she got after her diagnosis, but there’s this unknown.” In New Hampshire, Frisbie Memorial Hospital took legal action against an insurer that excluded it from its marketplace plans, and in Missouri, consumer advocates successfully lobbied an insurer to add a children’s hospital after it unveiled a plan that lacked one. Experts say that routine care offered at cheaper, community-based hospitals is often comparable to that of pricey academic medical centers. “Academic medical centers are valuable because they are the only place to get certain specific treatments, but they provide a lot of care that is routinely provided in community hospitals that do it very well at a cheaper cost,” said Paul B. Ginsburg, president of the Center for Studying Health System Change. In some cases, the goal of lowering costs has prompted the opposite reaction: Providers themselves have balked at being in exchange networks because they are unhappy with the reimbursement rates or are concerned that the exchanges could be dominated by sick people who won’t be able to pay their portion of the bills. The Cleveland Clinic said it decided to limit itself to plans on Ohio’s exchange that offered higher reimbursement rates and were backed by brand-name insurers. Some advocates argue that these narrow networks are a fine way to cut costs. They note that the majority of people expected to buy coverage on the exchanges are uninsured, and that even a narrow network is better than nothing. Insurers “looked at the people expected to go on the exchanges and thought: ‘These are people coming out of the ranks of the uninsured. They don’t care about the Mayo Clinic or the Cleveland Clinic. They will go to community providers,’ ” explained Robert Laszewski, a consultant to the health-care industry. Insurers will typically cover out-of-network costs in an emergency. And most hospitals are included in at least one plan. “I can’t find you a plan with all the major facilities, but if you give me a hospital I can find a plan participating in it,” said Elisabeth Benjamin, vice president of health initiatives for the Community Service Society of New York, one of the agencies helping consumers navigate their new health insurance options. The Affordable Care Act requires insurers to provide enough doctors and hospitals to ensure quality care. But there is no detailed guidance from the federal government on what this means. “It’s been mostly up to the plans to attest to it, and for now everyone’s taking their word for it,” said Karen Pollitz, a senior fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation who focuses on health reform and insurance. In New Hampshire, consumers who purchase insurance through the exchange have only one choice of carrier — Anthem BlueCross BlueShield— because no other insurer applied to join the exchange. The company’s network includes access to only 16 of the state’s 26 acute-care hospitals. That’s forcing people such as Michael Justice, 63, a Web developer from Peterborough, N.H., to leave doctors they like. Justice has been treated by primary-care doctors, cardiologists, orthopedists and eye doctors affiliated with Monadnock Community Hospital in his town for 15 years, and his wife for 30 years. But starting in 2014, that medical center will no longer be in network for the Anthem plans sold in his state, whether he buys the insurance through the health exchange or on his own. Justice said he and his wife could go with another insurer, which costs $1,600 a month for the couple outside the marketplace, and continue to see their providers. Or they could pay half that if they purchase through the exchange. “We’re being forced to choose between one bad option and another bad option,” said Justice. Anthem spokesman Chris Dugan said that consumers under the plan are seeing prices that are 25 percent lower than they would have been with a broader network, and that the company found in surveys of more than 50,000 consumers across the country that most people would chose cost savings over being able to see a particular doctor. He said that the network still covers 74 percent of all primary-care providers and 78 percent of specialists. “This wasn’t something built overnight,” he said. “We took a very thoughtful approach to this.” Jeffrey Blank is among the millions of Americans whose insurance policies are being canceled at the end of the year because they do not comply with the health law’s mandated basic benefits. President Obama has said that states and health plans may choose to extend these policies past Dec. 31, but Washington’s insurance commissioner has said he will not permit the extension. Blank’s insurer, Premera, has suggested that he enroll in the new Premera plan on the marketplace. But Children’s is not in the new network. So, Blank must make a choice. Should he take his insurer’s suggestion and lose access to Children’s? Should he go with one of the plans on the exchange that includes Children’s, even if that means picking an insurance company he has never heard of? He is leaning toward a third option: buying a private plan with Premera outside the exchange with a broader network, but that would force him to give up the estimated $400-per-month subsidy he would be eligible for under the health law. Blank faults the insurer and not the health law, which has already benefited his family, he said. Before its enactment, insurance companies routinely put a dollar cap on the amount of benefits a person could receive in a lifetime. Without the law, Zoe, 5, who received a diagnosis of a sometimes fatal condition called osteopetrosis, probably would have reached that cap before adulthood, her father said. She received the diagnosis at 8 months, not early enough to prevent her improperly growing skull from crushing her optic nerves, rendering her blind. At a year old, she underwent a successful stem cell transplant. But she is still suffering some side effects of the transplant, and gets checkups at Children’s every two or three months. Premera has said it will consider as in-network service “unique” treatments available only at Children’s. But the decisions about what is considered “unique” will be made on a case-by-case basis, Blank learned, and he has decided to reject that option, which is fraught with uncertainty. “What if Zoe has to be hospitalized? What then?” Blank said. “I should have a plan that is in network, to be prepared. As wonderful as the Affordable Care Act has been for us, it’s like, how did this happen?”
Insurers restricting choice of doctors and hospitals to keep costs down If you believe in Santa Claus you probably also think Obamacare or the ACA will give you almost free health care for almost nothing. Dream on sucker!!! The only thing Obamacare is going to give you is a big hole in your wallet, along with sh*tty, over priced socialized medicine. http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/insurers-restricting-choice-of-doctors-and-hospitals-to-keep-costs-down/2013/11/20/98c84e20-4bb4-11e3-ac54-aa84301ced81_story.html?hpid=z1 Insurers restricting choice of doctors and hospitals to keep costs down By Sandhya Somashekhar and Ariana Eunjung Cha, Published: November 20 E-mail the writers As Americans have begun shopping for health plans on the insurance exchanges, they are discovering that insurers are restricting their choice of doctors and hospitals in order to keep costs low, and that many of the plans exclude top-rated hospitals. The Obama administration made it a priority to keep down the cost of insurance on the exchanges, the online marketplaces that are central to the Affordable Care Act. But one way that insurers have been able to offer lower rates is by creating networks that are far smaller than what most Americans are accustomed to. The decisions have provoked a backlash. In one closely watched case, Seattle Children’s Hospital has filed suit against Washington’s insurance commissioner after a number of insurers kept it out of their provider networks. “It is unprecedented in our market to have major insurance plans exclude Seattle Children’s,” said Sandy Melzer, senior vice president. The result, some argue, is a two-tiered system of health care: Many of the people who buy health plans on the exchanges have fewer hospitals and doctors to choose from than those with coverage through their employers. A number of the nation’s top hospitals — including the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, and children’s hospitals in Seattle, Houston and St. Louis — are cut out of most plans sold on the exchange. In most cases, the decision was about the cost of care. In Seattle, the region’s predominant insurer, Premera Blue Cross, decided not to include the children’s hospital as an in- network provider except in cases where the service sought cannot be obtained anywhere else. “Children’s non-unique services were too expensive given the goal of providing affordable coverage for consumers,” spokesman Eric Earling said in an e-mail. For example, a pediatric appendectomy at Children’s costs about $23,000, he said. At another community hospital, the cost is closer to $14,100. Melzer said his hospital often bills more than community hospitals for comparable procedures because the children it treats are often gravely ill, so even a routine tonsillectomy may be more complicated. But as a result, families like Jeffrey Blank’s, which has relied on Seattle Children’s since his daughter, Zoe, received a diagnosis of a rare bone disorder, face difficult decisions. Under some of the new law’s health plans, the family would no longer be able to take Zoe to Children’s for her routine checkups, or it could count as an “out-of- network” visit, saddling the family with huge bills. “It just stresses me,” said Blank, 53, a self-employed massage therapist who is sorting through his options but readily admits that his family has benefited from other parts of the health law. “I hope things continue wonderfully for my daughter and that she doesn’t need the level of care she got after her diagnosis, but there’s this unknown.” In New Hampshire, Frisbie Memorial Hospital took legal action against an insurer that excluded it from its marketplace plans, and in Missouri, consumer advocates successfully lobbied an insurer to add a children’s hospital after it unveiled a plan that lacked one. Experts say that routine care offered at cheaper, community-based hospitals is often comparable to that of pricey academic medical centers. “Academic medical centers are valuable because they are the only place to get certain specific treatments, but they provide a lot of care that is routinely provided in community hospitals that do it very well at a cheaper cost,” said Paul B. Ginsburg, president of the Center for Studying Health System Change. In some cases, the goal of lowering costs has prompted the opposite reaction: Providers themselves have balked at being in exchange networks because they are unhappy with the reimbursement rates or are concerned that the exchanges could be dominated by sick people who won’t be able to pay their portion of the bills. The Cleveland Clinic said it decided to limit itself to plans on Ohio’s exchange that offered higher reimbursement rates and were backed by brand-name insurers. Some advocates argue that these narrow networks are a fine way to cut costs. They note that the majority of people expected to buy coverage on the exchanges are uninsured, and that even a narrow network is better than nothing. Insurers “looked at the people expected to go on the exchanges and thought: ‘These are people coming out of the ranks of the uninsured. They don’t care about the Mayo Clinic or the Cleveland Clinic. They will go to community providers,’ ” explained Robert Laszewski, a consultant to the health-care industry. Insurers will typically cover out-of-network costs in an emergency. And most hospitals are included in at least one plan. “I can’t find you a plan with all the major facilities, but if you give me a hospital I can find a plan participating in it,” said Elisabeth Benjamin, vice president of health initiatives for the Community Service Society of New York, one of the agencies helping consumers navigate their new health insurance options. The Affordable Care Act requires insurers to provide enough doctors and hospitals to ensure quality care. But there is no detailed guidance from the federal government on what this means. “It’s been mostly up to the plans to attest to it, and for now everyone’s taking their word for it,” said Karen Pollitz, a senior fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation who focuses on health reform and insurance. In New Hampshire, consumers who purchase insurance through the exchange have only one choice of carrier — Anthem BlueCross BlueShield— because no other insurer applied to join the exchange. The company’s network includes access to only 16 of the state’s 26 acute-care hospitals. That’s forcing people such as Michael Justice, 63, a Web developer from Peterborough, N.H., to leave doctors they like. Justice has been treated by primary-care doctors, cardiologists, orthopedists and eye doctors affiliated with Monadnock Community Hospital in his town for 15 years, and his wife for 30 years. But starting in 2014, that medical center will no longer be in network for the Anthem plans sold in his state, whether he buys the insurance through the health exchange or on his own. Justice said he and his wife could go with another insurer, which costs $1,600 a month for the couple outside the marketplace, and continue to see their providers. Or they could pay half that if they purchase through the exchange. “We’re being forced to choose between one bad option and another bad option,” said Justice. Anthem spokesman Chris Dugan said that consumers under the plan are seeing prices that are 25 percent lower than they would have been with a broader network, and that the company found in surveys of more than 50,000 consumers across the country that most people would chose cost savings over being able to see a particular doctor. He said that the network still covers 74 percent of all primary-care providers and 78 percent of specialists. “This wasn’t something built overnight,” he said. “We took a very thoughtful approach to this.” Jeffrey Blank is among the millions of Americans whose insurance policies are being canceled at the end of the year because they do not comply with the health law’s mandated basic benefits. President Obama has said that states and health plans may choose to extend these policies past Dec. 31, but Washington’s insurance commissioner has said he will not permit the extension. Blank’s insurer, Premera, has suggested that he enroll in the new Premera plan on the marketplace. But Children’s is not in the new network. So, Blank must make a choice. Should he take his insurer’s suggestion and lose access to Children’s? Should he go with one of the plans on the exchange that includes Children’s, even if that means picking an insurance company he has never heard of? He is leaning toward a third option: buying a private plan with Premera outside the exchange with a broader network, but that would force him to give up the estimated $400-per-month subsidy he would be eligible for under the health law. Blank faults the insurer and not the health law, which has already benefited his family, he said. Before its enactment, insurance companies routinely put a dollar cap on the amount of benefits a person could receive in a lifetime. Without the law, Zoe, 5, who received a diagnosis of a sometimes fatal condition called osteopetrosis, probably would have reached that cap before adulthood, her father said. She received the diagnosis at 8 months, not early enough to prevent her improperly growing skull from crushing her optic nerves, rendering her blind. At a year old, she underwent a successful stem cell transplant. But she is still suffering some side effects of the transplant, and gets checkups at Children’s every two or three months. Premera has said it will consider as in-network service “unique” treatments available only at Children’s. But the decisions about what is considered “unique” will be made on a case-by-case basis, Blank learned, and he has decided to reject that option, which is fraught with uncertainty. “What if Zoe has to be hospitalized? What then?” Blank said. “I should have a plan that is in network, to be prepared. As wonderful as the Affordable Care Act has been for us, it’s like, how did this happen?”
http://eastvalleytribune.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/article_76404aba-5177-11e3-8355-0019bb2963f4.html Letter: Congress does have smart members Posted: Wednesday, November 20, 2013 2:12 pm Letter to the Editor I disagree 100 percent with L.J. Rupp’s letter that seems to say the members of Congress are a bunch of morons and idiots who can’t get anything done! The members of Congress are anything but morons and idiots and are probably some of the smartest thieves and crooks in the world. If a Nobel Prize were given for thievery the members of the U.S. Congress and U.S. Senate would probably win it year in and year out! Mike Ross TEMPE http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/free/20131118flailing-health-care-law-result-arrogant-amateurs-bureaucrats.html Arrogant amateurs behind health law Mon Nov 18, 2013 6:03 PM What the American public is witnessing in regard to the health-insurance-reform law are two very evident facts: 1. The Affordable Care Act was largely authored by academics and politicians who believe they alone could best proscribe what is “best” for John Q. Public and, in the process, they’ve demonstrated their flair as arrogant, rank amateurs. How dare they presume to define “adequate” health-insurance coverage for you or for me? 2. The implementation of this immensely complex and badly written legislation was left to our federal bureaucrats and their cronies. What did we expect with these skill sets? — L.J. Rupp, Cave Creek
Wow Google is really getting punished for illegal spying on Americans!!!!! Of course don't expect the criminals in the NSA to even get a slap on the wrist for illegally reading the emails and listening to the phone calls of millions of Americans. http://www.azcentral.com/business/consumer/free/20131120arizona-to-get-in-google-settlement.html Arizona to get $355,000 in Google settlement From staff and wire reports Wed Nov 20, 2013 2:25 PM Arizona will receive $355,000 out of a $17 million settlement between 37 states and tech giant Google over alleged privacy violations by the company. “We are very pleased with the outcome in this case,” said Stephanie Grisham, spokeswoman for Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne. “Arizona will receive $354,936.58 of the $17 million awarded.” Grisham could not say how the money will be allocated. The settlement stems from a technological loophole that allowed the Internet-search leader to snoop on millions of people using Safari Web browsers in 2011 and 2012. The loophole enabled Google’s DoubleClick advertising network to shadow unwitting Safari users, even though the browser’s maker, Apple Inc., prohibited the tracking without obtaining a person’s permission. By following what Safari users were doing online, DoubleClick could gain more insights about what types of ads were most likely to appeal to different Safari users. This is the second time U.S. authorities have cracked down on Google for its secret shadowing of Safari users from June 2011 through mid-February 2012. The Federal Trade Commission fined Google $22.5 million last year. It represented the largest penalty that the FTC had collected for a civil violation. Google Inc. has maintained the Safari intrusion was an inadvertent side effect of an attempt to make it easier for people to recommend ads. The Mountain View, Calif., company disabled the surveillance coding, known as “cookies,” in February 2012 after the violation of Safari’s privacy policies was reported. Until the problem was uncovered by a graduate student at Stanford University, Google had assured Safari users that they wouldn’t be monitored, as long as they didn’t change the browser settings to permit the tracking. Google isn’t acknowledging wrongdoing. That’s the same position Google took when it paid the FTC fine last year. “We work hard to get privacy right at Google and have taken steps to remove the ad cookies, which collected no personal information, from Apple’s browsers,” the company said in a statement Monday. “We’re pleased to have worked with the state attorneys general to reach this agreement.” The settlement will be divided among the participating states and the District of Columbia. Besides Arizona, the states involved are: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin and Washington. The settlement won’t put much of a dent in Google’s finances. Google’s revenue this year is expected to be about $47billion, according to analysts surveyed by FactSet.
Don't these pigs have any real criminals to hunt down???? You know real criminals like robbers and rapists. Not people who commit victimless drug war crimes like smoking or selling a little pot or cocaine!!! Of course if you look at her photo you can probably figure out why she got such a draconian prison sentence for a victimless crime - the woman is Black. http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/free/20131120grandma-who-ran-ny-family-drug-ring-gets-years.html Grandma who ran NY family drug ring gets 15 years Associated Press Wed Nov 20, 2013 10:34 AM BUFFALO, N.Y. — A woman who enlisted generations of family members in a drug-dealing operation she ran for more than a decade was sentenced Tuesday to 15 1/2 years in prison. Theresa Anderson, a grandmother in her 50s, pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine. In U.S. District Court, she choked up as her attorney read a letter she wrote to Judge Richard Arcara in which she described being "consumed by addiction." "I have been using drugs since I was 14 years old," the letter said. "My poor choices were a way for me to finance my own addiction." Prosecutors said Anderson, of Buffalo, oversaw an around-the-clock operation in which crack cocaine was sold from several houses she bought on two streets to ensure a monopoly in the area. She was arrested in February 2012 along with her common-law husband, son, three adult daughters, two of the daughters' boyfriends and a granddaughter. All have since pleaded guilty to drug charges. U.S. Attorney William Hochul said, "This defendant not only destroyed her own family by leading them into a life of illegal narcotics trafficking, she also damaged the neighborhood where the drug trafficking took place." The government has seized more than $50,000 and nine houses used by the organization, Hochul's office said. In sentencing papers, defense attorney Robert Ross Fogg said Anderson was addicted to alcohol, heroin, cocaine, crack, methamphetamine and prescription drugs while running her business. He said drugs and drug contacts became more available each time she participated in drug counseling, and he blamed her addiction for a criminal record dating to 1975. Anderson told the judge she's "not a bad person." "I have a good heart," she wrote in her letter.
The Bill of Rights was flushed down the toilet long before Emperors Bush and Obama!!!! http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/free/20131120reagans-role-nsas-hack-google-yahoo.html Reagan’s role in NSA’s hack of Google and Yahoo Wed Nov 20, 2013 5:19 PM SAN JOSE, Calif. — Back when Yahoo was something hollered at a rodeo and no one could conceive of Googling anything, President Ronald Reagan signed an executive order that extended the power of U.S. intelligence agencies overseas, allowing broader surveillance of non-U.S. suspects. At the time, no one imagined he was granting authority to spy on what became known as Silicon Valley. But recent reports that the National Security Agency secretly broke into communications on Yahoo and Google overseas have technology companies, privacy advocates and even national security proponents calling for a re-examination of Reagan’s order and other intelligence laws. Experts suggest a legislative update is long overdue to clear up what Electronic Frontier Foundation legal director Cindy Cohn calls “lots of big gray areas.” With the cooperation of foreign allies, the NSA is potentially gaining access to every email sent or received abroad, or between people abroad, from Google and Yahoo’s email services, as well as anything in Google Docs, Maps or Voice, according to a series of articles in the Washington Post. It’s impossible to know how many of Google and Yahoo’s collective 1.8 billion accounts are affected, but in a single 30-day period last year, field collectors processed and warehoused more than 180 million new records — ranging from “metadata,” which would indicate who sent or received emails and when, to content such as text, audio and video, the Post reported. The NSA and its British counterpart, the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters, have intercepted and tapped into data funneled by Google and Yahoo through fiber optic cables, routing information in an NSA operation called Muscular, the Post reported. The information was provided to the newspaper by former NSA contract employee Edward Snowden, who is being sought by the U.S. for leaking classified information. “Had the NSA done the same warrantless tapping at Google’s Mountain View, California, headquarters, there’s no doubt they would be violating the law,” said Cohn, whose San Francisco-based non-profit fights for digital freedoms. “They’re doing this abroad because they want that fig leaf of legality.” The NSA, in an online statement, says its collection operations comply with federal laws and orders. Reagan’s 1981 Executive Order 12333 for the first time in a public, written record allowed foreign covert action to be conducted from inside the U.S. The measure, amended several times after 9/11, outlines key rules for more than a dozen intelligence agencies. It spells out when spies are allowed to peek into mail, homes and electronics, identifies who has to approve of specific searches, and details how to carry out clandestine collection of foreign intelligence. “What NSA does is collect the communications of targets of foreign intelligence value, irrespective of the provider that carries them,” the agency said, likening the data channels at private firms to super highways. In other words, the NSA is not targeting information about Google and Yahoo as such, but is conducting surveillance on foreigners using the services these companies provide, said University of Indiana law professor David Fidler. But Fidler says this explanation ignores the fact that the NSA is directly targeting the facilities of U.S. companies, “even if the information ostensibly sought concerned foreign persons.” Even Google’s chairman Eric Schmidt, outraged by the invasion, says he’s not sure it is illegal, telling CNN the operation is “perhaps a violation of law but certainly a violation of mission.” It is unclear exactly how the intrusions were carried out, but Daniel Castro, senior analyst at the Washington nonprofit Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, suspects the surveillance required a computer savvy person either working for the NSA, another government, or a contractor, to physically get inside a network provider’s facilities to tap into the fiber optic network and route a copy of the online traffic into their own network. The set up could be similar to a secret NSA room built into an AT&T building in San Francisco in 2002 and made public by a retired AT&T staffer in 2007. The Post reported that the NSA isn’t breaking into accounts as they sit, stored in data centers, but is able to gather the emails and other communications as they move between them. The NSA says that if they accidentally scoop up extra, non-criminal related information from Americans, there are strict limits about how it can be used. But there’s no guarantee those limits apply if British intelligence agents are doing the rerouting and then turning information over to the NSA, and the Obama Administration will not talk about their methods. Thus the immediate pushback from advocates is a loud call for new laws. “It’s a relatively new phenomenon that the government is sweeping through American communications outside the U.S., so there haven’t been a lot of legal decisions,” said American Civil Liberty Union’s national security project attorney Patrick Toomey. “We think that these revelations show the ways in which the surveillance laws are in desperate need of reform. The location in which surveillance and collection occurs no longer matters.” Those reforms are already underway, spearheaded by the USA FREEDOM Act introduced by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.), chairman of the Crime and Terrorism Subcommittee in the House; the proposed legislation, which is widely supported by the tech industry including Google, seeks to limit the NSA’s surveillance powers both here and abroad. The bill appears to have bipartisan support. But it might not go far enough for Kel McClanahan, executive director of National Security Counselors, which represents clients involved in security or privacy law-related proceedings. McClanahan says in addition to the broad privacy questions, there’s a problem with the NSA actions when it comes to attorney-client privilege. Working with an attorney in the United Kingdom, McClanahan is currently fighting a legal Freedom of Information Act battle with the NSA, seeking documents related to Sharif Mobley, a U.S. citizen charged with terrorism in Yemen. Under current law, says McClanahan, the NSA could ostensibly tap into the private communications between himself and the British attorney he is working with, and read the litigation strategies as he and the British attorney plan them. “From what I can tell, what they’re doing is technically legal because of the lack of any law prohibiting it,” he said. The NSA says it has “minimization procedures” that limit how deeply it can examine communications of U.S. citizens while they’re in the U.S., but it’s unclear whether they extend to foreign attorneys. Earlier reports based on Snowden’s documents revealed the existence of other NSA programs, including the PRISM data-gathering program, which forces major tech firms to turn over the detailed contents of Internet communications, although those required court orders. The difference this time is that the NSA is “tapping into the data centers as a backdoor activity, which made the tech firms extremely unhappy,” said attorney Pat Fowler, who handles data privacy and security cases from his Phoenix, Arizona office. Indeed, several Google engineers who spend their days fighting hackers fired back with furious online responses to their systems being targeted. And it’s quite possible Yahoo and Google weren’t the only ones, said Fowler, noting that Microsoft’s Hotmail, which with Google’s Gmail and Yahoo’s email dominate the email market. “It wouldn’t be a stretch to think they might try to get that data from the other entities,” said Fowler. Attorney Steven Bradbury, who headed of the Justice Department’s office of legal counsel until 2009, used to advise the president and executives on constitutional questions of privacy and security. Today he says public concerns about invasions of privacy are off base because the NSA is not allowed to target U.S. data abroad, and when it gets it, there are tight limits. “Communications that travel over wires overseas are susceptible to interception by all kinds of foreign governments that are active in collecting and doing surveillance,” he said. “The difference is that the NSA and U.S. intelligence agencies are subject to strict rules and oversight. There’s much more protection for U.S. persons than for foreign citizens.” --- Follow Martha Mendoza at https://twitter.com/mendozamartha
Republican Rep. Henry “Trey” Radel pleads guilty to cocaine charge More of the old "Do as I say, not as I do" from our government masters. On the other hand who cares!!!! Personally I think ALL drugs should be legalized including cocaine!!! http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/free/20131120radel-pleads-guilty-cocaine-charge-takes-leave.html Radel pleads guilty to cocaine charge, takes leave Associated Press Wed Nov 20, 2013 8:57 PM CAPE CORAL, Fla. — Florida Republican Rep. Henry “Trey” Radel says he’s taking a leave of absence from Congress and donating his salary to charity after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of cocaine possession and receiving a sentence of a year’s probation. Radel made the announcement late Wednesday at a news conference where he acknowledged that he had let down his country, his family and southwest Florida residents. He said takes responsibility for what he did, saying, quote, “I want to be a better man.”
Personally I think the Green Party sucks, just like the Republicans and Democrats do. But I am 100 percent for them having ballot status. The more arguing and fighting our government masters do at the Arizona State Capital means they will have less time to pass tyrannical laws. And the more 3rd parties they are in the government that means less time for our government masters to terrorize us. http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/20131120green-party-loses-arizona-party-recognition.html Green Party no longer officially recognized in Arizona elections By Brittany Bade The Arizona Republic-12 News Breaking News Team Wed Nov 20, 2013 8:16 PM The Green Party will no longer be recognized in statewide elections due to a lack of registered voters identifying themselves as party members, officials said Wednesday. All state-recognized political parties in Arizona must have at least 21,499 electors, or 5 percent of voters in the last election, to qualify for continued representation on the ballot, said Matt Roberts, an Arizona Secretary of State spokesman. At last count, the Green Party in Arizona had about 5,600 registered voters on its rolls. The party is circulating petitions to help regain official recognition in 2014. To do that, the party must file 23,041 valid signatures with the Secretary of State by Feb. 27. Candidates may continue to identify themselves as a member of the Green Party while campaigning, but their party affiliation will not appear on official ballots. Arizona officially recognizes the Democratic, Republican, Libertarian and Americans Elect parties. Americans Elect also failed to meet the required number of voters signatures, but it continues to be recognized by the state due to its new-party status, Roberts said.
http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/20131120raises-okd-phoenix-pension-execs.html Raises OK’d for pension execs By Craig Harris The Republic | azcentral.com Thu Nov 21, 2013 6:30 AM A divided Public Safety Personnel Retirement System board on Wednesday approved retroactive pay raises, including one of $25,000, to four investment-staff members who help oversee the financially troubled state pension trust. The board also voted to give those employees and one other investment-staff member a guaranteed inflation adjustment Jan. 1, 2014. In combination, the raises will increase one employee’s pay by nearly 27 percent, and another employee’s by roughly 20 percent. Chief Investment Officer Ryan Parham, who received a raise Sept. 20 and is paid $268,000, did not receive another. Jim Hacking, the trust’s administrator, sought the raises for his staff because the board two months ago eliminated a controversial bonus program for the investment team that had rewarded employees even when the trust posted losses in 2008, 2009 and 2012. Hacking also said the investment staff had taken on additional responsibilities. Board members who voted for the raises Wednesday were Brian Tobin, Gregory Ferguson, Jeff Allen McHenry, and William Davis. Those who voted no were Lauren Kingry, Randie Stein and Richard Petrenka. “The trustees for PSPRS try to compensate our investment professionals with a competitive wage in comparison to the marketplace and by rewarding superior performance,” Tobin said in a statement. “I believe this competitive, performance-based compensation model allows us to attract the best and brightest investment professionals to work for PSPRS and motivates these men and women to maximize the fund’s performance returns for both retirees and Arizona taxpayers.” The pay raises still need approval from the Arizona Department of Administration. Brian McNeil, that agency’s director, said his staff would review the recommendations, and he declined to speculate on an outcome. The proposed pay hikes come as the trust has experienced significant financial losses the past few years, requiring larger contributions from government entities. The high cost of paying pension liabilities has prevented some cities from hiring new police officers and firefighters. The Legislature during the past few years suspended cost-of-living raises for all state retirees paid from the public-safety trust because it was so underfunded. Rich Edwards, a retired Arizona Department of Public Safety officer who now is a Glendale police officer, called the board’s actions “ridiculous and crazy.” He said it was surprising the board would grant the raises when retirees had their pensions frozen. Hacking, who has a base pay of $234,000 and did not seek a raise, told the board the six-member investment staff had taken on additional duties after the resignations earlier this year of three other investment employees who will not be replaced. Those employees quit in protest following disputes with Hacking over whether trust management inflated the values of real-estate holdings. Hacking provided the board with records showing the departures of those employees will save the system $363,300. The raises approved Wednesday will cost $81,696. By Jan. 1, Deputy Chief Investment Officer Marty Anderson’s compensation will increase nearly 12.8 percent to $207,061; Chief of Staff/Lead Portfolio Manager Mark Steed’s pay will increase nearly 27 percent to $128,751; Senior Portfolio Manager Shan Chen’s pay will increase about 19 percent to $136,990; and investment operations analyst Vaida Maleckaite will see a nearly 7.6 percent raise to $83,903. Deputy Chief Investment Officer-Risk Mark Lundin, who has been at the trust less than one year, will see a salary hike of 1.7 percent to $172,890.
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/11/19/the-winners-and-losers-of-marijuana-legalization.aspx The Winners and Losers of Marijuana Legalization By Aaron Sankin November 19, 2013 After toiling for decades in relative obscurity, the fight to legalize marijuana for recreational use in the United States is finally having its moment in the sun. For the first time ever, a recent Gallup poll found a solid majority of Americans in favor of legalizing the drug—a 10-point swing from 2012. The Department of Justice recently said it won't interfere with Colorado and Washington , states whose citizens voted to legalize pot last year. Earlier this month, the city of Portland, Maine, as well as a trio of Michigan municipalities, followed suit and voted to permit recreational pot use. Four decades after President Nixon declared the War on Drugs, the government's battle against marijuana may be beginning to subside. If the trend continues, it presents a massive business opportunity for people looking to get into the weed business without worrying about pesky drawbacks like getting arrested. Legal marijuana, already a $1.4 billion industry, is one of the most rapidly expanding markets in the United States. A recent study by Arcview Market Research predicted the industry has the potential to reach over $10 billion within five years and experience growth outpacing that of smartphones. Conversely, as with any major economic change, this growing acceptance—and possible full-scale legalization—has the potential to disrupt a whole host of long-standing industries. Here then is a guide to the winners and losers in the wild world of pot legalization: Winners Marijuana sellers [If pot is legalized, a pound of pot shouldn't cost any more then a pound of potatoes. And of course all the big profits of selling illegal marijuana will no longer exists. Yea, I am sure a few connoisseurs of marijuana will be willing to pay $20 or $30 a pound for high grade pot, but most of us will use the cheep stuff that sells for a $1 or $2 a pound at Fry's and Safeway's] The most obvious profit center arising from the legalization of marijuana is the cultivation and sale of the product to consumers. Since pot is currently outlawed at the federal level, it's difficult for economists to pin an exact figure on the size of the black market. However, Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron has estimated the overall size of the marijuana economy, which includes both illicit sales and legal ones made in the 21 states (including Washington, D.C.) that allow medical marijuana, at around $20 billion per year with the majority share going into the black market. A 2006 study out of George Mason University put annual domestic cultivation at somewhere in the neighborhood of 22 million pounds. Shifting that demand into the legal market presents an enormous opportunity—one that many people are already taking advantage of. While Colorado voters approved a marijuana legalization initiative last year, the ban on recreational pot sales won't officially be lifted until the beginning of next year. The state has seen a rush of activity among ganjapreneurs filing for the requisite permits to register their operations. Colorado officials expect to see over 100 legal pot shops open their doors on Jan. 1, 2014. As the law stands, doing the actual growing and distribution has both pros and cons. ‟The fastest opportunity for profitability in some states centers on wholesale cultivation, whereas in other states vertically integrated cultivation and dispensary operations take the lead," notes the Arcview report. ‟However, these businesses often have the most restrictions on investors and carry the greatest risk of federal enforcement actions." Ancillary businesses Outside of growth and sale of the actual plant, the marijuana industry comprises a range of related products and services designed to assist consumers with everything from procuring weed to putting it in their bodies. For a long time, these ancillary businesses have been relegated to dark corners of the counterculture. The increasing legal acceptance of marijuana has the potential to broaden the demographics of those who regularly ingest the drug while simultaneously creating a more mature consumer market where users can be more discriminating in their choices. One of the companies cashing in on this shift is Medbox (NASDAQOTH: MDBX ) , a firm that builds automated weed vending machines. Medbox, which was recently the subject of a bruising investigation by the Southern Investigative Reporting Foundation , saw its stock skyrocket from under $3 to nearly $100 following the marijuana-legalizing votes in Washington and Colorado. The price has since settled to around $20 per share. Other businesses include the dispensary finder and strain review site Leafly, and the handheld vaporizer the Pax Ploom. The latter is explicitly designed for tobacco use only, but it has managed to gather a sizable following among pot smokers. A review in Death and Taxes magazine recommended it as an ideal accoutrement "for the executive stoner." Wellness products Over the course of the past 40 years of drug prohibition, black market growers have been under pressure to breed their products to become more and more potent. Stronger pot allows people to smoke less of it to achieve the same high. Therefore, suppliers need less space to transport the same monetary value of product. Operating under a prohibition, space is often at a premium because smaller physical loads make it easier to sneak packages past law enforcement undetected. The downside of this THC ‟arms race" is that consumers who want marijuana products for reasons other than getting baked out of their skulls have been largely left in the dust. As regulations loosen, there's likely to be a corresponding increase in demand for non-psychotropic marijuana-based products targeted at a much different demographic than the stereotypical young, male pothead. Take, for example, Seattle-based cosmetics company Cannabis Basics, which offers a line of skincare and beauty products. While the lip balms and body lotions sold by Cannabis Basics have virtually nothing to do with getting high, they can only be obtained through licensed clinics in states with approved medical marijuana. Products like these, ones that take advantage of marijuana's non-intoxicating aspects, are likely to expand into wider use if prohibitions are repealed. Government coffers Drug prohibition is expensive. Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron told The Huffington Post that it's costing the U.S. government nearly $20 billion a year to keep marijuana illegal. To put that figure in perspective, NASA's budget for 2014 is $16.6 billion. About half of that expenditure comes from direct government spending on law enforcement, but the rest is the result of lost tax revenue. In November, Colorado voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure imposing a 25% sales and excise tax on all marijuana legally sold in the state. The Colorado vote showed the electorate's willingness to tax marijuana at the same time it resoundingly rejected a measure that would have hiked the state's income tax—indicating that levying sin taxes on legalized pot may prove a broadly acceptable solution for increasing government revenue. The tax rate on marijuana imposed by Colorado may seem steep, but it could serve as a model for the rest of the country. A RAND Corporation study surmised that widespread legalization would result in an 80% drop in pot prices . As long as taxes don't push the cost of legal weed significantly over black market prices, there's little chance high taxes would push consumers into illicit channels. Weed tourism "As some states are legalizing marijuana and others there not, I think a lot of people are going to be surprised by the growth of the marijuana tourism industry," explained Betty Aldworth of the National Cannabis Industry Association. Denver-based My420Tours offers tours of the Mile High City that founder Matt Brown likens to wine tasting tours of Northern California's Napa Valley, except for pot. Losers Private prisons & drug treatment centers [Private businesses that operate private prisons for the government love the "War on Drugs". It's nothing but a government welfare program for them!!!] The prison-industrial complex is an approximately $3 billion per year industry that houses about one out of every 10 inmates in the country. The biggest private prison firm, Corrections Corporation of America (NYSE: CXW ) , earned $1.7 billion last year. CCA's business is largely dependent on the number of people the government feels the need to lock up. ‟The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices, or through the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by our criminal laws," the company outlined in its 2010 annual report. ‟For instance, any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances...could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them." Even so, the vast majority of the three-quarters of a million people arrested each year for marijuana possession never actually serve time in prison. Most are issued fines or put into some form of community supervision. Often that supervision comes in the form of drug treatment programs, which could also lose out if many of those court-ordered diversions evaporate due to fewer convictions. Brewers & distilleries Christian Groh and Brendan Kennedy of Privateer Holdings, a private equity firm operating exclusively within the marijuana industry, explain that legalization has the potential to do greater harm to companies selling certain already-legal drugs than others. ‟We've found that people don't substitute marijuana for cigarettes, but they do often substitute it for alcohol," explained Groh. He noted that one of the ideas that sparked the creation of Privateer Holdings in the first place was as a means to attract investment from alcohol companies looking to hedge against any possible losses from increased pot consumption. Since marijuana is still prohibited at the federal level, large corporate and financial players have stayed out of making direct investments in the pot field. However, alcohol producers could still easily make those investments if marijuana were to be made legal. This potential avenue for investment may be why direct opposition on this front has been less than some have expected. "We're not actually seeing the kind of resistance against legalization that many people assume coming from alcohol and pharmaceutical companies," explained Aldworth. Law enforcement [This seems to confirm my statements where I have said that the "War on Drugs" is nothing but a government welfare program for law enforcement agencies and a government jobs program for cops.] In an interview with ABC News last year, the executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, the largest police union in the nation, said that, ‟the law enforcement community is universally consistent in its opposition to legalizing pot, in the interest of public safety and public health." While, as reason.com points out, there are some notable exceptions to that rule, law enforcement has been just about the largest single group fighting drug legalization in any of its forms. This opposition is at least partially due to the drug war being a major funding source for local police departments across the country. One way this occurs is through asset forfeiture , where law enforcement officials confiscate and then sell items—such as automobiles—connected to drug crimes. According to the General Accounting Office, the Department of Justice gave almost a billion dollars raised through asset forfeiture to local police departments in 2011. Critics argue this revenue-generation mechanism leads police departments to prioritize drug arrests over the investigation of other crimes; however, agencies also use the money to increase staffing and purchase new equipment that makes the communities they serve safer. Medical marijuana dispensaries In many cases, some of the most vocal opponents of full-scale legalization are the operators of medical marijuana dispensaries. The rationale behind this opposition isn't only that recreational legalization would depress prices and eat into medical dispensaries' market share. Medical marijuana dispensaries are, by definition, places where people go to get medicine. By legalizing pot and then slapping a large sin tax on it, the sense of marijuana as legitimate medicinal product that dispensary owners have worked for years to build, could evaporate. Politico reports that earlier this year, Medical Marijuana Caregivers of Maine joined a coalition to oppose a bill legalizing the possession of small quantities of marijuana for recreational use in the state. --- At this point, picking winners and losers is an act of speculation. No market as large as the United States has ever experimented with full-scale drug legalization, so there's no telling what the ultimate effects will be. When the United States ratified the 21st Amendment in 1933 ending alcohol prohibition, voters and legislators had some idea of what lay ahed, but they had no way of seeing the wave of boozy innovation—some of it positive, some of it decidedly less so—that would wash over the country in the ensuing decades. If local, state, and federal governments decide to do something similar with marijuana, seeing precisely what businesses and regulators do with it may end up being the most exciting part of the whole endeavor. SNIP (Other stuff unrelated to marijuana was removed)
Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomer sounds like one cruel, sadist, government bureaucrat who will do anything to keep his war on marijuana users going. http://eastvalleytribune.com/arizona/capitol_media_services/article_fa82dedc-5136-11e3-a0fc-0019bb2963f4.html Mesa boy's access to marijuana extract faces new challenge Posted: Tuesday, November 19, 2013 9:15 am | Updated: 5:49 pm, Tue Nov 19, 2013. By Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services PHOENIX — Maricopa County's chief prosecutor is asking a judge to throw out a bid by the parents of a 5-year-old Mesa boy who suffers from seizures to be able to get an extract of marijuana from dispensaries. County Attorney Bill Montgomery is not disputing whether or not Zander Welton needs the drug. His parents have received the proper recommendation from a doctor to sign him up as a patient under the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act. But Montgomery said Monday that those who crafted the statute legalized only marijuana for patients, which means the plant. He said any extract falls under a separate definition of the state's criminal code, a section that was not altered by the voter-approved law. Montgomery said if Jacob and Jennifer Welton think the extract works better, they should take their case to the Legislature, which can alter the law with a three-fourths vote of both the House and Senate and concurrence of the governor. Attorney Dan Pochoda of the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the family, said Montgomery is legally off base. He said it's unnecessary to seek legislative intervention because the ACLU believes the law does allow for the sale and use of marijuana extracts — and that a judge will side with the family. The 2010 law clearly allows those with a doctor's recommendation to obtain marijuana, and it specifically permits the drug to be used in food products rather than being smoked. But the initiative never legalized “cannabis,” which is described as the extract of the plant. So Montgomery has advised police departments which monitor state-regulated dispensaries that his office might prosecute those who sell products which contain only extract and no plants. The result, according to the ACLU, is the family can no longer obtain the extract Zander needs. Zander's parents say that extract is not only more palatable than grinding up the dried plant and putting it in applesauce but also contains only the chemicals he needs and not those in the whole plant that get him “high.” The ACLU wants Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper to essentially block Montgomery and others, including the state health department, from doing anything that precludes Zander from getting the extract. But the court fight will also affect in what form the approximately 40,000 other medical marijuana patients can obtain their drugs. Montgomery said there's no basis for a lawsuit. “All I've done so far is just provide guidance to a law enforcement agency” of how his office reads the law and what action it might take if police refer a case to his lawyers, he said. At this point, Montgomery said, there is no case. “I've received nothing to review ... and so there's no guarantee there would be a prosecution,” he said. “It's entirely a hypothetical.” Montgomery acknowledged that dispensary owners have reacted to his advice to police by pulling the extracts off their shelves, but he said that's their decision, not his. He said if the family wants access to extracts they should ask lawmakers to tweak the voter-approved law to legalize cannabis as well as marijuana for patients, correcting what he said was apparently an oversight when the initiative was drafted. Pochoda questioned the practicality of getting a three-fourths vote from the Legislature, but he said it isn't necessary. “The normal thing is not going to the Legislature when some prosecutor is improperly, and, in our view, illegally interpreting a law that clearly decriminalized not only marijuana but things made from marijuana,” Pochoda said. Morgan Fox of the Marijuana Policy Project which crafted the 2010 initiative also contends Montgomery is misinterpreting the law. He said the statute allows use of any “preparation” of the drug, which he said includes extracts. Montgomery said it very well may be that those who drafted the law intended to include food products which contain no marijuana leaves but only an extract. But he said his role is to enforce the law as written, not to interpret what those who crafted it meant in the first place. No date has been set for a hearing.
What the article doesn't mention is that all the crimes this guy was arrested for were victimless crimes that didn't hurt anybody!!! http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-gage-park-machine-gun-drugs-20131119,0,7655020.story Police seize WWII-era submachine gun during drug arrest By Peter Nickeas Tribune reporter 7:29 a.m. CST, November 20, 2013 Police seized a World War II- era machine gun, a .38-caliber special revolver and 400 small bags of marijuana and heroin after watching a man sell drugs in Gage Park on the South Side, according to police. Emmanuel Williams was allegedly dealing drugs out of a vacant apartment on 58th Street, between Artesian and Western avenues, less than a block from his home. Williams was arrested Monday night after officers watched him sell drugs to three people, according to a police report. Williams retrieved the drugs from under a garbage can, where he hid the revolver, the report said. Fifteen bags of heroin and nine bags of marijuana were found under the garbage can, according to police report, along with the revolver. Police had seen Williams enter and leave an apartment, which they searched and found “empty of furniture” and “vacant” except for a Sten MKV submachine gun, 156 bags of heroin in 12 bundles of 13 bags each and 260 small bags of marijuana tied together in 21 bundles. Neither of the weapons were registered, according to police. He was charged with three counts of armed violence, manufacturing or delivering heroin and cannabis near public schools, possessing between 30 and 500 grams of cannabis and more than 15 grams of heroin and three counts of unlawful use of a weapon, according to court records. Williams' bail was set at $500,000 on Tuesday, according to Cook County court records. pnickeas@tribune.com | Twitter: @PeterNickeas
Google gets a $17 million fine for violating our 4th Amendment rights, the NSA doesn't even get a slap on the wrist!!! http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-nsa-surveillance-20131120,0,2797352.story#axzz2lCF9XVaK New documents detail NSA privacy violations By Ken Dilanian November 19, 2013, 5:37 p.m. WASHINGTON— The National Security Agency acknowledged that it repeatedly violated its own privacy guidelines in a now-defunct program to collect "to and from" data in American email, according to newly released documents that paint a picture of incompetence but offer no evidence that the agency intentionally misused its surveillance powers. A judge on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, John D. Bates, said in an opinion whose date was redacted that there had been "systemic over collection" in the email program and that "those responsible for conducting oversight at the NSA had failed to do so effectively." The documents, released by the director of national intelligence in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by civil liberties groups, offer new details about that and other surveillance programs previously revealed through leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The latest disclosures come as some members of Congress are pushing to rein in the NSA. On Thursday, the spy agency's top civilian is to testify before a Senate committee that is considering a bill to strip it of its authority to collect American phone records, which it says it needs to detect domestic terrorist plots. On Monday, three Somali immigrants — an imam, a cabdriver and an employee of a money-transmitting business — were sentenced to federal prison in San Diego for sending money to a terrorist group in their homeland. It is the only prosecution the government has said resulted exclusively from its collection of American telephone records beginning in late 2001. The new documents, including once-secret court opinions and disclosures to congressional committees, show that the NSA was under strict judicial supervision when collecting information connected to Americans. But they also make clear that the agency repeatedly failed to comply with its guidelines. The heavily redacted Bates opinion doesn't detail the violations but suggests that the NSA was collecting "to and from" information on email accounts well beyond those that analysts had a "reasonable suspicion" were connected to terrorists. The agency also allowed information about Americans to be viewed by intelligence officials who were not authorized to see it. The government said in a document submitted to the court that its violations were caused by "poor management, lack of involvement by compliance officials and lack of internal verification procedures, not by bad faith." Despite his criticisms, Bates allowed the program — which did not collect the content of emails — to continue. The effort was abandoned in 2011, U.S. intelligence officials have said, because it wasn't yielding valuable counter-terrorism intelligence. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has said the program was a wasteful intrusion on Americans' privacy. In the original legal opinion that authorized the program, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said Americans did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy for their email and telephone metadata — information that shows who they are in contact with but not the content of their communications. Intelligence officials have compared metadata to the address written on the outside of a mailed envelope. The judge acknowledged, though, that she was validating a novel interpretation of a law that allows authorities to use pen registers, also known as trap-and-trace devices, to record numbers called and received by suspects. "The court recognizes that … it is finding that these definitions encompass an exceptionally broad form of collection," Kollar-Kotelly wrote in an opinion whose date has been redacted. In a statement, James R. Clapper, the director of national intelligence, said the new releases were consistent with President Obama's instructions to "make public as much information as possible about certain sensitive programs while being mindful of the need to protect sensitive classified intelligence activities and national security." "Release of these documents reflects the executive branch's continued commitment to making information about this intelligence-collection program publicly available when appropriate and consistent with the national security of the United States," he said. ken.dilanian@latimes.com
The government shook down Google for $17 million for violating our privacy rights!!! Of course don't expect the government to shake down the NSA for illegally reading our emails, monitoring our text messages and tapping our phones. Hell, don't even expect the tyrants that run the NSA to be even be charged with a crime for all the crimes they committed violating our privacy and our 4th and 5th Amendment rights! http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/18/5119054/google-agrees-to-pay-states-17-million-in-privacy-settlement Google agrees to pay states $17 million in browser privacy settlement By Chris Welch on November 18, 2013 03:33 pm Google has entered into a $17 million settlement with 37 states and the District of Columbia after the company was found to circumvent privacy settings in Apple's Safari browser. Between 2011 and 2012, Google secretly stored web tracking cookies in Safari, overriding Apple's default settings that forbid third-party cookies from being installed. "By tracking millions of people without their knowledge, Google violated not only their privacy, but also their trust," New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement. His state will receive $899,580 of the settlement money. Last year, Google agreed to pay another settlement of $22.5 million in response to similar complaints from the FTC. Users have also tried unsuccessfully to sue the company directly over the privacy blunder; a judge dismissed their class action lawsuit last month. For its part, Google has always maintained that the cookie incident was a mistake, one that the company quickly corrected after it was publicized. "We work hard to get privacy right at Google and have taken steps to remove the ad cookies, which collected no personal information, from Apple’s browsers,” the company said in its statement. Google's FTC settlement terms allow the company to avoid admitting any wrongdoing.
Police union officials will say anything to make cops look like heroes who deserve raises??? http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/free/20131119pension-argument-is-ridiculous.html Pension argument is ridiculous Tue Nov 19, 2013 6:50 PM Regarding “Economic crashes are real causes of pension woes” (Opinions, Monday): Let’s see if I have this right. The two cop union bosses who wrote the Our Turn article blame corporate greed for all their pension problems, saying that in 2000, before markets re-adjusted, everything was just great. Once again, it’s those nasty companies who issue stock that pension funds purchase that are the problem. But wait a minute. Didn’t they just say everything was great in 2000? And wasn’t that because their pension plans owned the overvalued stock of those nasty companies? The cops want it both ways, and I guess that they think markets only go up. They want to blame capitalism for their problems while at the same time using an example of the fruits of capitalism to make their case that their out-of-whack-with-reality retirement payouts no longer make sense and were eliminated years ago in the private sector. Do they just not realize how ridiculous an argument they just made? — Howard Brodbeck, Goodyear
Isn't the Attorney General the guy the government claims is there to protect our rights. Like our First Amendment right to free speech!!! But don't count on Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne to protect your rights. In this article it seems like he wants to flush the First Amendment down the toilet!!! Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne is also one of the government tyrants who has been trying to flush the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act down the toilet!!! For Tom Horne it's more important to jail pot smokers then it is to hunt down and jail real criminals that hurt people like robbers and burglars!!! http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/20131119horne-sues-group-running-negative-ads-against-him.html Attorney General Horne sues group running negative ads against him By Alia Beard Rau and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez The Republic | azcentral.com Tue Nov 19, 2013 9:46 PM Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne is suing a group that has been running negative TV, print and Internet ads against him. The Arizona Public Integrity Alliance launched a “statewide public education effort” this month to highlight what it calls “unethical behavior” by Horne, who is running for re-election next year. He is being challenged in the Republican primary. The advertising mentions allegations of campaign-finance-law violations, allegations of an affair with an employee and his role in a parking garage hit-and-run for which he paid a $300 fine. The ads began airing about a month after Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk ordered Horne to return nearly $400,000 to an independent expenditure committee that Polk determined illegally coordinated efforts with Horne during the 2010 election. Horne is refusing to pay the money, saying he did not illegally coordinate with the committee. He plans to fight Polk’s order. Horne, in his lawsuit against the Arizona Public Integrity Alliance, alleges defamation, saying the organization in its advertising stated that “now Tom Horne is under an FBI investigation.” After Horne contacted the group, the ad was changed to say that Horne “was under an FBI investigation,” according to the suit. Manuel Johnson, an FBI spokesman in Phoenix, confirmed to The Arizona Republic on Tuesday that the FBI’s campaign-finance investigation had concluded. “Defendants knew the statement was false when they published it,” Horne’s lawsuit says. “They made the false statements intentionally to deceive the public as part of a strategy to illegitimately undermine Mr. Horne’s public standing before the 2014 election.” Horne is requesting a jury trial and is seeking punitive damages “in an amount sufficient to discourage similar conduct by defendants and others similarly situated in the future.” Horne has also filed a complaint against the group with the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office. A spokesman for Secretary of State Ken Bennett said late Tuesday that the office would not release a copy of Horne’s complaint because requests for public information take time to process. Sandra Slaton, Horne’s attorney, would not comment on his complaint nor provide a copy of it to The Republic. “If the secretary of state isn’t releasing it to you, it’s not my place to give you information on it,” she said. “I really don’t want to comment on anything to do with the secretary of state.” Kory Langhofer, the attorney representing Arizona Public Integrity Alliance, declined to comment.
Let's see 10 tons of pot, that's 22,000 pounds of pot, or 352,000 ounces. Gee that's enough pot to give 140,800 medical marijuana patients their legal 2.5 ounce supply of pot!!! Wonder where all those medical marijuana patients came from. Last time I checked there was only about 40,000 medical marijuana patients in Arizona!!! http://www.azcentral.com/news/arizona/free/20131119arizona-marijuana-seizure-border-record.html 10 tons of marijuana seized at Ariz. border, officials say Associated Press Tue Nov 19, 2013 4:58 PM NOGALES, Ariz. — In a record-breaking bust for Arizona, authorities seized more than 20,000 pounds of marijuana hidden in a truckload of squash as the driver tried to cross into the U.S. from Mexico, federal officials said Tuesday. The tractor-trailer was passing through the Port of Nogales' Mariposa commercial facility last week when U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers pulled over the truck for further inspection. As the shipment was being checked, a CPB dog alerted to the presence of marijuana, authorities said. Upon closer inspection, officers uncovered 881 bundles of marijuana weighing 20,375 pounds and valued at more than $10 million, CBP said in a statement. The Nov. 13 seizure surpasses Arizona's previous record of 14,121 pounds of marijuana worth roughly $7.1 million found on Jan. 15. The busy Nogales crossing point is used by commercial traffic, including trucks hauling Mexican produce into the United States. The truck's driver, Pedro Corona-Moreno, 32, of Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, was arrested and turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations. "Our continued success is a direct reflection of the caliber of officers serving at our ports," said Roderick Blanchard, director of field operations for CBP's Tucson field office. "Their dedication and commitment is unmatched."
Looks like gun grabbing, socialist Kyrsten Sinema is afraid she may be booted out of office!!! Kyrsten Sinema is also the government tyrant that tried to slap a 300 percent tax on medical marijuana when she was an elected official in Arizona. http://www.azcentral.com/insiders/robertrobb/2013/11/19/keep-your-plan-exposes-obamacare/ Reach Robert Robb at robert.robb@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8472. Posted on November 19, 2013 4:12 pm by Robert Robb “Keep Your Plan” exposes Obamacare The vote on the “Keep Your Health Plan Act” has been analyzed almost entirely in political terms. Obamacare is in trouble and House Republicans are rubbing it in. Vulnerable Democrats, including Arizona’s Ron Barber and Kyrsten Sinema, voted for it for political cover. This is a big political moment and undoubtedly political considerations played large. But there is more to this amendment, sponsored by Republican Rep. Fred Upton, than just the politics. It exposes the philosophical and economic underpinnings of Obamacare that were largely lost in the initial debate. And it points the way to a potential fix. Obamacare was more than just getting health insurance for those who didn’t have it. It was also the federal government deciding what kind of health insurance every American should have. And using the latter to help finance the former. Under Obamacare, every insurance policy has to cover certain federally-determined essential benefits at no additional out-of-pocket cost to the insured. There also can be no caps on what the policy pays in lifetime and annual benefits. Most policies offered in the individual market do not comply with these Obamacare requirements. The act had a grandfather clause, but only for policies in place and unchanged since 2010. Few qualify. As non-conforming plans were cancelled, the mendacity of President Obama’s vow that if you like your health plan you can keep it became obvious, unleashing a political storm. Obama has said that he will wave his magical wand that vaporizes laws he finds inconvenient and allow insurance companies to continue non-conforming polices for another year. The Upton amendment says that they can also sell such policies to new customers. This raises a philosophical question: Why shouldn’t Americans be free to purchase the kind of health insurance they prefer? Why should they be limited to the health insurance the federal government wants them to buy? Given the presumption in favor of liberty in this country, this is a hard question for the Obama administration to answer. The answer that it is to prevent dumb and gullible Americans from buying substandard policies is insulting. It is also not the entire reason, by a long shot. A policy that does not include, for example, maternity benefits, is not substandard for a single male or a couple past child-bearing age. Obamacare, however, requires everyone to purchase such coverage to subside it for those who do need it. There are some subsidies in Obamacare that are transparent. Those that are hidden are even bigger. The transparent subsidies are funded out of tax dollars. The larger ones are hidden in premiums. In any system of universal coverage, the health care of the acutely or chronically sick has to be subsidized beyond what would occur naturally through private insurance. If the subsidy is provided through taxes, the burden falls disproportionately on the affluent. If the subsidy occurs through premiums, it falls disproportionately on the young and healthy. The former is fairer. The Upton amendment is for only a year. But let’s assume its liberty presumption, that Americans should be free to purchase whatever health insurance they want, were to become the new foundation. Not every young and healthy person would find better deals in the private insurance market. After the transparent subsidies available for conforming plans in the exchanges, some would get more for their money there. But certainly many young professionals would find non-conforming plans a better fit for their needs and budget. Not forcing these young professionals into the Obamacare exchanges would make exchange plans riskier and more expensive. The subsidization, however, would be primarily through taxes rather than premiums. Rather than forcing everyone to buy an Obamacare policy, the federal government would instead become the insurer of last resort. The Obamacare exchanges would become essentially Medicaid for the middle class. There are far better and less expensive ways for the federal government to be the insurer of last resort. But at least it’s an appropriate role, as opposed to telling all Americans what kind of health insurance they have to buy.
I wonder how these government bureaucrats in our schools ever find time to teach the kids anything. If this had happened in Arizona, the kid could have been slapped with felony charges of possession of fake illegal drugs. Yes, there really is a silly law on the books like that in Arizona. http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/free/20131119georgia-boy-sniffing-crushed-candy.html Boy suspended for sniffing crushed candy WXIA Tue Nov 19, 2013 9:34 AM COVINGTON, Ga. - A third-grader was suspended after his teacher caught with sniffing crushed Smarties candies, according to video from WXIA. Demitri Santiago, 9, told his mother he sniffed the candy after observing a girl doing it in class. "He'd watched her crush it up and inhale it," Chelsi Lewis tells WXIA. "I said, 'What made you so curious about it?' And he said her reaction was like, Wooo!' " The boy was suspended for two days for possession of banned objects. Lewis tells WXIA that she hopes the case makes other parents aware of the trend, adding that "anything going up the nose" could be dangerous.
Florida congressman charged with cocaine possession More of the old "Do as I say, not as I do" from our government masters. Sadly these government crooks will never see the inside of a prison cell like use normal folks do when we commit the victimless crime of drug use. While I hate these government crooks, the real solution is to legalize ALL drugs. http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/free/20131119florida-congressman-charged-cocaine-possession.html Florida congressman charged with cocaine possession Associated Press Tue Nov 19, 2013 5:29 PM WASHINGTON — Florida congressman Henry “Trey” Radel has been charged with cocaine possession and faces arraignment Wednesday in Washington, officials said. In a statement expressing regret, the 37-year-old Republican freshman lawmaker said Tuesday he struggles with alcoholism and intends to seek treatment and counseling. Authorities allege that Radel possessed cocaine on Oct. 29. The circumstances of the alleged possession were not immediately known. He was scheduled to appear Wednesday morning in District of Columbia Superior Court. “In facing this charge, I realize the disappointment my family, friends and constituents must feel. Believe me, I am disappointed in myself, and I stand ready to face the consequences of my actions,” Radel said in a statement. “However, this unfortunate event does have a positive side. It offers me an opportunity to seek treatment and counseling,” his statement said. “I know I have a problem and will do whatever is necessary to overcome it, hopefully setting an example for others struggling with this disease.” The cocaine possession charge, a misdemeanor, carries a statutory maximum of 6 months in prison and a fine of $1,000. Radel, 37, was elected in 2012 to represent the 19th District of Florida, which includes the Gulf Coast communities of Fort Myers and Naples. He was a radio host before becoming a congressman.
Sadly at CPS you really are assumed to be guilty until you prove your innocence. And sadly the folks at CPS seem to be more concerned with making up work for themselves then they are concerned with protecting the children. As H. L. Mencken said: "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." http://www.azcentral.com/insiders/laurieroberts/2013/11/19/parents-to-cps-why-cant-we-have-our-kids-back/ Laurie is a metro news columnist for The Arizona Republic. Posted on November 19, 2013 5:28 pm by Laurie Roberts Parents to CPS: why can’t we have our kids back? Jessyca Peterson had been feeling dizzy all morning when she called her husband. She was there alone with their three children and needed help. Bradon Peterson immediately called 911. Eight months later, the Chandler couple is still trying to get their children back as a result of that call for help. Still trying to convince Child Protective Services that she’s not an unfit parent or a drug addict and that their children weren’t, as CPS puts it, “caged”. Still waiting for their day in court to counter CPS’s claims before a judge. Unfortunately, that day that won’t come until February, nearly a year after they lost their children. “We’ve missed eight months. We’ve missed Easter and their birthdays,” Jessyca told me. “We won’t get that back.” CPS officials declined to comment, citing state confidentiality laws. Never mind that those same laws allow the agency to “confirm, clarify or correct” information. When I showed up recently to an open court pre-trial hearing on the case, the agency asked that it be closed to the public – prompting me to wonder just who it is that needs all this confidentiality. Jessyca awakened on March 20 feeling “out of it” and dizzy and by early afternoon called her husband. Knowing that paramedics were on their way, she says she put her two-year-old daughters in their room, closing the baby gate on the doorway. She crashed after paramedics arrived and records show they treated her as if she’d had a drug overdose. Turns out she was hypoglycemic, having not eaten that day. The drugs in her system had been prescribed by her doctor to treat her Fibromyalgia. CPS arrived later that night, called by the hospital after paramedics expressed concern that the house was “filthy”, the girls were confined and a large amount of painkillers were observed in the home. Two days later, CPS took the children. “There are concerns that Jessyca’s (sic) is taking high levels of Opiates and suffers from Fibromyalgia,” CPS wrote. “Mother was left alone with the children with no caregiver to watch the children. There are concerns that the children are at risk of abuse or neglect at this time. Children were locked in their room, unable to leave the room.” The children – a 7–year-old boy and the twin girls – were split into two foster homes. A judge granted the state temporary custody after CPS told them the girls were “caged” by their mother and that there were “no identified family members willing or able to care for the children.” Never mind the parents’ explanation to CPS that the gate was used only sparingly, to keep the girls safe. Or the grandfather’s plea that the children be placed with him. Never mind the letter from Jessyca’s doctor, explaining that her medication is monitored, that she hadn’t overdosed and that she is “fully capable of taking care of her children.” “Jessyca has never given me any reason to suspect child neglect or inability to care for her children,” wrote Dr. Kathryn Donesa-Zuzak. Bradon and Jessyca say they’ve done everything CPS has asked to get their kids back. First, it was parenting classes, which they finished in April. Then, it was psychiatric evaluations, completed by June. Records show the doctor found no mental illness and in fact “strongly” recommended that the oldest child be sent home, the “sooner the better”. The boy has been in counseling for depression since May. Meanwhile, the girls, who have developmental delays, were supposed to start preschool and speech therapy in May when they turned three. Those plans were scuttled when CPS took the children. CPS has a tough job. Too many calls for too few workers and people like me ready to pounce when they mess up and a child dies. But I’ve also seen cases in which CPS gets its bureaucratic back up when workers don’t like a parent. Had I been able to talk to CPS officials about this case, I would have asked them why the Peterson children can’t go home. If they have proof that Jessyca is too ill to parent, why not the children’s father? Or their grandfather? And why must their twice-weekly visits with their children be supervised? “I’ve never once done anything to my kids,” Jessyca told me. “My kids beg to come home every visit. They were happy and now my kids aren’t. It takes work to get them to laugh now. (The boy) has gone from a very happy, proud confident child to now he is in counseling for depression.” If I were able to talk to CPS officials, I’d tell them I know that they think they’re helping the Peterson children. And I’d ask them, are you succeeding? (Column published Nov. 20, 2013, The Arizona Republic.)
http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/20131119former-arizona-medical-board-employees-file-legal-claims.html Former Arizona Medical Board employees file legal claims By Yvonne Wingett Sanchez The Republic | azcentral.com Tue Nov 19, 2013 9:50 PM Five former employees of the Arizona Medical Board filed legal claims on Tuesday, accusing their former supervisors and the board of wrongful termination, improper interference with their employment and unpleasant working conditions after they raised questions about inadequate and potentially illegal procedures used to license doctors. The claims follow an October report from the Arizona Ombudsman-Citizens’ Aide that found the board’s former director, Lisa Wynn, and a former deputy director, Amanda Diehl, violated more than 20 state laws and rules in an attempt to streamline the board’s licensing process. David Lunn, the former employees’ attorney, said the claims are legally sufficient even though many of the terminations took place outside of the typical 180-day time frame. That report triggered the claims because it substantiated many of the former employees’ allegations. While the staffers were fired or resigned in 2011 and 2012, he believes the report opens the door for the claims. Wynn, who was fired after the report’s release, has denied wrongdoing. She has said state officials and board members sanctioned her efforts to sidestep outdated rules in order to accelerate the licensing of physicians while protecting public safety. Wynn has also said no employees told her they were concerned with licensing procedures. Officials with the Arizona Medical Board, which licenses and regulates doctors, would not comment because the claims centered on legal and personnel matters. Attorneys are reviewing the claims. Wynn’s attorney, Tim Nelson, declined comment about the claims because he had not seen them. The Arizona Republic was unable to reach Diehl. The five notices of claim, obtained by The Republic, assert Wynn and Diehl “intentionally and improperly” interfered with their employment relationship with the board. They claim Wynn and Diehl fired them in an attempt to keep secret the licensing procedures and gain national attention for licensing efficiency. They said they “had no choice but to follow the direction” of superiors. The five employees are demanding about $3.4million for economic loss, including loss of income, costs to commute to a new job, future benefits and attorney’s fees. Two claimants also say they have suffered mental anguish. Written claims are precursors to lawsuits. A sixth employee’s notice of claim has advanced to a lawsuit. Her notice of claim seeks $1.1million. The claims obtained by The Republic were filed by attorney Lunn on behalf of Suzann Grabe, who worked as the board’s licensing office manager; Paul Parker, who worked as the board’s licensing manager; Eric Evans, a board licensing coordinator; Christina Cassetta, a licensing coordinator, and Tenley Oberhaus, an assistant manager. Grabe’s claim states that while she was on vacation, Diehl picked up her duties and began to implement inadequate licensing practices. When Grabe questioned the practices, Wynn allegedly replied, “(W)hat are they going to do? Slap my hand and say don’t do it and I will say OK to them and continue to do as I please.” Grabe, who had been commended for her work, was fired Oct.20, 2011. Following Grabe’s departure, Cassetta voiced concerns about the licensing procedures, according to her claim. Soon after, she was terminated. Parker asserts in his claim that he was repeatedly told by Wynn and Diehl that “rules don’t matter.” When he began to question them about handling of doctor licenses, he was overlooked for a promotion and became concerned that he would be fired as part of Wynn and Diehl’s “deliberate, conscious efforts to eliminate any obstacles in their path.” “Mr. Parker was forced to put his head down and follow the directions of Wynn and Diehl while he formed his exit strategy,” the claim states. He resigned. Evans echoed his former colleagues’ claims, saying he was inexplicably fired after expressing concern about lapses in procedures used to license physicians. Evans’ claim states he offered recommendations to address his concerns and that Diehl told him he was “not above the box,” referring to the box a fired employee gets before exiting the building. Oberhaus upset Diehl when she turned down a management position over concerns about the licensing practices, her claim said. Oberhaus alleges her supervisors “made it very difficult and unpleasant” for her after she took her concerns to the Ombudsman and the state Attorney General’s Office and filed a complaint with the state Department of Administration, the report said. She resigned earlier this year. In its lengthiest report in recent memory, the Arizona Ombudsman-Citizens’ Aide found state Medical Board staff violated an array of rules and statutes involving the way doctors’ credentials are investigated when they apply for licenses.
Hey, they are royal government rulers and deserve every cent they get paid. At least that's how they probably feel. http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/20131118questions-over-plan-pension-exec-raises.html?nclick_check=1 Questions over plan for pension exec raises By Craig Harris The Republic | azcentral.com Tue Nov 19, 2013 10:11 PM Jim Hacking, administrator for the state’s financially troubled Public Safety Personnel Retirement System, is seeking pay raises for his investment staff just two months after the pension trust’s board suspended a controversial, lucrative bonus program for investment employees. Hacking did not return a call or e-mail seeking information on how much additional money he is pursuing for those employees. A trust spokesman also refused The Arizona Republic’s repeated requests for the information. It is the second time since summer the trust, which manages pensions for police officers, firefighters, elected officials and correctional officers, has refused to release information regarding staff compensation. Levi Bolton, executive director of the 13,000-member Arizona Police Association, said he was troubled by the lack of transparency. “I’m struggling (with) why this would be a secret,” said Bolton, a 32-year Phoenix Police Department veteran who retired in 2008 and receives a pension. “All it continues to do is add fuel to fires of concern.” Board Chairman Brian Tobin, a Phoenix Fire Department deputy chief, and the pension board’s six other members also did not respond to requests for comment. Doug Cole, a trust lobbyist acting as its spokesman, said details about amounts of possible pay raises would be disclosed today at a 1 p.m. board meeting at 3010 E. Camelback Road in Phoenix. The proposed pay hikes come at a time when the trust is underfunded, forcing government entities to increase their payments on behalf of current and future retirees. The cost increase is so substantial that some cities have been unable to hire additional police officers and firefighters because they cannot afford the mandatory increased-pension contributions to the trust. Gov. Jan. Brewer, who appointed all seven PSPRS board members, has not seen details of the proposed pay raise, but does not favor any large increases, her spokesman said. “The governor has made her position clear that large or lucrative bonuses or payouts by state entities is not good public policy and should be avoided,” said Andrew Wilder, Brewer’s spokesman. Staff reorganization A public notice containing today’s meeting agenda says Hacking wants to discuss with the board the investment department’s “reorganization and changes to staff salary ranges and compensation to reflect the increased duties resulting from the reorganization.” Any personnel changes the board approves must receive the blessing of the state Department of Administration, according to Brian McNeil, that agency’s directory. Cole said there are six employees on the investment staff whose jobs have changed following the resignations this year of four high-level investment department employees. Those four employees quit in protest after they raised questions as to whether management had inflated financial values of trust real-estate investments managed by Scottsdale-based Desert Troon Cos. Reporting higher values could possibly influence staff bonuses. The trust’s seven-member board in late September voted unanimously to suspend indefinitely the practice of giving lucrative bonuses to investment staff. The move came after The Republic disclosed that five- and six-figure bonuses and additional pay were awarded to management and investment staff even when the trust posted financial losses in 2008, 2009 and 2012. Hacking, Cole and the trust’s outside legal counsel this summer initially refused to release information about bonuses and additional pay, but The Republic pressed under state law for the documents. The Republic found that roughly $1.4 million in bonuses and additional compensation went to a total of 14 employees from 2008 to 2012. Extra pay Records show that Chief Investment Officer Ryan Parham and Deputy Chief Investment Officer Marty Anderson were the largest recipients. Parham received $480,997 in extra pay from 2008 to 2012, while Anderson received $265,470. Cole said Parham would not be eligible for a new raise because he has a separate employment contract that on Sept. 20 increased his pay by 5.5 percent to $268,000. He also is slated to receive a retention bonus of $75,000 should he stay employed through Sept. 19. Anderson has an employment contract that calls for him to be paid $180,000 a year and a $60,000 retention bonus next year should he be employed through March 1. Cole said Tuesday that Anderson makes $183,600 because his pay was adjusted for inflation, and his contract did not preclude the retirement system from making adjustments. Cole did not know if Anderson would be eligible for another raise. Parham and Anderson, who manage a trust of roughly $7.2 billion, are paid more than their counterparts at the approximately $32.4 billion Arizona State Retirement System, which manages pensions for teachers and government employees. The chief investment officer at ASRS earns $194,500, while the deputy chief investment officer earns $157,500. The state retirement system has not given staff bonuses but may start doing so. Its board on Friday will consider a proposal to give investment staff bonuses of up to 25 percent — but only if the trust makes money and staff performances exceed numerous benchmarks. The state retirement system also financially outperformed the public-safety trust this past year, with ASRS posting a 13.1 percent net investment return, while the public-safety trust posted an 10.58 percent net gain. The other four Public Safety Personnel Retirement System investment staff being considered for raises are: Deputy Chief Investment Officer/Risk Mark Lundin, paid $170,000; chief of staff/lead portfolio manager Mark Steed, paid $101,599; senior portfolio manager Shan Chen, paid $114,695; and investment operations analyst Vaida Maleckaite, paid $78,000. Auditor’s report The public-safety trust board also is slated to receive a status report today from Hacking on an Auditor General’s letter and recommendations. The agenda notice does not provide information about that letter, but Hacking asked the Auditor General in July for an independent inquiry following concerns about the financial reporting of its real-estate assets managed by Scottsdale-based Desert Troon Cos. At issue was whether it was “reasonable” for trust managers to report higher asset values supplied by Desert Troon Cos. instead of more conservative values from independent appraiser Ernst & Young. Desert Troon manages a portfolio of retail, residential and commercial real-estate properties for the trust and was paid at least $12 million in fees in 2012, according to trust records. Using the higher real-estate values boosted the trust’s bottom line in fiscal 2012 by roughly $90 million, although the trust still reported a $54.6 million loss that year. The trust this year again is considering reporting higher property values quoted by Desert Troon, rather than lower valuations recommended by Ernst & Young. The difference is $82 million. Ernst & Young did its analysis at the request of the trust and was paid $418,564. The land-value controversies resulted in the resignations of portfolio managers Anton Orlich, Mark Selfridge and Paul Corens, as well as investment counsel Andrew Carriker.
Man held in son’s ’04 death ordered freed Another man framed for murder??? More of the old "You expect a fair trail??? Don't make me laugh!!!! http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/20131119man-held-sons-death-ordered-freed.html Man held in son’s ’04 death ordered freed By Michael Kiefer The Republic | azcentral.com Tue Nov 19, 2013 10:07 PM Whether Jeffrey Martinson killed his 5-year-old son, Josh, in 2004 may never be determined in a court of law because of prosecutor misconduct in trying his case. On Tuesday, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge dismissed the first-degree murder indictment against Martinson with prejudice, meaning that Ahwatukee man cannot be retried for murder because of the theory of double jeopardy. Judge Sally Duncan ordered that Martinson be released from jail at noon on Nov. 26. She described the prosecutors’ actions as “a win-by-any-means strategy.” The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office has options to appeal. “We will review the Judge’s allegations as well as refer the record of the proceedings to our Ethics Committee and Appellate section for review,” County Attorney Bill Montgomery said in an e-mail to The Arizona Republic. “We will also review the conduct of defense counsel and that of the Judge for appropriate action.” Duncan wrote a 28-page ruling detailing the conduct by the prosecution team, led by Deputy Maricopa County Attorney Frankie Grimsman. “When viewing the totality of circumstances, the Court finds that during trial the Prosecutors engaged in a pattern and practice of misconduct designed to secure a conviction without regard to the likelihood of reversal,” Duncan wrote. Duncan then detailed the misconduct. The prosecutors had charged Martinson with felony murder, specifically saying that Martinson’s son, Josh, died because of child abuse, and then tried the case as if he were charged with intentional, premeditated murder. Grimsman had been warned by Duncan several times over the course of the trial not to do so. After the conviction was thrown out because of improper testimony from a medical examiner and juror misconduct, Duncan wrote, Grimsman tried to re-indict Martinson for premeditated murder. She then repeatedly tried to get Duncan and the defense attorneys, Michael Terribile and Treasure VanDreumel, removed from the case. “Accordingly, the prosecutors relentlessly sought to remove defense counsel and the assigned judicial officer specifically to avoid the risk of acquittal during any trial,” Duncan wrote. Criminal cases, especially homicides, are rarely overturned because of misconduct, even in appellate courts. A recent investigation by The Republic found that only two of 82 death sentences in Arizona since 2002 had been overturned on appeal because of prosecutors’ actions. Verdicts are even less frequently overturned with prejudice by a trial court judge. “I am pleased that judges at the trial-court level are giving credence to allegations of prosecutorial misconduct,” VanDreumel said. “Often, it’s a paper tiger and they prefer the decision to be made at the appellate level.” Martinson, 47, has been in jail for nine years awaiting a final verdict. On the night the child died in 2004, Martinson was in a custody battle with his ex-wife. Martinson claimed he found the boy floating in the bathtub and could not resuscitate him. Then, Martinson claimed, in his anguish, he tried to kill himself but failed. An autopsy showed the boy had muscle relaxants in his bloodstream, and the medical examiner ruled Josh died of a drug overdose. It appeared to be a murder-suicide, but Martinson was not charged with first-degree premeditated murder, but rather with first-degree felony murder, meaning prosecutors wanted to prove that Josh died during child abuse by Martinson. Terribile and VanDreumel argued that the death was consistent with drowning and that there was DNA on the bottle of muscle-relaxant tablets that could not be identified but could not be eliminated as coming from the boy. The defense maintained the boy may have taken the tablets himself, and Terribile pointed out that the pills resembled candy. After several years of changing defense attorneys, Martinson went to trial in July 2011. Martinson was found guilty in November 2011, and the jury determined there were aggravating factors that made him eligible for the death penalty. But before the jury could sentence Martinson, a juror came forward to tell Terribile and VanDreumel about what was going on in the jury room. The forewoman was accused of browbeating other jurors into finding Martinson guilty. The guilty verdict was thrown out in March 2012. In fall 2012, Grimsman told the judge that the original indictment and the intent to seek the death penalty had been dropped and that she had asked that another judge and defense team be appointed. Terribile and VanDreumel fought the new charge. In late 2012, The Arizona Court of Appeals ruled that Grimsman could indeed re-indict Martinson, unless Duncan found that Grimsman had done so in bad faith. On Tuesday, Duncan made that finding, in addition to the finding of prosecutorial misconduct. Defending the case had cost taxpayers $2.97 million as of last July, nearly twice the amount paid for the defense of Jodi Arias.
I guess this means I won't be able to restore my crashed hard disk with the back up copies the NSA made of it when they broke in and stole all my data just to make sure I wasn't planning any terrorist acts or drug deals???? http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/17/nsa-grapples-with-988-increase-in-open-records-requests/3519889/ NSA grapples with huge increase in records requests Yamiche Alcindor, USA TODAY 9:56 p.m. EST November 18, 2013 Correction: An earlier version of this story had an incorrect figure for the increase in open-records requests. Fueled by the Edward Snowden scandal, more Americans than ever are asking the National Security Agency if their personal life is being spied on. And the NSA has a very direct answer for them: Tough luck, we're not telling you. Americans are inundating the NSA with open-records requests, leading to an 888% increase in such inquiries in the past fiscal year. Anyone asking is getting a standard pre-written letter saying the NSA can neither confirm nor deny that any information has been gathered. "This was the largest spike we've ever had," said Pamela Phillips, the chief of the NSA Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act Office, which handles all records requests to the agency. "We've had requests from individuals who want any records we have on their phone calls, their phone numbers, their e-mail addresses, their IP addresses, anything like that." During the first quarter of the NSA's last fiscal year, which went from October to December 2012, it received 257 open-records requests. The next quarter, it received 241. However, on June 6, at the end of NSA's third fiscal quarter, news of Snowden's leaks hit the press, and the agency got 1,302 requests. In the next three months, the NSA received 2,538 requests. The spike has continued into the fall months and has overwhelmed her staff, Phillips said. Joel Watts, 35, of Charleston, W.Va., put in an open-records request in June, days after learning about Snowden's leaks and the NSA's surveillance tactics. Some three weeks later, he received a letter telling him the agency wouldn't say if they had collected information on the health and safety administrator. "It's a sign of disrespect to American citizens and the democratic process," he said. "I should have the right to know if I'm being surveilled if there's no criminal procedures in process." Watts said he understands the need for secrecy when dealing with terrorism but thinks the NSA is violating constitutional rights by withholding information it might have on the American public. He also said the NSA's non-responses highlight problems with FOIA requests. "We should not have to fill out forms and pay money for the government to be transparent," he said. "It's just a way for them to legally say no." The spike in requests, a large backlog in responses and lack of information illustrates the limits of open-records requests and the determination of NSA to remain mum despite Snowden's historic leaks, experts say. "People are legitimately troubled by the idea that the government is monitoring and collecting information about their e-mail traffic, phone calls and who knows what else," said Anne Weismann, chief counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog group. "There is a growing sense of horror every time there is a new report about the data." She said the NSA's failure to provide people with answers shows that the agency is burying its head in the sand despite Snowden's huge document dump. The tactic is successful, she said, because most people don't have the resources to fight for information through appeals or in court. And even if people do fight, courts often side with intelligence agencies who say they want to protect national security, Weismann said. Last fiscal year, the NSA spent close to $4.8 million processing FOIA requests, appeals and dealing with litigation in connection with the requests. However, Phillips said, because of sequester cuts the agency spent less money last fiscal year than in previous ones. Some requests simply state that a person wants any and all information the NSA has about them. Others, however, go into detail and ask for specifics about how the NSA is run, how its surveillance program works as well as how the NSA has gone about collecting information. While the NSA is hearing mostly from the public, journalists and civil rights organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Electronic Privacy Information Center are also digging, Phillips said. Her 19-person staff is grappling to deal with the boom in requests, she said. More than 900 are still pending, although the NSA tries to get back to people in the 20 days required by law, she said. Sometimes it can take months, even years, to get a response. Even after a long wait, the agency for the most part is sharing nothing about the topic people want the most information about. That frustrates Weismann. "They can monitor in the most sophisticated way, and they say they are getting overwhelmed. I think that's facially ludicrous," she said. Meanwhile, Phillips said her staff doesn't do searches on the majority of requests. Workers don't look for any information when people request data on themselves because the NSA FOIA office doesn't have access to surveillance files, she said. She also explained that the agency doesn't confirm or deny if they have records on individuals because it doesn't want to tip off surveillance targets. "We know we're dealing with frustrated people and people who are upset by what they're hearing," Phillips said. "But that's the only response that we're able to provide them on that topic." Phillips estimates that her office will continue to get a lot of requests. In 2006, the office saw a two-week spike of 500 or 800 requests with news of the NSA's terrorist surveillance program, she said. A year and half ago, there was a 200-request spike when a TV program mentioned a NSA surveillance program. This time, Snowden's leaks have caused a months-long spike that seems only to be intensifying. The NSA has declassified some information and is working on releasing more, Phillips said. "It just confirms that in the case of the NSA, leaks work," said Nate Jones, FOIA coordinator with the National Security Archive, a non-profit research institution. "They don't release anything through normal means. The only way the public really learns about them is through leaks."
Let's face it, photo radar ain't about safety, it's about raising revenue!!! http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/Police-and-City-Leaders-Defend-Traffic-Cameras-at-DOT-Hearings-229942801.html Police and City Leaders Defend Traffic Cameras at DOT Hearings By Dave Franzman, Reporter Story Created: Oct 30, 2013 at 3:34 PM CST ANKENY, Iowa- An Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) plan to restrict the use of traffic cameras in the state got a less than rousing reception from police and city leaders on Wednesday. But a handful of citizens attending the one statewide public DOT hearing on the issue said it's high time to rein in the cameras. In Cedar Rapids, 11 locations including Interstate 380 have cameras recording both red light or speed violations. The automatically-generated tickets carry civil penalties but don't count as points against a driver's license. Should the DOT rules go through as proposed, at least seven of the Cedar Rapids camera sites would be impacted. The meeting that took place in Ankeny allowed anyone interested in the issue to speak out. DOT staffers expect as many as 200 written comments along with the several dozen people who spoke in person at the hearing. The DOT will consider the comments, and any potential changes, over the next few weeks. The earliest the administrative rules could take effect would be February 12, 2014. If the rules pass as proposed, then ten Iowa cities and counties, including Cedar Rapids, would have to prove automated cameras were necessary for traffic safety on state designated roads. That proof would have to include traffic engineering studies and be repeated every year. The DOT could also require cities to try other measures first before using traffic cameras. Cedar Rapids Police Chief Wayne Jerman was one of many law enforcement officers defending the cameras at the hearing. The chief said Cedar Rapids has enough data to show a positive impact on safety. "I think the data the city of Cedar Rapids has will justify the placement. We have 21 months of statistics--and it shows a significant decrease in crashes," Jerman said. Jerman specifically told DOT staffers than since the placement of cameras on I-380 no deadly crashes have occurred on the downtown "S" curves. Jerman gave the credit to cameras and drivers learning to slow down in the automatic enforcement areas. Officers from other departments using cameras told similar stories. But while cameras won unanimous praise from law enforcement, a few citizens told stories of difficulties. Dave Beer, who owns a car rental business in Cedar Rapids, told the hearing that drivers may do the speed, but as the registered vehicle owner he's the one who has to constantly fight the automatic tickets. "It's truly about the money, it's not about safety. It could have started out about safety but I don't believe it's there anymore," Beer said. One DOT staffer said it could take the director about three weeks to decide whether or not to make any changes in the proposed administrative rules.
I disagree 100 percent with L.J. Rupp's letter that seems to say the members of Congress are a bunch of morons and idiots who can't get anything done!!!! The members of Congress are anything but morons and idiots and are probably some of the smartest thieves and crooks in the world. If a Nobel prize were given for thievery the members of the US Congress and US Senate would probably win it year in and year out!!! http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/free/20131118flailing-health-care-law-result-arrogant-amateurs-bureaucrats.html Arrogant amateurs behind health law Mon Nov 18, 2013 6:03 PM What the American public is witnessing in regard to the health-insurance-reform law are two very evident facts: 1. The Affordable Care Act was largely authored by academics and politicians who believe they alone could best proscribe what is “best” for John Q. Public and, in the process, they’ve demonstrated their flair as arrogant, rank amateurs. How dare they presume to define “adequate” health-insurance coverage for you or for me? 2. The implementation of this immensely complex and badly written legislation was left to our federal bureaucrats and their cronies. What did we expect with these skill sets? — L.J. Rupp, Cave Creek
So that's why there were jackbooted Homeland Security thugs at the Ironman race searching people for guns and explosives. The hottest woman in the US Congress, Kyrsten Sinema was there trying to get a few votes for reelection. Kyrsten Sinema is the Arizona politician who tried to flush the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act down the toilet by slapping a 300 percent tax on medical marijuana. That God that failed. Kyrsten Sinema is also an atheist who refuses to admit it probably because she thinks she will lose a few Christian votes. Normally I will vote for an atheist any day of the year over a Christian nut job, but in the case of Kyrsten Sinema I will prefer Christian nut job over her any day of the year!!! http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/free/20131118us-rep-sinema-completes-ironman-arizona-event.html U.S. Rep. Sinema completes Ironman Arizona event Associated Press Mon Nov 18, 2013 11:45 AM PHOENIX — Arizona Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema is heading back to Washington after completing the grueling Ironman Arizona triathlon in suburban Phoenix. Sinema finished Sunday in 15 hours, 12 minutes, 34 seconds to become what organizers of the Ironman international competition say is the first sitting member of Congress to complete the event. The first-term Democratic lawmaker representing Arizona’s 9th Congressional District completed a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile cycling ride and a 26.2-mile run. She had hoped to complete the race in less than 16 hours. Sinema says she didn’t even know how to swim before beginning to train for the event about a year ago. She hired Olympic gold medalist Misty Hyman as her coach. Sinema spokesman Justin Unga said she was on a plane bound for Washington on Monday morning.
Kyrsten Sinema - world class hypocrite??? She will say anything to get elected and I guess she is how changing her tune on Obamacare of the ACA because she knows that issue may cause her to be booted from office. Kyrsten Sinema is also the elected official who tried to flush Arizona's medical marijuana act down the toilet by slapping a 300 percent tax on medical marijuana. I suspect that was a favour to the police unions who support Kyrsten Sinema. http://www.azcentral.com/insiders/robertrobb/2013/11/18/sinema-to-obamacare-good-riddance/ Sinema to Obamacare: Good riddance When Obamacare was being debated, there was no more ardent a tub-thumper for it in Arizona than Kyrsten Sinema. Then, she was a Democratic state legislator. Now, she’s a member of Congress, representing a swing district likely to be targeted in 2014. And now she’s not such a tub-thumper for Obamacare. In fact, she voted last week for the “Keep Your Plan Act,” sponsored by Republican Rep. Fred Upton, which the Obama administration correctly regards as undermining the basic foundation of Obamacare. Obamacare wasn’t just about providing health insurance to those who didn’t have it. It was also about requiring all Americans to purchase a policy that met the Obamacare standards. This requirement is essential to the subsidization scheme at the heart of Obamacare, where people – particularly the young and healthy – are forced to purchase more coverage than they want or need to subsidize through premiums the health care of others. This has forced the cancellation of non-conforming policies, which unleashed a political storm since Obamacare supporters, starting with the president and including Sinema, endlessly vowed that if you like your plan you can keep it. To quell the storm, Obama asserted the authority to allow non-conforming policies to be continued for a year. The Upton amendment would also allow those plans to be sold to new customers. Although it is only for a year, it establishes the principle that Americans should be able to make their own decisions about the kind of health insurance they want to buy. It’s a powerful principle that Obamacare’s subsidization scheme can’t survive. Sinema voted earlier to delay the individual mandate for a year. That would have been damaging to the finances of the policies offered on the Obamacare exchanges, but wouldn’t have altered Obamacare’s fundamentals. The Obama administration had already delayed the employer mandate and the website for individuals wasn’t working. Voting to allow non-conforming plans to be sold to new customers, however, is gravely different. That strikes at the heart of Obamacare’s paternalism, and that paternalism is essential to Obamacare’s architecture. Makes you wonder what part of Obamacare Sinema, the state legislator, was so enthused about.
Ain't those government schools great!!!! http://www.azcentral.com/news/free/20131118maine-bus-driver-duct-tape.html Bus driver accused of duct-taping kids' mouths Associated Press Mon Nov 18, 2013 12:59 PM SURRY, Maine — A Maine bus driver who made students wear duct tape over their mouths for being loud is no longer behind the wheel. The bus driver at Surry Elementary School was removed from her position last week after two fourth-grade girls told their principal the driver made them put the tape over their mouths. The Portland Press Herald reported that neither the school district nor the company contracted to provide bus service identified the driver. She is on leave during an investigation. Principal Cathy Lewis said she learned the driver had been using duct tape for weeks on students, including two kindergartners. She said the driver denied it.
I find it to be an amusing, if not sadistic oxymoron that our government only users SAFE FDA approved poisons to murder or execute prison inmates. This reminds me of a government idiots in Texas who was arguing that it was OK to execute innocent people who had been framed by the government for their crimes. His logic was that they received a fair trial so the punishment of death for a crime they didn't commit was somehow justified. Damn, and that reminds me of Scott Henderson of Tempe Amnesty International who falsely accused me of stealing a t-shirt. http://www.azcentral.com/news/arizona/free/20131118lethal-drug-shortage-looms-ariz-closes-executions.html Lethal-drug shortage looms as Ariz. closes in on 4 executions Associated Press Mon Nov 18, 2013 8:43 PM Four more Arizona death-row inmates are close to execution dates, but the state may have to scramble to get the drugs it needs to carry out the sentences. The U.S. Supreme Court recently turned away appeals in the four cases, putting the inmates near the end of the line. A shortage of the single drug that the state uses may force officials with the Arizona Department of Corrections to find another drug or source because the only manufacturer of the drug pentobarbital has blocked sales for executions. That leaves the department with few choices: A compounding pharmacy could mix up a batch of pentobarbital from its base ingredients, the state could buy it outside normal distribution channels, or it could switch to another drug or combinations of drugs, according to Dale Baich, who leads the unit of the Federal Public Defender’s Office that represents inmates on death row. Any of the choices could set off another round of legal challenges, based on what has happened in other states, Baich said. The source of compounding ingredients and their efficacy could be challenged, for instance. Corrections spokesman Doug Nick said the state will follow the law. Stephanie Grisham, spokeswoman for the Attorney General’s Office, said the state is weighing its options and considering the timing of the executions. Arizona has seen similar legal challenges about the drugs it uses in its executions. The state switched to pentobarbital in 2011 after a shortage of sodium thiopental threatened to sideline executions. Two inmates due for execution in October challenged the department’s attempt to keep the name of the drug manufacturer secret. U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver ordered the department to reveal the drugmaker and provide the expiration date of the drug that would be used. The batch of pentobarbital that was used to execute Edward Schad and Robert Jones last month expires this month, and additional factory-made pentobarbital likely isn’t available because of the manufacturer’s sales ban. The state has yet to ask the Arizona Supreme Court for a warrant of execution for the four inmates whose appeals have been exhausted. The four are Pete Rogovich, Roger Scott, Joe Wood and Kevin Miles.
Don't these pigs have any REAL criminals to hunt down???? http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/free/20131118new-mexico-dog-ziplock-bag.html Pic of dog in Ziploc bag leads to charges Associated Press Mon Nov 18, 2013 3:00 PM ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A Bernalillo County woman and her son are in trouble thanks to a Facebook post. Sgt. Aaron Williamson with the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department says a concerned citizen contacted deputies after seeing a photograph on the social media site of a tiny white dog inside a Ziploc freezer bag. Williamson says the bag was open, but the dog's face was in the bottom corner. Deputies tracked down Mary Snell and James Engel. The two were arrested and booked into the county jail on felony animal cruelty charges. It's not immediately clear if they have an attorney. Williamson says Snell admitted to placing the dog in the bag to show a friend how small it was. Engel took the picture and posted it. Williamson says the dog named Baby was unharmed.
Screw the children, the safety of the officer is more important. At least that's how the cops seem to feel. http://www.azcentral.com/news/free/20131118traffic-stop-chaos-nm-officer-fires-van.html In traffic stop chaos, NM officer fires at van Associated Press Mon Nov 18, 2013 12:59 PM ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A pair of New Mexico state police officers are under investigation and a mother and her 14-year-old son are facing charges after a routine traffic stop turned to chaos with the teen physically confronting one officer and another firing shots at a minivan carrying children. Details of the recent stop emerged when KRQE-TV obtained video from the dashboard camera of the police cruiser that pulled the family of six over for speeding near the northern New Mexico tourist town of Taos. The footage taken Oct. 28 showed driver Oriana Farrell, 39, disobey the officer’s orders, including driving off after being told to take her keys out of the vehicle. The Memphis, Tenn., woman was pulled over again and the situation escalates as she pleads for lenience while refusing the officer’s orders. She eventually exits the vehicle, but tries to get back in the van as the officer tries to restrain her. The TV station’s edited video shows at least two of her five children get out of the vehicle to confront the officer in her defense. Farrell ushered the smaller child back into the van as the 14-year-old struggled with the officer. The teen got back in the vehicle and shut the door after the officer appears to pull out his stun gun. At that point, backup arrived as the initial officer bashed out the minivan’s front passenger window with his nightstick and another officer shot at the vehicle as it drove off. The mother and teenage son were arrested at a hotel after a brief chase. She has since been released and faces charges of child abuse, fleeing and misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia for a pair of marijuana pipes found in the van. It’s unclear whether the 14-year-old is in custody. He faces charges of battery of an officer. His name has not been released. Farrell’s attorney Alan Maestas did not immediately return a phone call to The Associated Press. New Mexico authorities say the involved officers are under investigation. The officers have not been identified. On the video the initial officer could be heard telling Farrell she had been driving 71 mph in a 55 mph zone.
Sadly a lot of these law enforcement nut jobs have a double standard on what's OK for us to do vs what's OK for them to do!!! http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/20131118george-zimmerman-arrested-after-disturbance-call.html Zimmerman accused of pointing shotgun at girlfriend Associated Press Mon Nov 18, 2013 4:02 PM APOPKA, Fla. — George Zimmerman was charged Monday with assault after deputies were called to the home where he lived with his girlfriend, who claimed he pointed a shotgun at her during an argument, authorities said. Zimmerman pushed the woman out of the house and barricaded the door with furniture, Chief Deputy Dennis Lemma said at a news conference hours after the arrest. The girlfriend, Samantha Scheibe, provided deputies with a key to the home and they were able to push the door that had been barricaded. Lemma says Zimmerman was compliant when deputies came to the house. “The easiest way to describe it is rather passive. He’s had the opportunity to encounter this before,” he said. Zimmerman was charged with aggravated assault with a weapon, battery and criminal mischief. “Just when you thought you heard the last of George Zimmerman,” said neighbor Catherine Cantrell. She said she had twice seen a man who looked like Zimmerman get out of a truck that’s been in the driveway for nearly a month. The truck parked there Monday appeared to be the same one that reporters have seen Zimmerman drive previously. “I’m in absolute shock. He was never outside. It’s not like he was out flaunting around,” she said. Cantrell said the woman who lived in the home was very sweet and quiet. Sarah Tyler, 26, also lives across the street from the tan stucco house on a cul-de-sac street of single family homes in Apopka, about 15 miles northwest of Orlando. “It’s kind of frightening,” she said, adding that she only saw a woman came out of the house. Zimmerman, 30, was acquitted in July of all charges in the shooting of Trayvon Martin. The death of the black teenager, who was unarmed, touched off a nationwide debate about race and self-defense. Zimmerman, who identifies himself as Hispanic, has said he shot the 17-year-old to defend himself during a fight in February 2012 inside a gated community in Sanford, just outside Orlando. He wasn’t charged until 44 days after the shooting, leading to protests nationwide from people who believed he should have been immediately arrested. The case sparked accusations that Zimmerman had racially profiled Martin, and demonstrations broke out again after his acquittal. Federal authorities are now reviewing the case the see if Martin’s civil rights were violated. Zimmerman has had other brushes with the law since his acquittal. Zimmerman and his estranged wife were involved in a domestic dispute in September just days after Shellie Zimmerman filed divorce papers, but police later said no charges were filed against either of them because of a lack of evidence. Zimmerman has also been pulled over three times for traffic stops since his acquittal. He was ticketed for doing 60 mph in a 45 mph zone in Lake Mary in September and was given a warning by a state trooper along Interstate 95 for having a tag cover and windows that were too darkly tinted. He was also stopped near Dallas in July and was given a warning for speeding. In 2005, Zimmerman had to take anger management courses after he was accused of attacking an undercover officer who was trying to arrest Zimmerman’s friend. Later that year, Zimmerman’s former fiancee filed for a restraining order against him, alleging domestic violence. Zimmerman responded by requesting a restraining order against her. Both requests were granted. No criminal charges were filed.
More of the old "Do as I say, not as I do" from the cops and our government masters!!! These are the same jerks who want to continue to jail people for using medical marijuana!!!! http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/20131118ex-mcso-commander-indicted-computer-fraud-charges.html Ex-MCSO commander indicted on computer fraud charges By JJ Hensley The Republic | azcentral.com Mon Nov 18, 2013 9:11 PM A former Maricopa County sheriff’s commander whose home was raided earlier this year by federal agents was indicted on allegations of computer tampering and illegally accessing a criminal-justice database, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Former sheriff’s Cmdr. Bob Rampy resigned from the office a little more than a year ago after expressing an interest in a new job, according to a sheriff’s spokesman. But after Rampy failed to get the new job, sheriff’s investigators believe he embarked on an effort to use his knowledge of the sheriff’s systems for his own gain. Rampy, who worked for seven years as the sheriff’s information-technology director, began illegally accessing criminal-justice information that is solely for the use of law enforcement and tampered with the sheriff’s computer systems on several occasions between September 2012 and January of this year, said Lt. Brandon Jones, a sheriff’s spokesman. Investigators are still stumped by Rampy’s motives, Jones said. Rampy did not respond to requests for comment on Monday evening. Sheriff’s administrators first became aware of a potential problem with the agency’s computers last fall, when deputies noticed databases they rely on to gather information about a suspect’s criminal history were down, Jones said. The blackout lasted for no more than 40minutes, he said, but it sent information-technology staff on a mission to find the breach. Investigators ultimately determined that the changes were coming from a laptop and later came to believe Rampy was involved, Jones said. Sheriff’s officials announced Rampy’s indictment on Monday afternoon, but the document remained sealed in Maricopa County Superior Court records. However, a federal search warrant served at Rampy’s home in April offers some insight into what investigators were seeking. The warrant authorized investigators to seize records related to accessing the Sheriff’s Office’s secure network, information on the office’s digital network architecture, records on three specific devices that control access to computerized media, and at least one Toughbook laptop computer of the type frequently assigned to sheriff’s deputies. Jones said sheriff’s investigators had pinpointed the breaches in the system that took place between September 2012 and January, and are now in the process of going back through Rampy’s computer history for a more thorough audit of his activity. “I can’t say that everything was vetted today, but it will be,” Jones said. “So far, the only indications of any criminal wrongdoing are what we have here, what we’ve released.” Rampy’s work with the Sheriff’s Office has come under scrutiny before, including from Maricopa County officials when county and sheriff’s administrators were in a series of bitter disputes related to finances and management control. In 2010, as the Sheriff’s Office and other agencies fought over who should have access to and control of a sensitive criminal-justice database, attorneys representing county administrators wrote a letter asking the Sheriff’s Office if Rampy was conducting surveillance on county officials. Rampy claimed the letter, and its release to the media, was part of an orchestrated campaign among county administrators to smear him. He filed a notice of claim against the county in February 2011, calling the letter “the first salvo in a series of unwarranted, public attacks on Commander Rampy’s impeccable personal and professional reputation.” He offered to settle the dispute for $750,000. The county never responded to the claim, and Rampy never filed suit.
Gee, this reminded me of Scott Henderson who runs the Tempe Amnesty International. Scott Henderson falsely accused me of stealing one of his AI t-shirts, and then proceeded to rip it off of my back. http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/20131118anti-bullying-activist-indicted-sex-abuse.html Anti-bullying activist indicted in sex abuse By Dustin Gardiner The Republic | azcentral.com Mon Nov 18, 2013 9:48 PM An activist who gained national attention for his efforts to stop bullying against gay teens in the Phoenix area has been indicted on 13 charges of sex crimes with a minor. Caleb Michael Laieski is accused of sexual conduct with a boy under age 15, a felony crime classified as a dangerous crime against children. Laieski was apparently a minor at the time of the alleged incident but is facing charges because of the younger boy’s age. Laieski has pleaded not guilty. His attorney, Cary Lackey, said Laieski and the other boy were in fact the underage victims of a Phoenix police officer. Former officer Chris J. Wilson was indicted last year on 10 counts of sexual conduct with a minor stemming from allegations he performed sex acts on a 14-year-old and a 17-year-old and participated in a sexual act with the two together at the older boy’s apartment, according to court documents. Police records show Laieski was the 17-year-old in that case. Wilson was the department’s liaison to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, and police said he came to know Laieski through his activism. In court filings, Laieski says the charges against him arise from a “consensual relationship he had with a 14-year-old when he himself was 16-years-old, or at most, 17-years-old.” Lackey called the timing of the recent indictment “curious” given that the accusations of sexual misconduct date back to before Wilson’s arrest in August 2012. He said Laieski has since moved on with his life, taking a job as a police 911 dispatcher in Arlington, Va. “At the time these instances were alleged to have occurred, my victim was legally a child,” Lackey said. “These are allegations. He’s presumed innocent.” Court filings in Laieski’s case provide few details about his alleged sexual conduct with the younger boy, who has also been active in anti-bullying campaigns. Under state law, a minor who engages in intercourse or oral sex with another minor 14 or younger can be found guilty of a sex crime. Children under age 15 cannot legally consent to sexual activity, even if their partner is also a minor. Laieski was released without bond and allowed to return to his residence in Virginia, court records state. A court appearance is scheduled for next week. He’s been put on administrative leave at his job as a dispatcher, Lackey said. He has gained a national spotlight for his LGBT activism that began several years ago when he says administrators at his high school in Surprise failed to intervene when he was bullied by other students for being gay. He said he left school and earned his GED as a result. In 2011, Laieski met with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden to discuss issues affecting gay youth. He has appeared in a documentary about bullying. At the time of Wilson’s arrest, Laieski was working as the youth and diversity liaison in Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton’s Office. City e-mails show Laieski left the position soon afterward but had previously talked about plans to work in the position full time. His temporary position as an “advocate on loan” was sponsored by a non-profit.
You pay $3+ a gallon for gas, the US Navy pays $26 a gallon. Don't think of it as a waste of money think of it as a government welfare program for the special interest groups that sell and make this stuff. http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-green-military-20131118,0,7708069,full.story#axzz2l0crIXKL As Pentagon invests in green fuel, critics focus on the cost By Evan Halper November 18, 2013, 5:00 a.m. WASHINGTON — When the U.S. Navy sailed an imposing fleet near Hawaii that was powered in part by algae and used cooking grease, environmentalists weren't the only ones who were thrilled. Executives at bioenergy startups in the San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago and elsewhere — and the venture capitalists backing them — had reason to cheer. The Obama administration has made the military, the largest consumer of energy in the country, a financial lifeline for cash-strapped alternative fuel innovators. But the pilot voyage of the Navy's "great green fleet" came with a troubling aspect: price. The fleet's green fuel costs $26 a gallon, several times more than conventional diesel and jet fuel. And the costly experiment came just as the military moved into an era of deep budget cuts. Republicans in Congress have howled over the price tag, and they're not alone. Some independent energy experts doubt the military's projections that spending on pioneering technology will yield sufficient benefits. Pentagon officials argue that national security justifies the drive for new fuels, even at initially high prices. Remaining at the mercy of global oil markets poses too high a risk, they say, arguing that using military purchasing power to jump-start new industries eventually will make alternative fuel prices competitive. Although the prices are high, the cost is a fraction of the more than $20 billion the military spent last year on fuel, backers say. "We don't want to find ourselves with our backs against the wall in some future crisis where the availability and price of petroleum-based fuels limits all our options and makes them unattractive," said Dennis McGinn, assistant secretary of the Navy for energy, installations and the environment. "This is something we can't not do." With encouragement from the White House, the military has pursued an Obama administration alternative energy agenda that otherwise has stalled in Congress. The Pentagon has allocated millions to help incubate a Bay Area firm that extracts oil from algae and another trying to make fuel from switchgrass. A Northern California firm working to turn massive amounts of garbage into liquid fuel and Emerald Biofuels, an Illinois company hoping to do the same with the kinds of grease used in cooking and food processing, are each positioned to win as much as $70 million in grants. Critics contend the spending will line the pockets of lucky entrepreneurs, not bolster national defense or help the environment. "This is really a house of cards," said Ike Kiefer, a recently retired Navy captain and faculty member at the U.S. Air Force Air War College, who has spent the last few years studying the fuel purchases. "When you look at the absolute limits of what is possible, it doesn't work," he said. "This is not a question of waiting for another generation of technology." Some notable green energy thinkers endorsed Kiefer's findings, which were published this year in Strategic Studies Quarterly, an official Air Force journal. Jesse Ausebel, a scientist involved in global efforts to cut emissions, said in an email that the Kiefer paper was "the best analysis of biofuels that I know." The Rand Corp. declared in a 2011 report commissioned by the Pentagon that "there is no direct benefit to the Department of Defense or the services from using alternative fuels." Keith Crane, director of the Rand Environment, Energy and Economic Development Program, said in a recent interview that he remained "very skeptical." Doubters say that growing and processing algae, wood chips and other biomass on the scale the military needs would require an irrationally large amount of energy, land and other resources. Plans to convert massive amounts of used cooking oil and household trash to liquid fuel, meanwhile, have long been undermined by technological and environmental problems. Researchers have tried for years to produce economical fuels from algae, with little success. This year, Exxon Mobil acknowledged that a $600-million plan it began in 2009 to hit the marketplace with such a fuel within a decade had failed. It is starting over. "I have yet to see the evidence that this is around the corner," said Heather Youngs, a senior fellow at the Energy Biosciences Institute at UC Berkeley. She said forecasts used by the Defense Department seemed wildly optimistic. "Growing algae is very expensive," she said. The Pentagon is undeterred. In the 1890s, when the Navy built its first steel ships, the fleet paid double the price that European suppliers were offering to jump-start a domestic oil industry, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus recently wrote in Foreign Policy magazine, defending the biofuels effort. The transition from ships powered by sail to coal, coal to oil, and oil to nuclear would not have happened without upfront investment and faith in innovation, he wrote. In that spirit, the administration is going ahead with plans to spend $510 million to help construct advanced biofuel plants. The Navy intends to start purchasing 170 million gallons of biofuel a year to meet its goal of getting half its energy from renewable sources by 2020. In Pleasanton, Calif., Fulcrum BioEnergy was having a hard time attracting investors for plans to convert 550 tons of trash per day into fuel that can be poured directly into gas tanks — until the Navy stepped in. Now, the Pentagon is committing as much as $70 million to Fulcrum's plans. The military funding is contingent on companies attracting an equal amount from private investors, which Fulcrum now has. "It is important these projects get built," said Ted Kniesche, a vice president at Fulcrum. "It is not only for national security, but also reducing greenhouse gases. Government understands that." The plant location has yet to be announced. Nonetheless, Kniesche says, it will be producing military-grade fuel by early 2016 — at less than $4 per gallon. Some boosters of the program, though, bristle when asked when the fuels will be mass produced at such prices without big upfront subsidies. "That is the question everyone wants answered," said Stephen Gorin, who oversees defense research at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. "It is not an easy one." The Iowa firm BioProcess Algae makes no promises. It was recently awarded a $6-million grant to explore the production of fuel for military and civilian use. The company had not sought out the money, said Todd Becker, chairman of its board. The Energy Department approached it. "They said, 'Here is what we are looking for. Are you guys interested?'" Becker said. "We thought there was a chance we will find some interesting things out. And if, by serendipity, it actually works, we will have something that is unique." And despite the previous failure of algae-to-fuel projects, another company is vowing it will be the game changer. South San Francisco-based Solazyme, which uses large fermentation tanks to grow algae, went from a small startup to a hot IPO in 2011 with the help of millions of dollars in military contracts. Green energy investors are buzzing about projections that the company will produce fuel at prices competitive with petroleum within five years. Solazyme is investing in large plants in the Midwest and Brazil, which Graham Ellis, a company vice president, says underscores the company's faith in those projections. In an early, experimental contract with the Navy, Solazyme was paid more than $400 per gallon of fuel it provided. It got substantially less during the "great green fleet" pilot project last year. Whether it can get the price down to $4 remains to be seen. "How far away is it?" Ellis said. "Less than five years is the headline. I can't see a reason why that would not remain our target." evan.halper@latimes.com
Illegal immigrant vote-fraud cases rare in Arizona As H. L. Mencken said: "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/20131105arizona-immigrant-vote-fraud-rare.html Illegal immigrant vote-fraud cases rare in Arizona By Alia Beard Rau The Republic | azcentral.com Sun Nov 17, 2013 10:00 PM Arizona has spent enormous amounts of time and money waging war against voter fraud, citing the specter of illegal immigrants’ casting ballots. State officials from Gov. Jan Brewer to Attorney General Tom Horne to Secretary of State Ken Bennett swear it’s a problem. At an August news conference, Horne and Bennett cited voter-fraud concerns as justification for continuing a federal-court fight over state voter-ID requirements. And some Republican lawmakers have used the same argument to defend a package of controversial new election laws slated to go before voters in November 2014. But when state officials are pushed for details, the numbers of actual cases and convictions vary and the descriptions of the alleged fraud become foggy or based on third-hand accounts. An examination of voter-fraud cases in Maricopa County shows those involving illegal immigrants are nearly non-existent, and have been since before the changes to voter-ID requirements were enacted in 2004. In response to an Arizona Republic records request, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office provided a list of 21 criminal cases since January 2005 in which the suspect was charged with a felony related to voter fraud. A search of court records found 13 other cases. Of the 34 Maricopa County cases, two of the suspects were in the country illegally and 12 were not citizens but living in the U.S. legally, court records showed. One of the suspect’s legal-residency status was unclear from the records. The non-citizens came from around the world — Indonesia, Canada, Mexico, Yugoslavia, the Philippines and Thailand. Most had been living legally in the U.S. for decades. Several stated in court documents that they thought they were permitted to vote because they were legal permanent residents of the United States. None was convicted of a felony or given any jail time. A couple of the cases were dismissed; the other suspects pleaded guilty to misdemeanors and served a few months of probation. Eighteen of the cases involved convicted felons who had lost the right to vote. In several of the cases, the felons told the court no one had ever explained to them that they no longer could vote even after serving their time. One said he was sent an early ballot in the mail and thought he was permitted to vote. Presented with this information, Horne maintained that voter fraud by illegal immigrants is a problem in Arizona. “There are thousands of people who were non-citizens who registered to vote, and many of them voted,” he said. He said he based his statements on court testimony by county recorders, who said more than 200 people in a single year had stated on a jury-duty summons that they weren’t citizens. “And jury forms only go to a small percentage of residents, so you have to multiply that to get the number of non-citizens who actually registered statewide,” Horne said. But Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell said Horne’s numbers aren’t accurate. She agreed there are a couple of hundred instances each year in which the county jury commissioner notifies her that someone has stated on a jury form that he or she is not a citizen. But Purcell said not all of those are cases involve a person who is illegally registered to vote, much less one who has illegally cast a ballot. “The jury summons is a combination of voter registration and driver’s licenses,” she said, explaining that an individual does not have to be a registered voter to be summoned for jury duty. “They may go to some people that have a driver’s license and are not citizens but are legal aliens.” If they are registered to vote, Purcell said she immediately removes them from the registration rolls. If they actually are citizens and lied in order to avoid being summoned for jury duty — which Purcell said happens regularly — they can re-register. If Purcell determines someone has registered and voted illegally, she forwards the case to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office for prosecution. She didn’t know the exact numbers of such cases, but said they amount to a handful each year. “I don’t see it as a big problem,” she said. “We send very few to the County Attorney’s Office.” Other county recorders echoed Purcell’s assessment. Christine Rhodes has been county recorder in Cochise County since 1973. “Much of our land here is on the border, and I can’t remember ever going to court on any voter-fraud case,” she said. Horne said the low number of prosecutions doesn’t prove anything. “A lot of them don’t get prosecuted,” Horne said. “(The county attorneys) have scarce resources and bigger fish to fry.” According to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, over the past nine years there were four cases of voter fraud that the office decided not to prosecute. Despite the numbers, Horne said he will continue to defend the voter-approved requirement for proof of identification to register to vote as it moves through the courts. He said he believes voters agree that voter fraud by illegal immigrants is a problem in Arizona, and that’s why they passed the requirements. “If people believe that their votes are diluted by people voting illegally, they lose faith in the system and you can get a decline in participation,” he said. The U.S. Supreme Court in June struck down parts of the voter-registration law, ruling that Arizona cannot demand proof of citizenship from people who register using the federal form but can from those who use the state form. Horne said he expects the case to end up back before the U.S. Supreme Court at least once more before the issue is resolved. In the meantime, voters who registered using the federal form will be allowed to vote only in federal elections. Arizona voters in November 2014 may get to decide for themselves whether they think Arizona has a fraud problem. The ballot will include election-law changes the Legislature approved earlier this year, partially based on the argument that they were needed to stop voter fraud. The legislation tightened procedures for citizen initiatives and referendums, limited who can return a voter’s ballot to the polls, and allowed dropping people from the permanent early-voting list if they fail to vote by mail in consecutive elections. Opponents, who gathered enough signatures to halt the law and take it to voters, argue the real motivation behind the law — and the voter-ID requirements — is to stifle minority voters. “This is not about voter integrity and fraud, it’s about suppressing the vote,” said Sen. Steve Gallardo, D-Phoenix. “It’s about ‘How do we reduce the number of folks participating in our elections? Because if you start opening the door to higher voter participation, then we’ll see more young voters, minority voters, those who tend to be more centrist.’ And that’s the population they are trying to shut the doors on.” RELATED INFO 34: Number of court cases since 2005 in which a person was charged with a felony related to voter fraud. 2: Number of illegal immigrants charged with voter fraud since 2005. 12: Number of people charged with voter fraud since 2005 who are not citizens but living in the U.S. legally.
Why it's easy for special interests to win elections!!! This is why it's so easy for special interest groups to get control of the government!!! And why it's so easy for the police to get control of the government. There are 3000+ city of Phoenix cops. That doesn't count the Maricopa County cops, the Arizona cops, and the Federal cops that live and vote in Phoenix. If most of them vote, which they do when there is money for them in the election results they can easily legally throw an election. Gallego won the election in what several news outlets called a “landslide,” although in our city of 1.5 million residents, only 13,000 ballots were cast for this council seat. Gallego received just under 8,000 votes. Pastor Stewart just over 5,000. http://www.azcentral.com/insiders/ejmontini/2013/11/17/from-pastor-to-politician-and-back/ Posted on November 17, 2013 4:46 pm by EJ Montini From pastor to politician and back Preachers probably don’t belong in politics. A pastor’s congregation comes to listen. Even those with money. A politician’s constituents visit his office to be heard. Especially those with money. So it might be a good thing that the Rev. Warren Stewart was not elected to the Phoenix City Council. Instead, the city’s District 8 will be represented by Kate Gallego. Now that it’s over, Stewart told me that running for office was “hard work, eye opening, fun, and one of the most humbling things I’ve ever done.” Also surprising. Gallego won the election in what several news outlets called a “landslide,” although in our city of 1.5 million residents, only 13,000 ballots were cast for this council seat. Gallego received just under 8,000 votes. Pastor Stewart just over 5,000. Voter turnout for the district was less than 20 percent. The low turnout was as difficult for Stewart to take – perhaps more so – than the loss. “When I started this process I went to the African American community to remind them that people died getting you this right, the right to vote, and you need to exercise this right,” he told me. “It kind of shocked me, and frustrated me in this day and age, that reaching out to those voters would be thought of by some people as divisive. As if I was somehow creating some type of racial tension by appealing to this particular community.” Stewart has spent his adult life advancing the ideals of racial and social equality. He was one of several local civil rights leaders who were often in the news during the difficult days of former Gov. Evan Mecham’s administration. But working for social justice and running for office are very different things, as Stewart learned the hard way. “People would ask me why I was bringing up race when I was encouraging African Americans to vote,” he said. “They wondered why I was making it a racial issue. I found this curious. Because many different groups try to get out the vote, and rightfully so. Latinos. Young people. Women. The LGBT community. All that was fine. I suppose we still have a ways to go in terms of dealing with race.” Stewart’s loss means Phoenix City Council will be without an African-American representative for the first time in decades. “I have seen changes in the make-up of the community for some time,” he said. “That’s why I joined with (Maricopa County Supervisor) Mary Rose Wilcox and others to form the Black/Brown Coalition of Arizona. People of color, even in the 21st century, are still at the top of the negative statistics in matters of health, the economy, education. “However, because Phoenix is such a transitory place you have many newcomers who don’t have a sense of the history of our town. In addition to that you have many young people who do not know about the long struggle for justice and racial equality. They take it for granted. Some of them live under the mistaken impression that this is a post-racial society.” He said the experience of running for office reminded him of a verse from the 23rd Psalm: “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies…” “It was difficult dealing with the politics of the race,” he said. “At the same time, I met so many wonderful people I had not known before. Overall, the experience was a blessing.” So, what’s next for the pastor? “I am going to continue to fight for justice,” he said. “I’ll keep fighting for equality. I will do what I can to make sure that no one is treated as a second class citizen. I heard from a number of people in the district who felt ignored. It shouldn’t be that way. So I’m just going to keep doing what I’ve been doing until the Lord says that’s enough.” That’s one of the big differences between a pastor and a politician. A politician answers to the citizens who elected him. A pastor answers to a higher authority. (Column for Nov. 18, 2013, Arizona Republic)
CPS workers handcuffs child to porch & hangs chicken on his neck??? Thank God we have government. Without government we wouldn't have anybody to do stuff like this!!! Just joking. http://www.azcentral.com/news/free/20131118nc-deputies-says-child-routinely-chained-home.html NC deputies says child routinely chained in home Associated Press Mon Nov 18, 2013 6:44 AM MONROE, N.C. — Authorities in North Carolina say it appears the 11-year-old boy found handcuffed to a porch with a dead chicken around his neck was routinely handcuffed in the home. Union County Sheriff’s Capt. Cody Luke also told The Charlotte Observer (http://bit.ly/1gXS78 ) on Sunday that human waste was found on the home’s floor. Wanda Sue Larson and Dorian Lee Harper were arrested Friday after a deputy found the boy. Larson is a supervisor with Union County Department of Social Services. The couple adopted four children and was fostering a fifth child. The couple is charged with intentional child abuse inflicting injury, false imprisonment and cruelty to animals. They are to be in court Monday. It wasn’t clear if they have lawyers yet. The children have been removed from the home. ——— Information from: The Charlotte Observer, http://www.charlotteobserver.co
It's not a taxpayer financed junket to China!!!! Honest, swear to God!!!! Well at least that what Scottsdale Mayor Jim Lane tells us!!! http://www.azcentral.com/community/scottsdale/articles/20131112scottsdale-mayor-visits-china-promote-city-tourism.html Scottsdale mayor visits China to promote city tourism By Analise Ortiz The Arizona Republic - 12 News Breaking News Team Wed Nov 13, 2013 10:30 AM Scottsdale Mayor Jim Lane visited China this month to meet with officials China and Taiwan and promote Scottsdale tourism. Lane was invited to the 17th annual Inter-Islands Tourism Policy (ITOP) Forum, which was held in Haikou, Hainan, China. The ITOP Forum took place Wednesday, Nov. 6, through Friday, Nov. 8. Topics of discussion included how to preserve local island culture while accommodating global tourism. Lane was given the opportunity to promote Scottsdale toursim at the forum, according to George Hartz, President of Scottsdale Sister Cities. Haikou is the capital city of Hainan, China, and is located in the South China Sea. It is one of Scottsdale’s six sister cities. The partnerships work to strengthen cultural diversity and economic development. Lane then headed to Taiwan earlier this week, where he met Gov. Jan Brewer. Lane has had previous discussions with Taiwanese officials about the possibility of bringing a baseball tournament to Scottsdale to coincide with spring training, said J.P. Twist, the mayor’s chief of staff. Twist said he did not know if that was discussed during this week’s trip. Twist said if a tournament were to be proposed, it likely would invite the best baseball teams from Taiwan and Arizona to take to the diamond against one another. Lane is also trying to form a relationship between little league teams in Scottsdale and Taiwan, Twist said. Brewer is in Taiwan promoting economic-development with a group of Arizona business and tourism-industry leaders. One of the highlights of her trip was a meeting with CEO of electronics-manufacturing giant Foxconn Technology Group to discuss the possibility of opening a factory in Arizona. The company makes televisions and display panels. It is unknown whether Lane was involved in that meeting. Lane’s trip was funded by the government of Haikou, Hainan. He was scheduled to return to Scottsdale on Wednesday, Nov. 13.
If our politicians hadn't illegally flushed the Second Amendment down the toilet with their unconstitutional laws making it illegal to have guns in schools we wouldn't be talking about this. We don't need more unconstitutional laws, we need the politicians to obey the existing laws. And that includes the politicians honouring the 2nd Amendment and letting anyone who feels like it carry a gun anywhere in Arizona, which includes schools. Tom Horne is also the jerk that has been trying to flush Arizona's medical marijuana act down the toilet. http://eastvalleytribune.com/arizona/politics/article_3aec1a08-7af3-11e2-a111-0019bb2963f4.html Bill could help arm teachers, principals on Arizona campuses Posted: Tuesday, February 19, 2013 5:18 pm | Updated: 9:45 am, Thu Feb 21, 2013. By Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services Attorney General Tom Horne and an Arizona Republican lawmaker are pushing a plan to let principals, teachers and janitors at public schools carry guns. Rep. David Stevens, R-Sierra Vista, said his goal is to make public schools safer. He said that having more people with guns -- with certain training -- should do that. But Stevens stressed that nothing in HB 2656 actually requires any school district to go along. Instead, he said it simply provides an option, with locally elected boards having the final decision. He also said it is less expensive than alternate plans to provide an armed police officer in every one of the approximately 2,000 public school buildings across the state. And the lack of a price tag also means the legislation does not have the additional hurdle of becoming part of the overall budget negotiations. But Andrew Morrill, president of the Arizona Education Association, said it's a mistake to believe that school employees with just 24 hours of training can replace a properly trained officer. "What I hear is passing the buck on training until we get it down to an affordable model,'' he said. "The school resource officer training takes a fully active licensed police officer who is already qualified to be a police officer, then trains them additionally to know how to be a police officer on the unique beat of a campus full of children, adolescents, pre-teens and teens,'' Morrill said. This measure, he said, "waters down some aspect of safety and a comprehensive approach.'' Horne said that if it were up to him, he would prefer to have police officers to armed teachers. But he said the political and fiscal reality is that isn't going to happen. "I've been fighting for school resource officers for all my eight years as (state school) superintendent,'' Horne said. "I think we had it in less than 5 percent of our schools,'' he continued. "And then they cut back even on that.'' Horne insisted this is better than nothing, which is what he fears the Legislature might fund. He said this ensures that "if a bad guy gets in and starts shooting there's somebody there to stop them.'' Stevens said the way the measure is crafted should blunt criticism from local school boards and their staffers. "All it is is a voluntary program,'' he said. "If they don't want to do it, they don't have to do it.'' Horne acknowledged that Arizona, which now bans guns from public school campuses, has not had problems similar to what have occurred elsewhere, including the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. But he said that should provide little comfort. "It's like saying you're immune from cancer because you've never had it,'' he said. "It strikes people at random,'' Horne continued. "And it strikes schools at random.'' He also said that parents would feel safer knowing there is someone on site who can respond. "You'd like to think there would be no guns in the school under any circumstances,'' Horne said. "But if a bad guy gets in there with a gun, you want to have a good guy there to at least minimize the damage.'' Horne and Stevens are seeking to blunt AEA criticism. Under the plan, the staffer would not be walking around the school armed. Instead, he or she would lock the weapon up in a place where it would be accessible if needed. One likely issue for debate is whether the training requirements Horne and Stevens wants is sufficient. To carry a weapon onto campus, an individual would need only to pass a 24-hour course. Issues to be covered include the legal situations where someone can use deadly force and the care, maintenance and safe handling of weapons. There also is a mandate for marksmanship training and "scenario-based training.'' Any district that chooses to go along would have to provide the Attorney General's Office with a list of employees who are authorized to use a gun. Horne said he believes 24 hours of training is enough. "If you look at police training and you eliminate all the stuff that's irrelevant, like how to give a speeding ticket and so on, I think you might find that the training is similar,'' he said. And Horne said the simulation training should ensure that those allowed to be armed would use proper judgment. "They have a computer and they have a film and you're presented with situations where you shoot or you don't shoot,'' he said. "Later on you can talk with someone about whether you showed good judgment or not.'' Horne said he took that course himself. "I passed,'' he said. "But they told me I needed to be more ready to shoot. I was too reluctant to shoot.'' Morrill said the problem with this legislation and similar plans is they are knee-jerk reactions to headlines that are not well thought out. "These horrifying situations come up like in Connecticut or Colorado and they're unthinkable,'' he said. "And all of a sudden, those are the situations we base our responses on,'' Morrill continued. "What we need are comprehensive safety plans for the day-in, day-out safety of students.'' He said these should include not just school safety officers if a district wants them but also ensuring there are sufficient counselors to deal with students, school psychologists to diagnose students that might be struggling with anger issues and "an aggressive anti-bullying campaign.'' Horne sidestepped questions about whether there are ways other than arming school staffers to minimize the risks of an attack to students, like a limit on how many rounds an individual can have in a clip. "That's not my jurisdiction,'' he said. What makes this his jurisdiction, Horne said, is that it would be his investigators, who are sworn peace officers, who would be offering the training, at his agency's expense. Horne also said it would be wrong to look at the proposal as simply arming just anyone in the school. "There's probably somebody in the school who would be suitable,'' he said. "I know lots of retired police officers who are teaching now,'' Horne explained. And he cited the "troops to teachers'' program which is designed to place military veterans in the classroom.
Obama - don't call my policies socialism - even if they are socialism!!!! http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/us/dont-dare-call-the-health-law-redistribution.html?hpw&rref=politics&_r=0 White House Memo - Don’t Dare Call the Health Law ‘Redistribution’ By JOHN HARWOOD Published: November 23, 2013 WASHINGTON — Rebecca M. Blank was a top candidate in 2011 to lead President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, but then the White House turned up something politically dangerous. “A commitment to economic justice necessarily implies a commitment to the redistribution of economic resources, so that the poor and the dispossessed are more fully included in the economic system,” Ms. Blank, a noted poverty researcher, wrote in 1992. With advisers wary of airing those views in a nomination fight, Mr. Obama passed over Ms. Blank, then a top Commerce Department official and now the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin. Instead he chose Alan Krueger, a Princeton economist. “Redistribution is a loaded word that conjures up all sorts of unfairness in people’s minds,” said William M. Daley, who was Mr. Obama’s chief of staff at the time. Republicans wield it “as a hammer” against Democrats, he said, adding, “It’s a word that, in the political world, you just don’t use.” These days the word is particularly toxic at the White House, where it has been hidden away to make the Affordable Care Act more palatable to the public and less a target for Republicans, who have long accused Democrats of seeking “socialized medicine.” But the redistribution of wealth has always been a central feature of the law and lies at the heart of the insurance market disruptions driving political attacks this fall. “Americans want a fair and fixed insurance market,” said Jonathan Gruber, a health economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who advised Mr. Obama’s team as it designed the law. “You cannot have that without some redistribution away from a small number of people.” Mr. Obama’s advisers set out to pass the law in 2009 fully aware that fears among middle-class voters sank President Bill Clinton’s health initiative 16 years earlier. So they designed the legislation to minimize the number of people likely to be hurt. Instead of a sweeping change to a government-run “single-payer” system favored by Democratic liberals, members of the administration sought to preserve the existing system of employer-provided health insurance while covering the uninsured through the expansion of Medicaid and changes to the individual insurance market. They also added benefits available to any family, such as the ability of children up to age 26 to remain on their parents’ health plans. But throughout the process, they knew that some level of redistributing wealth — creating losers as well as winners — was inescapable. They were nonetheless acutely aware of how explosive the word could be. When Mr. Obama ran for president in 2008, Republicans tried to wound him by accusing him of waging “class warfare” to achieve wealth redistribution. That fall, the Republican presidential nominee, Senator John McCain, derided Mr. Obama as the “redistributor in chief” as he seized on Mr. Obama’s comments to an Ohio man later known as “Joe the Plumber” that he wanted to “spread the wealth around.” Mr. Obama survived that episode and other instances when Republicans deployed old recordings of him using the word “redistribution” as evidence that he was a closet socialist. But Mr. Obama had learned a lesson. After he took office, he cast his goal of rolling back President George W. Bush’s tax cuts for higher earners not as economic redistribution, but as the restoration of top-end rates from the Clinton years. The Affordable Care Act was a similar semantic sidestep. The law targeted high earners, too, by raising their Medicare taxes enough to reduce their after-tax incomes by nearly 2 percent, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. That revenue helped finance coverage for those currently without insurance, who tend to have lower incomes and who in many cases will receive government subsidies to make their premiums cheaper. And yet for those nervous about potential changes, the president promised stability. “If you like your current insurance, you will keep your current insurance,” Mr. Obama said the day he signed the legislation in March 2010, a promise he made repeatedly as the Oct. 1 opening day of the online health insurance marketplaces approached. Hiding in plain sight behind that pledge — visible to health policy experts but not the general public — was the redistribution required to extend health coverage to those who had been either locked out or priced out of the market. Now some of that redistribution has come clearly into view. The law, for example, banned rate discrimination against women, which insurance companies called “gender rating” to account for their higher health costs. But that raised the relative burden borne by men. The law also limited how much more insurers can charge older Americans, who use more health care over all. But that raised the relative burden on younger people. And the law required insurers to offer coverage to Americans with pre-existing conditions, which eased costs for less healthy people but raised prices for others who had been charged lower rates because of their good health. “The A.C.A. is very much about redistribution, whether or not its advocates acknowledge that this is the case,” wrote Reihan Salam on the website of the conservative National Review. Having obscured much of that vulnerability before, Mr. Obama has responded to recent political heat by apologizing — and expanding the scope of his discredited “you can keep it” promise. Mr. Gruber of M.I.T. called redistribution a convenient tool for Republican opponents who would fight the law anyway. In the end, America’s political culture may have made it unrealistic to expect a smooth public reception for the law, no matter how cleverly the White House modulated Mr. Obama’s language or shaped his policy to minimize the number of losers. “The reality is, any big thing you take on, any big change, is hard to accomplish,” said David Axelrod, the president’s longtime strategist. In America, he said, “we’ve created a sense that everyone can expect to win — nobody has to sacrifice.” At the same time, Mr. Axelrod argued that widening income inequality has, to some Americans at least, changed the meaning of redistribution. “The whole redistribution argument has shifted in the country because there’s a sense that a lot of redistribution has been to the top and not the bottom,” Mr. Axelrod said. Still, the word is hardly a favorite of the president these days. The last time Mr. Obama used it in public, according to Federal News Service transcripts, was 18 months ago during his re-election campaign in Elyria, Ohio. “Understand this is not a redistribution argument,” the president told his audience then. “This is not about taking from rich people to give to poor people. This is about us together making investments in our country so everybody’s got a fair shot.”
ASU student governments break own bylaws I guess it isn't surprising that the student government at ASU has the same disrespect for their Constitution that elected officials in both the Arizona and US government for the Arizona and US Constitutions. http://www.statepress.com/2013/11/21/asu-student-governments-break-own-bylaws-while-passing-150-per-year-athletic-fee-bill/ ASU student governments break own bylaws while passing $150-per-year athletic fee bill By Amy Medeiros November 21, 2013 at 10:00 am ASU’s undergraduate student governments have broken their own bylaws and may have violated Arizona’s open meeting laws by not making documents related to their meetings publicly available. These include documents related to the newly passed athletic fee, Senate Bill 31, which all five student governments had approved by Oct. 29. The bill’s passage is the first step toward the creation of a mandatory $75-per-semester student fee, which would be used to fund Sun Devil Athletics. The undergraduate student governments are in varying degrees of violation of their bylaws. Each campus government has its own set with unique stipulations. None of the governments have clearly accessible meeting agendas on their websites or OrgSync pages. Tempe, Downtown and West all have bylaws that state agendas must be publicly available before meetings — by 9 a.m. the day of the meeting for the Tempe and Downtown campuses and 48 hours before the meeting for the West campus. Polytechnic’s bylaws require “all relevant information about upcoming votes and discussions” be posted 24 hours before senate meetings. USG Tempe does not maintain a public calendar of meeting dates, times or locations on its webpage or its OrgSync. The State Press reported on Oct. 16 that USG Tempe had not updated the minutes section of its website since Sept. 25, 2012. That section has since been updated, but only through the Oct. 8 meeting. USG Tempe has had two regular meetings since Oct. 8. Minutes must be approved at the next meeting before they can be officially posted, but that still leaves USG Tempe one meeting behind. USG Tempe’s bylaws also state that minutes from the last meeting are to be included in the public agenda for the next meeting. The legislation section of USG Tempe’s website is also outdated. As of Monday, the last bills posted on the site were motions from early September to approve members of USG staff. The page does not provide a copy of SB 31, the Athletic Fee Bill, for students to read. USG Tempe Senate President Alexis Gonzalez said she puts all bills on the senators’ private Blackboard group and that she will provide any bills to students who email a request for them. She said she didn’t realize that USG bylaws require the senate secretary to release agendas to the public by 9 a.m. the morning of meeting days. “It would definitely be our job to put it up on the website,” she said. “… I do take fault for that.” State Law Title 38 of the Arizona Revised Statutes regulates public meetings within the state. A.R.S. 38-431.02 requires 24 hours of “conspicuous” notice to be given of any public meeting. The public body must post the notice to its website and can’t cite technological problems as an excuse for not giving notice. Bodies must also post an agenda 24 hours in advance of the meeting. A.R.S. 38-431.01 requires minutes to be made available within three working days of a public meeting, and A.R.S. 38-431.05 nullifies any actions taken at meetings in violation of these requirements. Bodies can ratify those actions within 30 days of the violation’s discovery and would have to give 72 hours advance notice of the new meeting. The Arizona Board of Regents, which oversees the state universities, is held to A.R.S. 38 as a public body. ABOR Policy 5-202 states that while the Board does not have approval power over associated students’ constitutions, it can submit the associations to review and has veto power over their actions. It also establishes that student governments are not separate legal entities from their universities. ABOR and ASU administrators declined to comment on SB 31 while it is still in the proposal stage. David Bodney, an adjunct professor of law at Sandra Day O’Connor Law School and the managing partner for Steptoe & Johnson’s Phoenix offices, said determining whether student governments are subject to Arizona’s open meeting laws is a matter of deciding whether they are a public body. As of yet, there is no case history to definitively classify student governments as public bodies, he said. However, Arizona is clearly a state that favors open meetings, Bodney said. “There’s a strong presumption in favor of open and public meetings in Arizona,” he said. He said it is a matter of sound public policy to provide agendas and meeting notices. Without a case example, it comes down to interpreting whether student governments should be following Arizona’s open meeting laws, but it makes “perfect sense” for them to do so, he said. “As a matter of public policy, it only makes sense for student governments to hold open and public meetings,” Bodney said. “I think the open meetings law is broad enough to encompass student governments.” Student Government at UA Associated Students of the University of Arizona’s constitution requires that its senate follow Arizona’s open meeting laws. However, ASUA’s senate site hasn’t posted minutes or an agenda since Oct. 22. ASUA President Morgan Abraham said the senate likes to conduct a full referendum when it proposes new fees. He said this is more of a preferred than a mandated procedure that ends with students voting on the measure. When the measures come from the executive board, as ASU’s SB 31 did, the procedure is different, Abraham said. Instead of a referendum, the outreach team will create focus groups and hold open forums, he said. Abraham said ASUA struggles to reach all 30,000 of UA’s students, so it likes to get students as involved in the process as possible. He said he likes the involvement that comes with a vote, though voter turnout at UA only ranges from 10 to 25 percent. “We’re definitely able to hit some cliques on campus better than others,” he said. “That’s why we like to open it up to a formal election where people who are more opinionated on the issue can let their voice be heard.” USG’s Efforts at Communication USG Tempe Senator Devon Mills said USG did all it could to reach out to students, adding that is inaccurate to say USG didn’t try to involve students. “It’s a very extreme assumption to say that,” he said. USG reached out to college councils, held town halls and launched a social media campaign, he said. No emails were sent out because there is a long request process involved to send a mass email to the student body, he said. USG tried to have individual colleges notify their listservs, but administration blocked them, Mills said. “They shut out email from us,” he said. University spokeswoman Julie Newberg said requests for mass emails to students must go through the provost’s office and that on average, only one is sent every semester. Mills said he sent two emails to the listserv of club leaders, which he does have access to, and only received one response. That response never went beyond an email exchange, he said. “It’s easy to say we’re not reaching out to all the students,” he said. “Reaching out to them is like reaching out to a small town. … We do everything in our power to reach out to students.” Tempe Undergraduate President Jordan Davis said in addition to holding town halls, talking to college councils and running a social media campaign, the government reached out to the representative “Big Five” student organizations for feedback. The Big Five are the Programming and Activities Board, Residence Hall Association, Greek Life, Student Alumni Association and Associated Students of ASU. The only group that didn’t fully support the bill was Tempe’s RHA, he said. “We did it as transparently as we possibly could,” he said. Davis ran on a platform of keeping fees and tuition low for students. He said he thought his administration has kept that promise, adding that a $150 per year fee is less than the usual tuition increase of 3 percent, or approximately $500. Initial news of the bill focused more on the fee than the positive aspects that will come from the resulting tuition reinvestment, Davis said. “All (students) heard from reporters was ‘fee,’ and that’s a dirty word,” he said. “I would never push for something like this if I honestly didn’t believe at my core that it would help students.” PAB President Zac Donohoe said the diversity of PAB’s members, which include graduate and international students as well students of many major affiliations, makes it adequately representative of the student body. He said Davis came to him a few weeks before the bill went public to PAB’s thoughts and approval. “They’ve been pretty transparent through the whole process,” he said. “Which is good. I think that’s what they needed to do when one of their big points for the bill is transparency.” Donohoe said even PAB faces problems communicating with students. “I think (USG) did all they could have without spending a ton of money,” he said. “You can engage the students, but it ultimately boils down to whether or not they want to come.” Short Timelines Alexis Kramer-Ainza, a Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication senator at the Downtown campus, said she supports the fee but would have liked more time to get feedback from constituents. Kramer-Ainza withheld her vote when USG Downtown passed the bill, she said. She said she worries about the financial burden of the fee. “I don’t want it to be a sacrifice for students to pay that,” Kramer-Ainza said. “We’re not going to please everyone, but I would at least liked to have gotten more feedback than what was given to us on such a short timeline.” Katherine Lee, president of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences College Council, said opinion over the bill was split when CLASCC heard about it from its senators. It seemed abrupt and sudden, she said. “It was definitely a surprise that this bill was coming forth,” she said. Lee said the fee didn’t seem fair after students were told tuition wouldn’t rise and that the promised benefits seem hard to follow through on, adding that better ways, such as private donors, might have been found to fund Sun Devil Athletics. Sun Devil Athletics ran a deficit of $5.8 million dollars in 2012, despite receiving a subsidy of $10.3 million from the University, according to a report from USA Today. The Arizona Republic reported last August that the subsidy comes from the portion of ASU’s operating budget that is not taxpayer-funded — in other words, from tuition and grants. The Republic reported Friday that Sun Devil Athletics made a profit of $73,764 for fiscal year 2013. Lee said similar measures used to take weeks or months to move through the senate, but this bill seemed to pass quickly. While college councils are liaisons between students and senators, senators still need to reach out to constituents, because they have the most information about policy, Lee said. She said the council’s opinion was still split over the bill when it was voted on, and at this point, it is hard to say if the bill will be good or bad. “I am very anxious to see what they actually will do with it,” Lee said. “I don’t think it should have to fall on the students to bail out the athletics system.” Reach the reporter at ammedeir@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @amy_medeiros Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the amount of the fee in one instance. It has been updated.
You can't rely on the government to do the right thing!!!!
Of course they will continue to tell us that they are smarter,
brighter and more moral then the rest of us and that we
need them to tell us how to run our lives!!!!
http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/20131127arizona-college-students-data-breach.html
Maricopa Colleges waited 7 months to notify 2.4 million students of data breach
By Mary Beth Faller The Republic | azcentral.com Wed Nov 27, 2013 10:27 PM
The Maricopa County Community College District waited seven months to notify 2.4 million current and former students and employees that their academic or personal data were compromised in an April security breach.
The district’s governing board has already approved several million dollars for repairs, which are still being made, and on Tuesday agreed to spend up to $7 million more to notify everyone who is potentially affected, spokesman Tom Gariepy said Wednesday.
Letters will be sent to current and former students, employees and vendors of the district’s 10 colleges going back at least several years to alert them that their information could have been seen, Gariepy said.
Among the vulnerable data were employees’ Social Security numbers, driver’s-license numbers and bank-account information, he said.
Students’ academic information also may have been exposed, but not their personal information.
There is no evidence that any information actually was looked at or stolen, Gariepy said.
A company has been hired to handle questions and assist people who may have been affected.
The FBI notified the district on April 29 that it found a website advertising personal data from the district’s information-technology system for sale, Gariepy said. The district’s website was taken down that day and stayed down for several days before being restored in stages.
Gariepy said the district didn’t release information about the event at the time because it was investigating the extent of the exposure.
“There was a tremendous amount of data, and the forensics investigation around this was very complex,” he said. “They had to look at a number of different systems and servers and databases.
“It would have been nice to say something earlier, but we couldn’t give anyone information until we could say it with certainty, even if it’s not conclusive.”
At the same time, the district was repairing its information-technology system and didn’t want to publicize that it could be vulnerable, he said.
Gariepy said the district has installed more firewalls and security procedures. He also said some employees in the information-technology department face disciplinary action.
He would not elaborate.
“We started immediate steps to make the system secure, and it’s become progressively more secure as time has gone on,” he said.
Reaction subdued
Reaction was muted as the news began to circulate by Wednesday afternoon.
Scottsdale Community College student Lindsay Hager said she hadn’t heard about the breach but said, “It is a concern, because everything we do now is online.”
Terry Gustafson, an adjunct faculty member at SCC, said he had little information but wasn’t particularly worried about his personal data.
“There had been some scuttlebutt about it for some time, but no one was saying much. The recent announcements basically said the problem was discovered, investigated and fixed,” he said.
Lucas Bodine, president of the Associated Students of Mesa Community College, said he is confident the issue will be resolved.
“Anytime that personal information may have been exposed, it is a concern,” he said. “It seems that the district has made this a high priority in order to protect students and staff.”
The Maricopa Community Colleges Faculty Association released a statement echoing that sentiment:
“We are confident that the district will do what is necessary to adequately protect students and MCCCD employees, now and in the future.”
Gariepy said the $7 million notification process was approved by the district governing board Tuesday night.
The money will go to an outside consultant, who will send the notification letters to everyone whose information was exposed.
The letters, which should be received by mid-December, will include instructions on what to do.
The $7 million also will pay for maintenance of a call center and continuous credit monitoring for people who ask for it.
Chancellor Rufus Glasper said in a statement: “On behalf of the district, I deeply regret that this occurred and am leading a thorough response designed to prevent this from happening again.
“We are examining every aspect of our IT operations, and the changes under way are making us stronger systemwide.”
Gariepy said that the FBI has made no arrests and that the district is continuing to cooperate.
Contact months ago
Special Agent Manuel Johnson, an FBI spokesman, confirmed Wednesday that agents assigned to the bureau’s Phoenix Division contacted officials with the college system about the matter months ago.
“We received information via official channels, and we contacted Maricopa County Community Colleges,” he said.
Johnson wasn’t in a position to discuss further details about the matter, such as who was collecting the data and to whom it was being sold, he said.
FBI agents said they are not aware of any additional Arizona victims, other than those associated with the college system.
In general, members of the public should be careful about their interactions via the Internet, Johnson said.
“If you don’t know who you’re dealing with, don’t provide personal information,” he said.
Republic reporters Paul Giblin and Kirsten Kraklio contributed to this article.
As I said before, remember our government masters think they know how to run our lives better then we do, because they are much more ethical, and of course a lot smarter then us. Well at least that's what they want us to think.
http://eastvalleytribune.com/local/mesa/article_d935fa88-57a4-11e3-b937-0019bb2963f4.html
Student, worker data at risk at Maricopa colleges
Posted: Wednesday, November 27, 2013 2:00 pm
Cassie Klapp, ABC15.com
The Maricopa County Community College District said Wednesday they are notifying students, employees and others whose information was compromised during a breach of data security back in April.
Approximately 2,489,000 students, employees and others have started to get notifications that their name, date of birth, social security number and bank information could have been accessed during the breach, Communications Director Tom Gariepy said.
Notifications are being sent out, but it could take up to two weeks for students and employees to get them. A company has been contracted through the district to provide identity safeguards and other services at no cost to people who are being notified that their data may have been exposed.
Gariepy said they do not know how far back the breach goes, but if someone does not want to wait for the notification, they can look at their bank information for any discrepancies.
The notifications alone will cost the district $7 million and right now, no one knows where that money is coming from.
MCCCD Chancellor Rufus Glasper ordered immediate action to strengthen security and take offline portions of its IT systems with security vulnerabilities and taking action in connection with employees and making personnel changes as needed, according to Gariepy.
Since the breach on April 29, 2013, the district has looked into improving security, through firewalls, installing new security technology and other protections, Gariepy said.
The Maricopa Community College system includes 10 colleges and several centers: Chandler-Gilbert, Estrella Mountain, GateWay, Glendale, Mesa, Paradise Valley, Phoenix, Rio Salado, Scottsdale, South Mountain, Maricopa and Southwest Skill Centers and Maricopa Corporate College.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/arizona/articles/20131127judge-quartzsite-officers-rights-violated.html
Federal judge: Quartzsite officials violated officers' rights
By Dennis Wagner The Republic | azcentral.com Wed Nov 27, 2013 9:53 PM
A federal judge has ruled that Quartzsite officials violated the free-speech rights of 10 Police Department employees who were fired after they publicly accused former Chief Jeffrey Gilbert of misconduct.
U.S. District Judge Mark Aspey said in a 60-page ruling issued last week that Gilbert, former Town Manager Alex Taft and former Assistant Manager Albert Johnson are personally liable for damages, along with the municipality.
“Truth for the most part has finally come out,” said William Ponce, one of the plaintiffs and a former sergeant on the police force. “We finally get some kind of vindication.”
Gilbert, Taft and Johnson no longer work for Quartzsite. Neither they nor their lawyers could be reached for comment Wednesday.
The lawsuit stems from small-town political turmoil that has enveloped Quartzsite for years.
In 2011, police officers filed complaints against Gilbert with the Town Council, the state Department of Public Safety and the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board, the state’s law-enforcement certification agency.
Among other things, the employees alleged that Gilbert unlawfully used national crime computers to investigate political foes and violated the civil rights of dissidents by making arrests without probable cause.
They also alleged that Gilbert failed to document vacation and leave time. The letter to the standards and training board said officers had taken a vote of no confidence in the chief.
The DPS investigated only some allegations and did so in a cursory manner that resulted in no referrals for criminal conduct, according to Aspey’s ruling. The standards and training board initially refused to investigate, but recently announced that an inquiry is pending with regard to Gilbert.
Quartzsite’s municipal conflict was so divisive that, at public meetings, supporters of Gilbert and the Town Council majority wore blue shirts while the opposition donned red shirts.
Members of the political- minority group have said they were arrested on false charges at Gilbert’s direction. Prosecutors threw out all charges against them and publicly decried the abuse of police authority in Quartzsite.
After an internal investigation, however, two town administrators concluded that police employees made false accusations against the chief, thereby discrediting the community and disrupting police services.
Nine officers and a civilian employee were terminated.
Aspey’s ruling says Gilbert falsely asserted that he had been cleared by the DPS inquiry. The judge concluded that Gilbert sought to intimidate the employees and threatened them with dismissal for exercising their First Amendment rights.
Aspey found that the two town administrators carried out Gilbert’s threats as retaliation. And, to the extent that any disruption occurred, Aspey wrote, “It appears that the chief’s behavior, including his response to plaintiffs’ protected free speech, caused the breakdown.”
A hearing date has not been set to consider damages. Meanwhile, two additional counts in the lawsuit are pending.
Laura Bruno, Quartzsite’s current town manager, said she has not had an opportunity to evaluate the ruling or speak with attorneys about a possible appeal.
Ponce said the legal victory for him and other police employees is “bittersweet” because “our names and our careers have been tainted, and it’s never going to be the same.”
Reach the reporter at dennis.wagner@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8874.
Sounds like the government schools have a lot more important things to do then educating the kids. And one of those is making sure the kids don't think on their own.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/free/20131127wisconsin-students-vulgar-video-protected-court-rules.html
Student’s vulgar video is protected, court rules
Associated Press Wed Nov 27, 2013 9:50 AM
MADISON, Wis. — A state appeals court judge says a student’s YouTube video degrading his teacher is protected speech but the boy is still delinquent for abusing computer communications.
A Portage County judge found a 15-year-old boy identified only as Kaleb K. in court documents delinquent based on a finding he was of guilty disorderly conduct and unlawfully using a computerized communication system. The boy’s attorney argued the video was protected under the First Amendment and posting it didn’t amount to sending a message.
A 4th District Court of Appeals judge on Wednesday ruled the video was protected speech but the boy still violated the computerized communication statute, noting he told his friends about the video.
The boy’s attorney says if the video is protected he can’t be prosecuted for anything.
http://www.azcentral.com/insiders/ejmontini/2013/11/27/good-idea-about-pot-will-go-to-pot/
Good idea will go to pot
Rep. Ruben Gallego is proposing to introduce legislation that makes perfect sense … and therefore has no chance of passing. Or even of getting a hearing.
The young Democrat wants the legislature to pass a law in Arizona allowing marijuana to be sold to adults over the age of 21.
It would being in tons of tax dollars, save us million in prosecution and incarceration and add to the momentum of marijuana legalization that is building around the country.
But not here, not yet.
Arizona politicians are spending a lot of time and a lot of effort and a lot of taxpayer money trying to dismantle the medical marijuana law that citizens here already approved.
Legalization of marijuana is common sense.
But it won’t happen, perhaps the politicians who run the show here seem to believe that common sense is illegal.
How do you spell revenue??? Photo radar bandits!!!!
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-speed-camera-system-flags-parked-car-promo-20131127,0,2596112.story
Speed camera system flags a parked car
City, vendor call mistaken warning an 'isolated incident'
By Bill Ruthhart and Ellen Jean Hirst, Chicago Tribune reporters
6:11 a.m. CST, November 28, 2013
On a Friday night in October, Megan Kasten parked her car for five minutes on Augusta Boulevard near Humboldt Park while she picked up a friend to go see a movie.
A month later, Kasten said she got a warning notice in the mail for speeding past the Northwest Side park at 37 miles per hour, a violation recorded by one of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's new speed cameras.
Certain that she hadn't been speeding, Kasten logged onto the city's website to review the video of her infraction, but the images didn't show her driving at all. Instead, the video and photos recorded by the camera showed her silver Honda Civic sitting parked while a white, four-door car drove by on the other side of the street.
"I was kind of shocked that the camera obviously flashed and it just seemed like it was just picking up all the license plates in the vicinity," said Kasten, 33, a VIP services assistant manager for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. "I was angry that I was getting a warning ... and then I was wondering if all those other cars got a ticket. I thought (the camera) would be advanced enough that it would pick up the car that was actually moving."
Emanuel transportation officials and the city's speed camera vendor, American Traffic Solutions, both said Kasten's unwarranted warning was a one-off mistake and not indicative of a broader problem with the new system. The camera system operated properly, but employees reviewing the video assigned blame for the speeding to the wrong vehicle, said Deputy Transportation Commissioner Scott Kubly and American Traffic Solutions spokesman Charles Territo.
Kubly said he was not aware of any other case in which the wrong vehicle was mistakenly chosen for a warning or ticket, calling what happened to Kasten an "isolated occurrence."
http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-living/ci_24613680/woman-fined-140-day-refusing-circumcise-son
Woman fined $140 a day for refusing to circumcise son
By Sarah Wolfe, GlobalPost
Posted: 11/26/2013 11:02:53 PM PST
In an unprecedented ruling, an Israeli woman has been ordered to pay a penalty of $140 a day for refusing to circumcise her son.
The Rabbinical Court in Jerusalem rejected the woman's appeal of the fine on Monday, the Times of Israel reported.
Her estranged husband requested the penalty as part of their divorce proceedings, according to Haaretz.
He wants their son circumcised. She does not.
“I have no right to cut his organ and mutilate him, and the court has no right to force me to do so,” the unidentified woman said.
She has vowed not to pay the fine, which has reached $700, and plans to take the case to the country's Supreme Court.
“I don't have the means (to pay), I'm not working,” she said.
The court ruled her refusal to circumcise the boy was part of a ploy to save her marriage.
http://www.mercurynews.com/nation-world/ci_24614620/san-jose-cop-charged-issuing-phony-tickets-against
San Jose cop charged with issuing phony tickets against lawsuit foe and his own lawyer
By Robert Salonga
rsalonga@mercurynews.com
Posted: 11/27/2013 12:47:38 PM PST | Updated: about 14 hours ago
SAN JOSE -- After a veteran San Jose police officer got in a car accident five years ago, he sued the other driver, ultimately settling out of court. But perhaps not to his liking.
And he apparently couldn't let it go, say prosecutors who charged him with writing phony citations last month targeting the driver, and in a strange twist, the attorney he hired to handle his case.
George Chavez, 51, faces three felony counts of false personation exposing the victim to liability, and three felony counts of filing a false police report. The 23-year police veteran surrendered to authorities Tuesday night, and was freed after posting $60,000 bail.
( Gary Reyes )
Authorities say that on Oct. 28, Chavez used his police computer to look up a Texas man he sued in 2008 after a local car accident, as well as the attorney from the Sacramento-area he hired to file the corresponding civil suit.
He then purportedly used that data to write up one traffic ticket and two tickets for illegally parking in a handicapped zone, forging the signatures of the Texas man, the attorney and two other police officers on the citations.
"It's surprising and unfortunate because we put a lot of responsibility on police officers and give them a lot of power," deputy district attorney Daniel Rothbach said. "Besides using his police computer, he went even further, exposing the victims to liabilities and abusing the trust of other police officers."
The purported scheme unraveled when the officer whose signature appeared on the traffic ticket was notified after an administrative review of the citation, and alerted a supervisor. The motorist listed on the ticket was in Texas when the documented violation supposedly occurred. Further investigation turned up the phony parking tickets.
San Jose police officials expressed concern about the allegations against one of its officers.
"In these cases, we respect the criminal process and monitor the criminal proceedings, which will be followed by an administrative review," Sgt. Heather Randol, a police spokeswoman, said. "We hold our officers accountable."
Randol deferred additional questions to the District Attorney's Office.
The charges carry a penalty of up to six years and four months in prison. Chavez was placed on administrative leave from the police department. His next court date is Dec. 10.
Contact Robert Salonga at 408-920-5002. Follow him at Twitter.com/robertsalonga.
Why cops love Shermain Miles???
I suspect cops love Shermain Miles because she has created a jobs
program for them arresting her for the victim-less crime
of being stoned or drunk. It's a lot safer to claim you are
a hero for arresting a harmless drunk or stoner, then
hunting down real criminals like bank robbers or rapists.
http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/free/20131122chicago-woman-arrested-hundreds.html
Woman arrested 396 times vows to change
Associated Press Fri Nov 22, 2013 1:06 PM
CHICAGO — A Chicago woman who has been arrested hundreds of times says that after her latest release from jail she is determined to turn her life around.
Fifty-two-year-old Shermain Miles has been arrested 396 times in the past 35 years. Her offenses ranged from disorderly conduct and theft to attacking a City Council member.
In June, a judge sentenced her to time served after she agreed to get mental health and substance abuse treatment.
She was released from the Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln.
On her train journey home, Miles told the Chicago Sun-Times (http://bit.ly/1fc6Fk3 ) that she's not a bad person but that alcohol had turned her "into a monster."
She was headed to a residential home for ex-inmates and says she's permanently given up drugs and alcohol.
Politics, it's mostly about money and power and has nothing to do with being a "public servant" as most of our elected officials love to claim they are.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/20131113arizona-candidates-elbowed-out.html
For Arizona candidates, 1st campaign push is often an elbow
By Yvonne Wingett Sanchez The Republic | azcentral.com Sun Nov 24, 2013 10:32 PM
The jockeying between two Republican hopefuls began in the fall of 2012 with a meeting at the Phoenix Biltmore’s Paradise Bakery to discuss the future of Arizona politics.
Christine Jones, a former attorney for Web-hosting company Go Daddy, said she was thinking about running for governor.
So was state Treasurer Doug Ducey, a relative political newcomer, who, Jones recalled, was already apparently attempting to clear the GOP field for his own 2014 campaign.
Jones said Ducey recounted how “offended” he was when someone tried to talk him out of running for treasurer a few years ago. But then he spent the next 90 minutes trying to talk her out of running for governor, she said.
“Even then, he said, ‘You know, I really think it makes sense for you to run for an office and get your feet wet — why don’t you run for attorney general?’ ” she recalled during a phone interview with The Arizona Republic.
Ducey confirmed the two met that day, but he disputes Jones’ version of the encounter. Instead, he said, he wanted to seek her support in defeating a 2012 ballot initiative that would have permanently continued the temporary 1-cent-per-dollar sales tax.
But, Ducey added, he could see why a GOP candidate would have such a discussion with a potential rival.
“It’s understandable Republicans would be thinking this way. We just went through a presidential process where the Republican candidates chewed each other up and Barack Obama got a free ride,” Ducey said. “It’s easy to understand why people would want to avoid that scenario again in other races.
“At the same time,” he continued, “this is America — if you want to run for public office, then you get to run. No one should tell you what you should or shouldn’t do.”
Regardless of what happened between Jones and Ducey — who are now both neck-deep in preparations for the 2014 governor’s GOP primary race — the strategy of elbowing out competition happens at some level in nearly every election. Republicans and Democrats often use go-betweens to push others out of races.
With Arizona’s compressed election cycle, candidates have a short time — about six weeks, taking early voting into consideration — between the primary and general elections, in late August and early November, to sell themselves to voters, so they want to come out of the primary as unscathed as possible. A bloody primary can jeopardize a win in the general election.
But candidates and political observers say the approach is being used more frequently this election cycle than in the past, partly because so many statewide seats are in play, including governor, attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer and the Corporation Commission, which regulates utilities.
Political consultants say the maneuvering has drawn more attention because in at least one instance, a former U.S. senator was involved.
Another motivation for the jostling is speculation about the potential involvement this year of “dark money” groups, which can spend heavily to influence political campaigns with little or no disclosure of the source of the money. As a result, potential candidates are no longer just sizing up how much money they can raise but must also consider whether they can withstand potential “dark money” resources.
“There are two campaigns: There’s the campaign we all think about, the one where everyone votes on Election Day,” said consultant Stan Barnes. “But there is a campaign before the campaign. That’s the one where it’s determined who is going to be in the race.”
The voters rarely see that campaign.
But it has played out more publicly this cycle, partly because of a successful effort to “draft” former Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman to run for treasurer instead of governor, and because candidates have been vocal about efforts to squeeze them out.
Hallman, a Republican, had his sights on the state’s top job. In January, he launched a speaking tour. For several months, he traveled the state to talk to voters about their concerns. He filed paperwork with the secretary of state and launched a website trumpeting his accomplishments.
Then came the pressure, Hallman said, which included “a deluge of phone calls” from supporters who told him he was an attractive candidate but given the crowded gubernatorial field — “a circular firing squad of Republicans” — that he would be a better fit as treasurer.
Hallman dismisses any perception that he caved to pressure, saying his decision to bow out of the race for governor was based on a “sensible assessment” of his electability. His message resonates with voters, he said, but he recognized he could not raise enough money to match wealthy “self-funded” opponents.
By the time he bowed out of the race in September, there were at least six Republican gubernatorial candidates. He pointed out that Ducey and Jones are expected to raise millions of dollars, not including the independent-expenditure committees that are expected to be involved.
On Sept. 19, supporters wrote Hallman, saying, “Our goal in sending you this letter is to show you that if you were to change the elected office you seek from governor to state treasurer, you will have the support of Arizona residents who want to make sure you are part of our state’s public policy discussion in the future.”
Hallman said the request made sense. “I said ‘I’m happy to do this,’ because I’m sick of walking into a room and having everybody look at their shoes because there’s so many people running for governor and no one wants to commit.”
Sometimes such efforts backfire.
Jones said that after her meeting with Ducey, she continued to get pressure “from a number of people, some quite successful and influential,” to run for another office. She said the requests only solidified her decision to run.
“I don’t believe that small groups of people should pick representation for large groups of people,” she said. “It’s very dangerous when political consultants come in and say, in this election cycle it’s going to be this guy’s turn, and then next election cycle it’s going to be the other guy’s turn.”
Political consultant Chris Baker said several clients broached the strategy of suggesting their rivals pursue alternative offices, but he advised against it. He did not talk specifically about which candidates proposed using the strategy.
The strategy, he said, is almost always met with suspicion, and the messenger is never a neutral party.
“It’s kind of like a used-car salesman saying, ‘This car is awesome. You should buy it,’ ” Baker said. “There’s an insult there in that statement, and most candidates are like, ‘The hell with you; I’ll show you.’ ”
That was the case with Ken Bennett, another Republican running for governor. This fall, he was the subject of a draft movement aimed at persuading him to abandon his pursuit of the Ninth Floor.
Bennett, who formally announced his candidacy earlier this month, said Alan Heywood, chairman-elect of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and a supporter of Ducey’s campaign, tried to coax him into running for the Corporation Commission instead.
Bennett said he was puzzled by Heywood’s suggestion since they had talked about his campaign and Bennett considered “him as playing a role as a consultant of some sort.” At the end of the conversation, Bennett recalled, Heywood brought up the idea of him running for the commission instead. “I told him I was flattered, but I was running for governor,” Bennett said.
Weeks later, a website called draftkenbennettforacc.com popped up, led by Heywood. It featured a portrait of Bennett and accolades about his experience; it encouraged people to sign a petition to encourage him to run for the commission.
“The first attempt wasn’t insulting,” Bennett said. “To have it happen again as a ‘Draft Ken,’ (when) I clearly said I wasn’t interested, that was a bit confusing.”
Bennett added that he hasn’t “been able to figure out if his thing was ... an orchestrated effort by more politically powerful folks.”
Heywood did not return a call seeking comment.
In another high-profile attempt to sideline a candidate, former U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl arranged a meeting last month to ask state Sen. Michele Reagan to run for the Corporation Commission instead of secretary of state. Reagan faces state Rep. Justin Pierce and businessman Wil Cardon in the GOP primary.
Reagan, who would not talk to The Republic about the meeting, told Kyl she wasn’t interested.
Corporation Commissioner Susan Bitter Smith also attended the meeting and described the exchange to The Republic. She said Kyl invited her to the meeting.
Kyl, a strong Ducey supporter, did not respond to a request for comment.
“I don’t believe anybody asked him to set it up,” Bitter Smith has said of Kyl. “This was the senator’s idea.”
The overtures happen across the aisle, with Democrats, too. But it tends to occur less often since there are fewer candidates, said consultant Robbie Sherwood. “It’s more like what happened to Hugh (Hallman) — you show up and no one talks to you anymore,” and the candidate buckles to the political pressure.
Fred DuVal, the lone Democratic candidate for governor, maintained his party’s members are “genetically resistant” to the practice and that he doesn’t remember a time in his career when he’s seen it done.
However Terry Goddard, the former attorney general, experienced it recently when he flirted with a bid to return to the office. Democrat Felecia Rotellini is running against incumbent Republican Tom Horne and Republican Mark Brnovich.
“A lot of supporters of Felecia thought they wanted her to have a clean shot, so I guess there was some talk,” Goddard said, adding that the approach was “very different” from the “headlock” approach that candidates like Hallman faced.
“You have elections for a reason,” Goddard said. “These are power plays, not democratic plays.”
Constantine Querard, a campaign consultant who represents conservative Republicans, said Democrats would be better served by having more aggressive primaries. Querard, who is leading the gubernatorial campaign of state Sen. Al Melvin, R-Tucson, said no one leaned on Melvin to get out.
“I don’t know if he should be insulted,” he said.
More on the old "Do as I say, not as I do" from our government masters.
http://www.azcentral.com/insiders/ejmontini/2013/11/24/hey-toronto-mayor-rob-ford-fly-on-down/
Posted on November 24, 2013 5:13 pm by EJ Montini
Hey, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, fly on down!
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, who has admitted smoking crack while in a drunken stupor and has had much of his executive authority stripped away should resign from office immediately … and move to Arizona.
Ford is loud. He’s obnoxious. He bowled over a member of the city council during a meeting. He has said, “I know in my heart everyone has personal problems. I urinated in a parking lot … what does that have to do with anything?”
One member of the Toronto City Council called Ford’s term in office “a real crisis,” adding, “The impact on our city is that we’ve become a laughingstock.”
In Canada, maybe.
Here in the great American Southwest our threshold for “laughingstock” is much, much higher.
(Or is it lower?)
Either way, if Mayor Ford wants to pay in the big (Or is it little?) league, if his wants to pit his skills (Or is it incompetence?) against some of the best (Worst?) who have ever played the political game, then he belongs here, where the late, great, impeached Gov. Evan Mecham once turned on a reporter and angrily told him, “Don’t you ever ask me for a true statement again.”
Beat that, Canada!
And we’re just getting warmed up.
Mecham appointed as his education lobbyist a former state representative named Jim Cooper, who told a committee at the state House, ”If a student wants to say the world is flat, the teacher doesn’t have the right to try to prove otherwise. . . . The schools don’t have any business telling people what to believe.”
It was during these days, in the 1980s, when the state also featured politicians like Rep. Leslie Johnson, who once said, ”I am sick of more government programs for the poor. I think the poor are doing very well.”
Rep. Johnson also introduced a law outlawing what she called ”sexual devices.” The bill failed to pass, but it led to the production of an extremely popular bumper sticker that read: ”When dildos are outlawed, only outlaws will have dildos.”
Sure, Mayor Ford can be insensitive and offensive.
But we in Arizona had as former Senate President Russell Pearce, who once defended the mass roundup and deportation of illegal immigrants from the 1950s called “Operation Wetback.”
When he was criticized for expressing such an opinion Pearce told me, “My critics don’t like history. They want to rewrite history. I didn’t use the term (wetback). I quoted a successful program. The far left always tells you, ‘Russell, you can’t deport 12 million people.’ I say, ‘Yes, you can, if you have the will.’ But I never used the term or referred to anyone like that.”
Here in Arizona, that tradition of producing the sharpest (dullest?) grade of political laughingstocks continues.
There is, for example, Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, a man with ambitions of higher political office who nonetheless took photographs of himself in his underpants and saw them posted on the Internet.
And former state Sen. Scott Bundgaard, who got into a physical altercation with his then-girlfriend on the side of a major highway, and according to police, allowed her to be hauled off to jail while he asserted his get-out-of-jail card as a member of the Legislature. The police called Bundgaard the aggressor.
Another Arizona politician, state Sen. Lori Klein, pointed a pointed a loaded .380 Ruger handgun at a journalist’s chest, later explaining, “I just didn’t have my hand on the trigger.”
And while Toronto’s Mayor Ford may be a laughingstock in his country, I don’t believe he has ever overseen a child-welfare agency that neglected to investigate 6,000 cases of potential abuse.
However, if this wayward Canadian snowbird still doesn’t wish to fly south I would point out that we have residing here a man who has been elected in Arizona again and again, and who once told me, “I’m the only guy who’s not paranoid — and everybody’s going after me.”
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
If you ask me it sounds like the American police are at war with the same people they pretend to protect. I am sure they will use this equipment to terrorize us civilians just like the military used it to terrorize Iraqi civilians.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/free/20131124us-police-getting-leftover-iraq-military-trucks.html
U.S. police getting leftover Iraq military trucks
Associated Press Sun Nov 24, 2013 7:42 AM
QUEENSBURY, N.Y. — Coming soon to your local sheriff: 18-ton, armor-protected military fighting vehicles that were once the U.S. answer to roadside bombs during the Iraq war.
The hulking vehicles were built for about $500,000 each at the height of the war. They are among the biggest pieces of equipment that the Defense Department is giving free to law enforcement agencies under a national military surplus program.
Police and sheriff’s departments nationwide have scooped up 165 of the so-called MRAP trucks since they became available this summer. That includes eight in New York state.
Sheriffs say the MRAPS are a choice vehicle should SWAT teams need to get close to a shooter or rescue bystanders.
But some critics are questioning the militarization of police, including armored vehicles too big to travel on some bridges and roadways.
I have read that if you take all the wood fragments that
religious nut jobs claim are from the real, and true cross
of Jesus, you would have enough wood for an entire forest.
I suspect the the same is true if you look at the alleged
bones of St Peter. You would probably have enough bones
to fill a grave yard the size of a small city.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/24/vatican-st-peters-bones-display-pope-francis
Vatican displays Saint Peter's bones for the first time
Associated Press in Vatican City
theguardian.com, Sunday 24 November 2013 07.46 EST
The Vatican has publicly unveiled bone fragments purportedly belonging to Saint Peter, reviving the scientific debate and tantalising mystery over whether the relics found in a shoe box truly belong to the first pope.
The nine pieces of bone sat nestled like rings in a jewel box inside a bronze display case on the side of the altar during a mass commemorating the end of the Vatican's year-long celebration of the Christian faith. It was the first time they had ever been exhibited in public.
Pope Francis prayed before the fragments at the start of Sunday's service and clutched the case in his arms for several minutes after his homily.
No pope has ever definitively declared the fragments to belong to the apostle Peter, but Pope Paul VI in 1968 said fragments found in the necropolis under St Peter's Basilica were "identified in a way that we can consider convincing".
Some archaeologists dispute the finding.
The relics were discovered during excavations begun under St Peter's Basilica in the years following the death in 1939 of Pope Pius XI, who had asked to be buried in the grottoes where dozens of popes are buried, according to the 2012 book by veteran Vatican correspondent Bruno Bartoloni, The Ears of the Vatican.
During the excavations, archaeologists discovered a funerary monument with a casket built in honour of Peter and an engraving in Greek that read "Petros eni", or "Peter is here".
The scholar of Greek antiquities Margherita Guarducci, who had deciphered the engraving, continued to investigate and learned that one of the basilica workers had been given the remains found inside the casket and stored them in a shoe box kept in a cupboard. She reported her findings to Paul VI, who later proclaimed there was a convincing argument that the bones belonged to Peter.
Leading Vatican Jesuits and other archaeologists strongly denied the claim, but had little recourse.
"No pope had ever permitted an exhaustive study, partly because a 1,000-year-old curse attested by secret and apocalyptic documents, threatened anyone who disturbed the peace of Peter's tomb with the worst possible misfortune," Bartoloni wrote.
The Vatican newspaper, l'Osservatore Romano, published excerpts of the book last year, giving his account a degree of official sanction.
In 1971, Paul VI was given an urn containing the relics, which were kept inside the private papal chapel inside the apostolic palace and exhibited for the pope's private veneration every 29 June, for the feast of saints Peter and Paul. Sunday marked the first time they were shown in public.
Buckeye man freed (finally) from insane prison sentence
Another one of those "You expect a fair trial??? Don't make me laugh" articles!!!
http://www.azcentral.com/insiders/laurieroberts/2013/11/25/buckeye-man-freed-finally-from-insane-prison-sentence/
Posted on November 25, 2013 4:30 pm by Laurie Roberts
Buckeye man freed (finally) from insane prison sentence
Susan Connely sat outside the courtroom on Friday, her hands knotted in her lap as she awaited word on whether her husband of 22 years would be home for Thanksgiving.
Shannon Connely had already served more than three years of a 10½-year prison sentence. This, for momentarily acting like a jerk.
They’ve lost their house and their cars but more importantly, they’ve lost a piece of their lives.
“He’s missed out on grandchildren,” Susan said. “My father died, his grandmother died.”
Shannon wasn’t there because of a Legislature intent on denying judges the opportunity to judge and a criminal justice system that now requires you to risk your entire future if you want your day in court.
On May 7, 2009, Connely was a 42-year-old Buckeye real estate agent, a guy who was working on a plan to create affordable housing in the southwest Valley. He came home from work that night to find his wife, 16-year-old daughter Danielle and one of Danielle’s friends in the pool. Because he wasn’t feeling well, he went to sleep.
Around 9 p.m., he awakened to dogs barking, tires squealing and no sign of his family. Worried because of recent crime in the neighborhood, he grabbed his holstered gun and ran outside, where he found a Buckeye police officer talking to his wife and daughter.
The officer immediately drew his gun and ordered Connely to drop his gun. Connely, in an obscenity-laced reply, pointed out that it was holstered and that the officer was trespassing.
The officer again ordered Connely to drop his gun and kneel. Connely dropped the gun but continued yelling, so the officer shot him with a Taser.
The officer was there looking for a supposedly missing girl. He’d arrived just as Connely’s wife and daughter were returning from taking the girl home.
Connely, who had no criminal record, was charged with aggravated assault and disorderly conduct. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office offered him probation if he would plead guilty to a lesser crime but he refused, believing no jury would convict him of a Class 2 felony.
Clearly, he didn’t understand how justice works in Arizona.
Turns out you don’t have to even touch someone to commit aggravated assault. All you have to do is leave the person “in reasonable apprehension of imminent physical injury” and if that person is a police officer, the Legislature has already set the penalty: a minimum of 10½ years.
The officer testified at trial that he feared for his safety and a jury convicted Connely in June 2010, having no idea what the punishment would be.
Superior Court Commissioner Steven Lynch knew, but there was nothing he could about it. Lynch called the sentence “clearly excessive”, noting that Connelly “at no time ever removed the gun from its holster, pointed the gun at the officer or discharged the gun.”
Then he sent Connely to prison for a decade.
In 2011, the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency unanimously recommended that Connely be released but Gov. Jan Brewer turned him down flat.
His final chance for freedom came earlier this year when his new attorney, Thomas McDermott, petitioned the court to toss out the conviction. It seems nobody ever advised Connely he would get 10½ years if he went to trial and lost.
On Friday, sanity at long last prevailed. Prosecutors agreed to a plan to vacate the conviction provided Connely pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, the lowest level of felony.
Connely took the deal. Lynch sentenced him to time served then came down from the bench to clap him on shoulder and wish him luck. Connely was freed Friday evening.
His first stop was to see his grandchildren, both born while he was locked up.
On Monday, Connely was not yet ready to talk about what happened.
“It’s nice to be home,” he said. “I absolutely love my wife and kids. They’re my entire life. I feel very blessed to be out of there and with my family.”
While he’s counting his blessings, the rest of us should be counting our marbles – or rather the ones rattling around in the heads of legislators who support these mandatory sentencing schemes, giving prosecutors all the power while reducing judges to the role of spectator in their own courtrooms.
Two years ago, then-Rep. Cecil Ash, R-Mesa, took on mandatory sentencing, suggesting a return to the days of old when judges were allowed to administer justice. He was practically laughed out of the Legislature.
We spent more than $99,199 to keep the menace that is Shannon Connely in a cell. He served 1,247 days in prison for a moment of poor judgment.
Meanwhile, at the state Capitol, poor judgment is rewarded with re-election.
(Column published Nov. 26, 2013, The Arizona Republic.)
Another good reason to end the insane, unconstitutional war on drugs - it cause police corruption.
http://www.azcentral.com/community/tempe/articles/20131125tempe-officer-felony-charges-indictment.html
Ex-Tempe officer charged with hindering prosecution, conflict of interest
Report: Undercover Tempe officer outed drug probe to lover
By Jim Walsh The Republic | azcentral.com Mon Nov 25, 2013 7:56 PM
A former Tempe police officer was indicted last week on charges of hindering prosecution and having a conflict of interest as a public employee in a case that ended her career and officials say may have ruined an undercover drug investigation.
Jessica Dever-Jakusz, 38, is accused of warning a drug suspect that he was about to get arrested and of revealing information that needed to stay confidential to properly exercise her duties as a police detective, according to the indictment, which was made public on Monday.
Dever-Jakusz — who represented Tempe police on a Swiss reality-television show last summer — was investigated after a drug suspect with whom she was having an affair reported her behavior to avoid potential prosecution stemming from a series of undercover drug buys, according to police.
Police immediately halted the five-month drug investigation at Mill Avenue bars, and it was unclear if any drug charges would be filed against the suspect.
“Up until that time, (the suspect) did not know or ever suspected that Dever(-Jakusz) was a police officer,” the report said. The suspect told police that he didn’t think Dever-Jakusz was being malicious in revealing the information, but that she was “careless” and “carefree” in her revelations.
Two other female detectives, who Dever-Jakusz was mentoring because of their relative inexperience, made drug buys from the same suspect, but police said Dever-Jakusz outed them as undercover detectives as well.
The two crimes, both felonies, were committed between Oct. 1 and Oct. 15, according to the indictment. A previously released Tempe police report said Dever-Jakusz was shocked when she was confronted about the affair, after the suspect came forward Oct. 10. She later resigned from the department.
In this case, like many other cases the Feds say the "Interstate Commerce Clause" makes the Bill of Rights null and void and gives Uncle Sam the power to do anything he damn well feels like.
I disagree! the "Interstate Commerce Clause" was never intended to override the Bill of Rights or the 2nd and 10th Amendments as in this case.
The Tenth Amendment clearly states that if a power isn't given to the Feds, nor
forbidden to the states, then the power is reserved for the states and the people.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/free/20131125firearms-freedom-act-ruling-appealed.html
Gun advocates appeal ‘Firearms Freedom Act’ ruling
Associated Press Mon Nov 25, 2013 4:49 PM
HELENA, Mont. — Gun advocates asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to overturn a lower court’s ruling against state laws designed to buck federal gun rules.
Earlier this year, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district judge’s decision against the 2009 Montana Firearms Freedom Act. The law attempts to declare that federal firearms regulations don’t apply to guns kept in the state where they were manufactured.
Other pro-gun states have passed similar measures.
The Justice Department has argued successfully that the courts already have decided Congress can use its power to regulate interstate commerce. Some gun-control advocates sided with the federal argument, saying “firearm freedom acts” would allow felons to obtain guns without background checks and make it harder to trace guns used in crimes.
Gun advocates have long said only the Supreme Court can decide the case because it will have to limit the reach of Congress to regulate guns. The Supreme Court is expected to decide next year whether to accept the request.
The advocates, led by the Montana Shooting Sports Association, have had legal support from the attorneys general from the pro-gun states of Montana, Utah, Alaska, Idaho, Michigan, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, West Virginia, and Wyoming. States that have formally passed a version of Firearms Freedom Act include Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Kansas, Tennessee, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.
MSSA president Gary Marbut has said he wants to manufacture a small, bolt-action youth-model rifle called the “Montana Buckaroo” for sale in Montana. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms told Marbut such a gun would be illegal under Montana law, prompting a lawsuit by the group against the U.S. attorney general.
Marbut said high court decisions dating back to 1942 dealing with certain interstate commerce need to be reversed. The request to the Supreme Court argues the rulings have allowed more concentration of power with the federal government, creating problems like more national debt and the potential for abuses of power.
“Without the centralization of so much regulatory power in the federal government, tyranny would be a lot less likely to occur,” the argument reads.
What??? A gun and a badge doesn't make rape OK??? Don't tell the cops that!!! Many of them think rape is just another perk of the job!!!!
http://www.azcentral.com/news/free/20131125texas-officer-rape-assault-charge.html
San Antonio officer accused of rape in police car
Associated Press Mon Nov 25, 2013 2:26 PM
SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio’s police chief has decried the allegations against an officer accused of raping a handcuffed 19-year-old woman, saying it’s “unthinkable.”
Chief William McManus told reporters over the weekend he was “angry” and “outraged” after Officer Jackie Len Neal, an 11-year department veteran, was arrested Saturday on a sexual assault warrant.
According to an arrest affidavit, Neal asked the woman to step out of her vehicle about 2 a.m. Friday after tailing her for several blocks.
The affidavit says Neal told the woman her vehicle had been reported stolen. The document says the woman produced a sales slip, but Neal patted her down, ignoring a request for a woman to do that.
The affidavit says Neal placed the woman in handcuffs and raped her in the back of his car.
Want to tap some Internet lines in Tempe??? Go to Broadway Road between Priest and Rural Roads. All the manhole covers that say Level 3 on them contain Internet lines. Every other manhole cover says AT&T on it. AT&T shares the same pipe with Level 3 in Tempe. I think Cox also shares the same ditch which contains all the lines.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/26/technology/a-peephole-for-the-nsa.html?hp&_r=0
N.S.A. May Have Hit Internet Companies at a Weak Spot
SAN FRANCISCO — The recent revelation that the National Security Agency was able to eavesdrop on the communications of Google and Yahoo users without breaking into either companies’ data centers sounded like something pulled from a Robert Ludlum spy thriller.
How on earth, the companies asked, did the N.S.A. get their data without them knowing about it?
The most likely answer is a modern spin on a century-old eavesdropping tradition.
People knowledgeable about Google and Yahoo’s infrastructure say they believe that government spies bypassed the big Internet companies and hit them at a weak spot — the fiber-optic cables that connect data centers around the world that are owned by companies like Verizon Communications, the BT Group, the Vodafone Group and Level 3 Communications. In particular, fingers have been pointed at Level 3, the world’s largest so-called Internet backbone provider, whose cables are used by Google and Yahoo.
The Internet companies’ data centers are locked down with full-time security and state-of-the-art surveillance, including heat sensors and iris scanners. But between the data centers — on Level 3’s fiber-optic cables that connected those massive computer farms — information was unencrypted and an easier target for government intercept efforts, according to three people with knowledge of Google’s and Yahoo’s systems who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
It is impossible to say for certain how the N.S.A. managed to get Google and Yahoo’s data without the companies’ knowledge. But both companies, in response to concerns over those vulnerabilities, recently said they were now encrypting data that runs on the cables between their data centers. Microsoft is considering a similar move.
“Everyone was so focused on the N.S.A. secretly getting access to the front door that there was an assumption they weren’t going behind the companies’ backs and tapping data through the back door, too,” said Kevin Werbach, an associate professor at the Wharton School.
Data transmission lines have a long history of being tapped.
As far back as the days of the telegraph, spy agencies have located their operations in proximity to communications companies. Indeed, before the advent of the Internet, the N.S.A. and its predecessors for decades operated listening posts next to the long-distance lines of phone companies to monitor all international voice traffic.
Beginning in the 1960s, a spy operation code-named Echelon targeted the Soviet Union and its allies’ voice, fax and data traffic via satellite, microwave and fiber-optic cables.
In the 1990s, the emergence of the Internet both complicated the task of the intelligence agencies and presented powerful new spying opportunities based on the ability to process vast amounts of computer data.
In 2002, John M. Poindexter, former national security adviser under President Ronald Reagan, proposed the Total Information Awareness plan, an effort to scan the world’s electronic information — including phone calls, emails and financial and travel records. That effort was scrapped in 2003 after a public outcry over potential privacy violations.
The technologies Mr. Poindexter proposed are similar to what became reality years later in N.S.A. surveillance programs like Prism and Bullrun.
The Internet effectively mingled domestic and international communications, erasing the bright line that had been erected to protect against domestic surveillance. Although the Internet is designed to be a highly decentralized system, in practice a small group of backbone providers carry almost all of the network’s data.
The consequences of the centralization and its value for surveillance was revealed in 2006 by Mark Klein, an AT&T technician who described an N.S.A. listening post inside a room at an AT&T switching facility.
The agency was capturing a copy of all the data passing over the telecommunications links and then filtering it in AT&T facilities that housed systems that were able to filter data packets at high speed.
Documents taken by Edward J. Snowden and reported by The Washington Post indicate that, seven years after Mr. Klein first described the N.S.A.’s surveillance technologies, they have been refined and modernized.
“From Echelon to Total Information Awareness to Prism, all these programs have gone under different names, but in essence do the same thing,” said Chip Pitts, a law lecturer at Stanford University School of Law.
Based in the Denver suburbs, Level 3 is not a household name like Verizon or AT&T, but in terms of its ability to carry traffic, it is bigger than the other two carriers combined. Its networking equipment is found in 200 data centers in the United States, more than 100 centers in Europe and 14 in Latin America.
Level 3 did not directly respond to an inquiry about whether it had given the N.S.A., or the agency’s foreign intelligence partners, access to Google and Yahoo’s data. In a statement, Level 3 said: “It is our policy and our practice to comply with laws in every country where we operate, and to provide government agencies access to customer data only when we are compelled to do so by the laws in the country where the data is located.”
Also, in a financial filing, Level 3 noted that, “We are party to an agreement with the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security, Justice and Defense addressing the U.S. government’s national security and law enforcement concerns. This agreement imposes significant requirements on us related to information storage and management; traffic management; physical, logical and network security arrangements; personnel screening and training; and other matters.”
Security experts say that regardless of whether Level 3’s participation is voluntary or not, recent N.S.A. disclosures make clear that even when Internet giants like Google and Yahoo do not hand over data, the N.S.A. and its intelligence partners can simply gather their data downstream.
That much was true last summer when United States authorities first began tracking Mr. Snowden’s movements after he left Hawaii for Hong Kong with thousands of classified documents. In May, authorities contacted Ladar Levison, who ran Lavabit, Mr. Snowden’s email provider, to install a tap on Mr. Snowden’s email account. When Mr. Levison did not move quickly enough to facilitate the tap on Lavabit’s network, the Federal Bureau of Investigation did so without him.
Mr. Levison said it was unclear how that tap was installed, whether through Level 3, which sold bandwidth to Lavabit, or at the Dallas facility where his servers and networking equipment are stored. When Mr. Levison asked the facility’s manager about the tap, he was told the manager could not speak with him. A spokesman for TierPoint, which owns the Dallas facility, did not return a call seeking a comment.
Mr. Pitts said that while working as the chief legal officer at Nokia in the 1990s, he successfully fended off an effort by intelligence agencies to get backdoor access into Nokia’s computer networking equipment.
Nearly 20 years later, Verizon has said that it and other carriers are forced to comply with government requests in every country in which they operate, and are limited in what they can say about their arrangements.
“At the end of the day, if the Justice Department shows up at your door, you have to comply,” Lowell C. McAdam, Verizon’s chief executive, said in an interview in September. “We have gag orders on what we can say and can’t defend ourselves, but we were told they do this with every carrier.”
Need a machine shop to convert that AR-15 into a fully automatic machine gun???
(I'll assume you have paid the required $200 fee and received the tax stamp from
the BATF which will allow you to legally convert your AR-15 to fully automatic)
Or perhaps you are working on your home grown atomic bomb and
need some machine tools to get it working perfectly???
(I don't know what the legal requirements are for making a-bombs,
you will have to figure out that on your own.
And I am sure you know machining plutonium is a nasty job!!!!)
Hell, they even have those 3D printers which you can make a homegrown plastic gun with,
which won't be detected by the metal detectors at the airport!!!
(Again you will have to check with the BATF for the nitty gritty details of doing that legally)
In any case you may want to check out this machine shop which is open to the public and operated by ASU.
I am not sure of the exact details or prices but anyone can use it who pays the monthly fee.
For more info check out http://techshop.com
http://eastvalleytribune.com/money/article_0102b1ae-53d2-11e3-94d3-001a4bcf887a.html
ASU partners with TechShop to open site in Chandler
Posted: Monday, November 25, 2013 7:58 am
By Eric Mungenast, Tribune
A California-based company has teamed up with Arizona State University to open a facility loaded with tools for aspiring entrepreneurs and local craftsmen.
The company, TechShop, opened up its newest shop at Arizona State University’s Chandler Innovation Center on Nov. 16 for students and members of the community.
“The City of Chandler has always been on the leading edge when it comes to supporting technology and innovation,” said Mayor Jay Tibshraeny in a press release. “This makes the city, and Downtown in particular, an ideal location for a makerspace like TechShop.”
For customers that means access to a plethora of high-tech tools that range from oscilloscopes and cold saws to laser cutters and 3D printers. The equipment encompasses the needs for automotive work, welding, wood working, arts and crafts, electronics and even sewing, among many other purposes.
It’s a toy land of sorts for people who like to build things by hand or are trying to take the first steps toward opening a business, which actually fits the reason founder Jim Newton started the business in the first place. The motivation, he said, was a bit selfish, as he wanted access to all of the tools required to complete complicated projects on his own.
But two problems became evident while he tried to create his own space: money and location. Much of the equipment people find in TechShop is rather expensive and out of many people’s price range — the tools at each location are valued at $1 million in all — and he said the people who can afford it might not have a large enough space to contain everything.
So Newton decided to create his own shop to provide people access to all of the tools they wouldn’t have access to otherwise and a large enough space to use them. To gain access to the equipment, people have to purchase a monthly membership akin to a gym membership to Anytime Fitness and other similar facilities.
One location in Menlo Park, Calif., in 2006 has since turned to seven in all in his home state, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas and now Arizona.
“I didn’t intend to open up more locations,” he said.
Although the equipment found at the ASU Chandler Innovation Center is the same as the other locations, the partnership with ASU is the first time TechShop has partnered with a university to do so. Newtown provides full credit to ASU for getting the partnership going, and he said the university also understands how important it is to spark the entrepreneurial drive, in this case among the student body.
Plus, he said, the Chandler location is ideal given how technologically advanced the East Valley region has become. Even the laser cutters used at all of the locations are built in nearby Scottsdale.
“It seemed like a good fit for us,” he said.
The ASU Chandler Innovation Center is located at 249 E. Chicago St. For more information about TechShop, including hours and a full list of the equipment offered, visit techshop.com
Contact writer: (480) 898-5647 or emungenast@evtrib.com
CIA freed detainees to work as U.S. spies
Associated Press Tue Nov 26, 2013 11:27 PM
WASHINGTON - A few hundred yards from the administrative offices of the Guantanamo Bay prison, hidden behind a ridge covered in thick scrub and cactuses, sits a closely held secret.
A dirt road winds its way to a clearing where eight small cottages sit in two rows of four. They have long been abandoned. The special detachment of Marines that once provided security is gone.
But in the early years after 9/11, these cottages were part of a covert CIA program. Its secrecy has outlasted black prisons, waterboarding and rendition.
In these buildings, CIA officers turned terrorists into double agents and sent them home.
It was a risky gamble. If it worked, their agents might help the CIA find terrorist leaders to kill with drones. But officials knew there was a chance that some prisoners might quickly spurn their deal and kill Americans.
For the CIA, that was an acceptable risk in a dangerous business. For the American public, which was never told, it was one of the many secret trade-offs the government made on its behalf. At the same time the government used the threat of terrorism to justify imprisoning people indefinitely, it was releasing dangerous people from prison to work for the CIA.
Nearly a dozen current and former U.S officials described aspects of the program to the Associated Press. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the secret program, even though it ended in about 2006.
The program and the handful of men who passed through these cottages had various official CIA code names. But those who were aware of the cluster of cottages knew it best by its sobriquet: Penny Lane.
It was a nod to the classic Beatles song and a riff on the CIA’s other secret facility at Guantanamo Bay, a prison known as Strawberry Fields.
Some of the men who passed through Penny Lane helped the CIA find and kill many top al-Qaida operatives, current and former U.S. officials said. Others stopped providing useful information, and the CIA lost touch with them.
When prisoners began streaming into the prison at the U.S. naval facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in January 2002, the CIA recognized it as an unprecedented opportunity to identify sources.
That year, 632 detainees arrived at the island. The following year, 117 more arrived.
“Of course, that would be an objective,” said Emile Nakhleh, a former top CIA analyst who spent time in 2002 assessing detainees but who did not discuss Penny Lane. “It’s the job of intelligence to recruit sources.”
By early 2003, Penny Lane was open for business.
Candidates were ushered from the confines of prison to Penny Lane’s relative hominess, officials said. The cottages had private kitchens, showers and televisions. Each had a small patio.
Some prisoners asked for and received pornography. One official said the biggest luxury in each cottage was the bed — not a military-issued cot, but a real bed with a mattress.
The cottages were designed to feel more like hotel rooms than prison cells, and some CIA officials jokingly referred to them collectively as the Marriott.
Current and former officials said that dozens of prisoners were evaluated but that only a handful, from varying countries, were turned into spies who signed agreements to spy for the CIA.
CIA spokesman Dean Boyd declined to comment.
Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., who serves on the Armed Services and Homeland Security oversight committees, said Tuesday that she was still learning more about the program but was concerned about the numbers of prisoners who were released by the Bush and Obama administrations and returned to fight alongside terrorists against U.S. interests.
“So, when I juxtapose that to the CIA actually thinking that they can convert these people, I think it was a very ill-conceived program for them to think that,” Ayotte said on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports.” “These are some very hard-core individuals, and many whom have been released by both administrations have gotten back in to fight us and our allies, unfortunately.”
Appearing on the program with Ayotte, Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., said it was difficult for him to evaluate the CIA program’s effectiveness. “But it has a degree of recklessness to it that I would be very concerned about,” Casey said.
The U.S. government says it has confirmed that about 16percent of former Guantanamo Bay detainees rejoined the fight against America. Officials suspect but have not confirmed that an additional 12percent rejoined.
Though the number of double agents recruited through Penny Lane was small, the program was significant enough to draw keen attention from President George W. Bush, one former official said. Bush personally interviewed a junior CIA case officer who had just returned home from Afghanistan, where the agency typically met with the agents.
President Barack Obama took an interest the program for a different reason. Shortly after taking office, he ordered a review of the former detainees working as double agents because they were providing information used in Predator drone strikes, one of the officials said.
Infiltrating al-Qaida has been one of the CIA’s most sought-after but difficult goals, something that other foreign intelligence services have only occasionally accomplished. So, candidates for Penny Lane needed legitimate terrorist connections. To be valuable to the CIA, the men had to be able to reconnect with al-Qaida.
From what the Bush administration was saying about Guantanamo Bay prisoners at the time, the CIA would have seemingly had a large pool to draw from.
Vice President Dick Cheney called the prisoners “the worst of a very bad lot.” Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said they were “among the most dangerous, best-trained, vicious killers on the face of the Earth.”
In reality, many were held on flimsy evidence and were of little use to the CIA.
While the agency looked for viable candidates, those with no terrorism ties sat in limbo. It would take years before the majority of detainees were set free, having never been charged. Of the 779 people who were taken to Guantanamo Bay, more than three-fourths have been released, mostly during the Bush administration.
Many others remain at Guantanamo Bay, having been cleared for release by the military but with no hope for freedom in sight.
“I do see the irony on the surface of letting some really very bad guys go,” said David Remes, an American lawyer who has represented about a dozen Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo.
But Remes, who was not aware of Penny Lane, said he understands its attraction.
“The men we were sending back as agents were thought to be able to provide value to us,” he said.
Prisoners agreed to cooperate for a variety of reasons, officials said. Some received assurances that the U.S. would resettle their families. Another thought al-Qaida had perverted Islam and believed it was his duty as a Muslim to help the CIA destroy it.
One detainee agreed to cooperate after the CIA insinuated it would harm his children, a former official said, harkening to similar threats interrogators lodged against admitted 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed.
All were promised money. Exactly how much each was paid remains unclear. But altogether, the government paid millions of dollars for their services, officials said. The money came from a secret CIA account, code-named Pledge, that is used to pay informants, officials said.
The arrangement led to strategic discussions inside the CIA: If the agency’s drones had a shot at Osama bin Laden or his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, would officials take the shot if it meant killing a double agent on the American payroll?
It never came to that.
The biggest fear, former officials involved with the program recalled, was that a former detainee would attack Americans, then publicly announce that he’d been on the CIA payroll.
Al-Qaida suspected the CIA would attempt a program like this, and its operatives have been suspicious of former Guantanamo Bay detainees, intelligence officials and experts said.
In one case, a former official recalled, al-Qaida came close to discovering one of the double agents in its midst.
The U.S. government had such high hopes for Penny Lane that one former intelligence official recalled a discussion about whether to secretly release a pair of Pakistani men into the United States on student or business visas. The hope was that they would connect with al-Qaida and lead authorities to members of a U.S. cell.
Another former senior intelligence official said that never happened.
Officials said the program ended in 2006, as the flow of detainees to Guantanamo Bay slowed to a trickle. The last prisoner arrived there in 2008.
Penny Lane still stands and can be seen in satellite photos. The complex is surrounded by two fences and hidden among the trees and shrubs of Guantanamo Bay.
Jury convicts Okla. cop in death of unarmed teen
Associated Press Tue Nov 26, 2013 2:53 PM
OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma jury Tuesday convicted a veteran police captain of first-degree manslaughter in the death of an unarmed teenager who was running away after scuffling with the officer.
Del City Police Capt. Randy Trent Harrison shot Dane Scott Jr. in the back on March 14, 2012, following a high-speed chase that began when Harrison tried to pull over Scott’s car.
Harrison had previously arrested Scott on drug violations, and prosecutors said his pursuit of the teenager crossed the line from professional to personal. The defense portrayed Scott as a drug dealer and said Harrison believed the teen was reaching for a second weapon after the officer took one gun from him during a scuffle that followed the police chase.
The shooting occurred just a few weeks after the death of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black teenager killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida, and the defense suggested early on that prosecutors were influenced to file charges to prevent the type of racial discord that followed that shooting and another high-profile case in Tulsa last year. Harrison is white; Scott was black.
Prosecutors haven’t said Harrison was motivated by any racial bias, just that Harrison was wrong to shoot Scott. The jury included three African-Americans.
During the trial, Scott’s baggy pants became a central issue. Witnesses say the 18-year-old was trying to hold them up as he ran from Harrison. Although the witnesses testified that they saw no threat from Scott, Harrison and his defense team said the officer believed he was reaching for his pants pocket, where he could have had another gun. Police did not find a weapon on Scott after the shooting.
Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater told jurors during closing arguments Monday that Harrison put other people in danger when he fired four shots at Scott, placing bystanders and a fellow officer in harm’s way before hitting the teenager in the back with the fourth shot.
Prater said Scott was “no threat at all” at the time. “He’s running and holding his pants,” the prosecutor added.
Harrison, a 23-year veteran officer in the Oklahoma City suburb, testified earlier Monday that he feared for his life.
“He had just tried to kill me. He would kill anybody to escape,” Harrison testified. Harrison said he did not want to kill Scott. “I just didn’t have any other choice,” he said.
Defense attorney Doug Friesen told jurors that while prosecutors had tried to portray Harrison as “an out-of-control maniac,” he was actually trying to protect his life and the lives of others.
Another police officer was running about 10 to 15 feet behind Scott and had just shot him with a Taser when Harrison fired the fatal shot, according to an affidavit.
The officer who used the Taser said he didn’t see the teen with another weapon. Another witness said it appeared Scott was raising his hands, as if to surrender, when he was shot.
According to police, Scott had previous convictions in juvenile court on misdemeanor drug charges and a pending felony case of drug possession with intent to distribute.
Harrison had arrested Scott as he allegedly sold drugs near Del City High School in 2011. Court papers indicate Harrison also saw Scott allegedly selling marijuana from his home. Scott allegedly was selling drugs to a passenger in his car before the pursuit that led to the shooting.
The charges against Harrison were filed just after two white men were accused of fatally shooting three black people in Tulsa in what prosecutors said were racially motivated attacks.
U.S. sends B-52 bombers over China-claimed waters
By Kirk Spitzer, Special for USA Today Tue Nov 26, 2013 11:48 AM
NAHA, OKINAWA, Japan — An American carrier battle group and a flotilla of Japanese warships will arrive Wednesday near a vast stretch of ocean claimed by China in what is shaping up as a test of how Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the United States will stand up to the challenge.
The joint U.S.-Japan exercises in the sea are a direct challenge to China's claim. On Tuesday, the U.S. military said two Air Force B-52 bombers flew over the sea without notifying Beijing despite China's demand that it be told if anyone plans to fly military aircraft over its self-claimed "air defense zone.
The aircraft took off from Guam on Monday, part of a regular exercise, said a U.S. defense official who spoke to AFP news service on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to divulge the information.
China has been laying claim to nearly 1 million square miles of ocean known as the East China Sea, insisting that the sea's energy resources and fisheries belong to China. Much of the ocean territory it claims is hundreds of miles from its shore, including waters off the coasts of Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.
On Saturday China went further than ever, announcing it had designated much of the sea as an air-defense zone it controls. The zone includes the Japan-held Senkaku Islands, a string of uninhabited islets that China calls the Diaoyus. The Chinese Defense Ministry said the zone was created to "guard against potential air threats."
"China has been pushing and testing Abe since he took office and for the most part he has been passing," said Brad Glosserman, executive director of the Pacific Forum Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Honolulu.
"This is a very dumb, very risky move by China," he said. "If the People's Liberation Army tries to interfere (with the US-Japan exercise), there will be real problems."
The challenge represents a test for Abe, a conservative party prime minister elected in 2012 who has vowed to shift Japan's deferential military posture to a more muscular stance that recognizes its right to defend itself.
On Tuesday, Abe directly confronted China, stating he would not recognize the Chinese air zone over the East China Sea or any of its claims to the Senkakus.
"We will take steps against any attempt to change the status quo by use of force as we are determined to defend the country's sea and airspace," Abe said.
For the U.S.' part, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the Chinese action represents a "destabilizing attempt to alter the status quo" and "will not in any way change how the United States conducts military operations in the region."
To that end, the U.S. Navy arrived in force Tuesday off the coast of Japan for a complex exercise in which Japanese naval ships and U.S. fighter jets, warships and submarines will practice scenarios for a possible attack on Japan.
Sailing into the waters southeast of Okinawa on Tuesday to prepare for a long-planned exercise was the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam, guided-missile destroyers USS Curtis Wilbur, USS Lassen, USS McCampbell, USS Mustin, maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft and a Navy submarine.
China issued a protest with Japan and the U.S. government over the exercises and opposition to China's self-claimed right to an air-defense zone over the sea. Defense Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said Japan's complaint about the zone is "absolutely groundless and unacceptable," according to Japan's Kyodo news service.
Yang said Japan has "no right to make irresponsible remarks" on the sea's airspace, portions of which have been jointly administered by Japan and the United States for decades. Yujun also urged the United States to "not take sides."
Earlier this year, Japan scrambled fighter jets when Chinese planes flew near the Senkaku islands, a rich fishing ground annexed by Japan in 1895 and purchased by the legislature in 2012. Chinese interceptor aircraft conducted the first flights into the zone after it went into force at 10 a.m. on Saturday.
The Chinese moves have inflamed Japan and worried other nations that say they may now need to inform China when their commercial flights are heading over the East China Sea. It also has U.S. allies concerned that China is becoming more aggressive against them since the installation a year ago of Xi Jinping as leader of the Communist regime.
But Hagel reaffirmed the U.S. military commitment to the 1952 U.S.-Japan Mutual Defense Treaty that commits Washington to intervene in defense of Japan if there is an attack on Japanese-administered territory. And Abe has backed up his belief that Japan must modify its stance held since World War II that Japan's defense can be outsourced entirely to the United States.
Abe has been pressing for Japan to raise its readiness and play a bigger role in global security since he came to power in December 2012 and won a majority for his Liberal Democratic Party in the upper house of the Japan legislature in July.
Defense spending in Japan has seen its largest increase in 22 years, says Kyodo. The spending has zeroed in on boosting Japan's capabilities to defend against amphibious assaults.
But Abe has yet to garner the votes to change Japan's constitution so its defense forces can project the full military powers of a sovereign state. The constitution, written by the U.S. military after the defeat of Japan in WWII, restrains what Japan can do militarily.
The U.S. military retains bases in Japan, primarily in Okinawa, and exercises between the two militaries have grown in size and complexity in recent years.
Although precise locations have not been announced for the latest exercise, specific training events — which will include land-based patrol planes and other aircraft — are supposed to take place across large stretches of Japanese and international airspace, including parts of the East China Sea.
China's Ministry of National Defense announced that any foreign aircraft entering its newly drafted "East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone" must file a flight plan with Chinese authorities, stay in two-way radio contact and follow other instructions.
Failure to do so will result in "defensive emergency measures" by China's armed forces, according to the statement.
It is not clear why China chose to announce the new air restrictions now, said Narushige Michishita, Director of the Security and International Studies Program at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo. Whether Jinping approved of it or the military demanded it is unknown, Michishita said.
"It is a scary scenario," Michishita said. "What happens next is up to China."
Supreme Court to hear cases on Obamacare and birth control
By David G. Savage
November 26, 2013, 9:45 p.m.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to jump into a growing legal dispute between the Obama administration and businesses run by conservative Christians over whether a company must pay for birth control drugs that conflict with its owner's religious beliefs.
The decision to hear the cases, which could affect millions of women with employer-provided health plans, means that for a second time, the justices will decide the fate of a key part of President Obama's healthcare law.
Last year, the court in a 5-4 decision upheld the requirement that individuals obtain basic health insurance or pay a tax penalty. The new cases test whether employers who offer insurance can be required to pay for the full range of approved contraceptives even if they have moral objections to some of them.
The cases also raise the issue of whether a corporation, rather than just individuals, can raise claims regarding religious freedom. In 2010, in the campaign spending case known as Citizens United, the justices ruled that corporations have rights to speech protected by the 1st Amendment, but they have never said whether corporations can claim a religious belief.
The family that challenged the law argues that what's really at stake is its personal beliefs. "Business owners should not have to choose between violating their faith and violating the law," said David Green, founder of Oklahoma-based Hobby Lobby Stores Inc., a nationwide chain of more than 500 arts and crafts stores with 13,000 full-time employees.
He and his family object to the requirement that they pay for workers' health plans that cover emergency contraception, including the "morning after" pill, and IUDs. Those methods of contraception, by preventing a fertilized egg from developing, amount to abortions, they say.
The family won a ruling from a federal appeals court exempting the company from this part of the law on the grounds that it infringed on its right to religious freedom.
The Obama administration appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that a for-profit corporation has never been accorded personal religious rights. Doing so, administration lawyers said, could open the door to allowing companies to limit many legal rights of workers.
The justices said Tuesday that they would hear the Hobby Lobby case and a similar challenge brought by a Mennonite-run woodworking business in Pennsylvania.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said the administration was confident that the court would uphold the law, saying it "seeks to ensure that women and families — not their bosses or corporate CEOs — can make personal health decisions based on their needs and their budgets."
Leading women's rights advocates have called the birth control benefit crucial to workplace freedom for women.
"Bosses have no business meddling in their employee's deeply personal healthcare decisions," said Marcia Greenberger, co-president of the National Women's Law Center.
But defenders of religious rights said these family-run businesses were acting based on their "owner's deep religious commitments," said Notre Dame law professor Richard Garnett.
"They are not trying to limit what employees or customers do or believe. They are instead seeking protection against an imposition by the government."
The Affordable Care Act said most employers must provide basic health insurance that covers "preventive services" at no cost to workers. That includes cancer screening and other tests. The administration issued a rule saying that the requirement also covers the "full range" of approved contraceptive methods.
The "direct medical cost of unintended pregnancy was estimated to be nearly $5 billion in 2002," Obama's lawyers told the court.
When Catholic bishops complained about the so-called contraceptive mandate, the White House agreed to exempt religious employers such as churches. It also said nonprofit, religiously affiliated schools, colleges and hospitals could avoid paying directly for such benefits. Their insurers were told to cover the cost.
Exempting private, for-profit corporations would go too far, the administration has said. Dozens of private employers have sued, and lower courts have split on the issues involved.
There is also the issue of whether federal law or the Constitution require that the government give some people a special exemption to some laws because of their religious beliefs.
The Supreme Court rejected that view in a 1990 opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia. While the 1st Amendment protects the free exercise of religion, he said, it does not give believers a right to ignore laws that apply to everyone.
In response, Congress passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in 1993, which tipped the balance in favor of religious claims. It said the government "shall not substantially burden a person's exercise of religion," except to further a compelling interest.
Judges have looked to the 1993 law to decide the cases involving the contraceptives. But the Mennonite family also contended its constitutional rights to the free exercise of religion were at issue.
In the Hobby Lobby case, the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver said that if corporations had free-speech rights in politics, they also had rights to religious freedom. The U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago adopted the same view this month.
But the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia took the opposite view in ruling against Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp., the company run by a Mennonite family.
"A for-profit secular corporation cannot engage in the exercise of religion," the judges in that case said.
The court said it would hear both cases in March, meaning they would probably rule in late spring.
The cases are Sebelius vs. Hobby Lobby Stores and Conestoga Wood Specialties vs. Sebelius. If the court rules for the family-run businesses, its opinion is expected to make it clear that the administration may not enforce the contraceptive mandate against other owners with similar objections.
david.savage@latimes.com
Judge orders Sriracha hot sauce plant partly closed over odors
By Frank Shyong
November 27, 2013, 5:05 a.m.
A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge Tuesday ordered a Sriracha hot sauce plant in Irwindale be partially shut down in response to odor complaints from nearby residents.
Judge Robert H. O'Brien ruled in favor of the city and ordered sauce maker Huy Fong Foods to cease any kind of operations that could be causing the odors and make immediate changes that would help mitigate them.
The injunction does not stop the company operating or using the property entirely, or specify the types of actions that are required.
Irwindale sued Huy Fong Foods on Oct. 21 after nearby residents complained of heartburn, inflamed asthma and even nosebleeds that they said were caused by the spicy odor coming from the hot sauce plant.
O'Brien acknowledged in his ruling that there was a "lack of credible evidence" linking the stated health problems to the odor, but said that the odor appears to be "extremely annoying, irritating and offensive to the senses warranting consideration as a public nuisance."
He also wrote that the odor could be "reasonably inferred to be emanating from the facility," and determined that the city is "likely to prevail" in declaring the odor a public nuisance, according to the ruling.
Irwindale officials applauded the judge's decision.
"We believe it's a strong ruling that acknowledges and is reflective of the concerns that the community has raised about the health impacts of the odor," said City Atty. Fred Galante.
Huy Fong officials did not return requests for comment Tuesday evening.
The ruling will take effect as soon as the judge signs the injunction, which Galante says will be filed as early as Wednesday.
It is unclear what the ruling means for next year's supply of Sriracha hot sauce. The factory harvests and grinds chilis for three months out of the year, and the grinding of this year's chilis has been completed.
But the mixing and the bottling of the sauce occurs on an ongoing basis. Galante said he did not know if the injunction applies to those aspects of production.
The city's goal is not to stop the production of the sauce, Galante said.
"We're going to try to keep having a conversation with Huy Fong and working out some collaborative way to test and make sure the odor problems are addressed," he said.
The case could still go to trial, but Galante said that the city hopes the matter can be resolved out of court.
frank.shyong@latimes.com
Microsoft, suspecting NSA spying, to ramp up efforts to encrypt its Internet traffic
By Craig Timberg, Barton Gellman and Ashkan Soltani, Published: November 26 E-mail the writers
Microsoft is moving toward a major new effort to encrypt its Internet traffic amid fears that the National Security Agency may have broken into its global communications links, said people familiar with the emerging plans.
Suspicions at Microsoft, while building for several months, sharpened in October when it was reported that the NSA was intercepting traffic inside the private networks of Google and Yahoo, two industry rivals with similar global infrastructures, said people with direct knowledge of the company’s deliberations. They said top Microsoft executives are meeting this week to decide what encryption initiatives to deploy and how quickly.
Documents obtained from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden suggest — but do not prove — that the company is right to be concerned. Two previously unreleased slides that describe operations against Google and Yahoo include references to Microsoft’s Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger services. A separate NSA e-mail mentions Microsoft Passport, a Web-based service formerly offered by Microsoft, as a possible target of that same surveillance project, called MUSCULAR, which was first disclosed by The Washington Post last month.
Though Microsoft officials said they had no independent verification of the NSA targeting the company in this way, general counsel Brad Smith said Tuesday that it would be “very disturbing” and a possible constitutional breach if true.
Microsoft’s move to expand encryption would allow it to join Google , Yahoo , Facebook and other major technology firms in hardening its defenses in response to news reports about once-secret NSA programs. The resulting new investments in encryption technology stand to complicate surveillance efforts — by governments, private companies and criminals — for years, experts say.
Though several legislative efforts are underway to curb the NSA’s surveillance powers, the wholesale move by private companies to expand the use of encryption technology may prove to be the most tangible outcome of months of revelations based on documents that Snowden provided to The Post and Britain’s Guardian newspaper. In another major shift, the companies also are explicitly building defenses against U.S. government surveillance programs in addition to combating hackers, criminals or foreign intelligence services.
“That’s a pretty big change in the way these companies have operated,” said Matthew Green, a Johns Hopkins University cryptography expert. “And it’s a big engineering effort.”
In response to questions about Microsoft, the NSA said in a statement Tuesday, “NSA’s focus is on targeting the communications of valid foreign intelligence targets, not on collecting and exploiting a class of communications or services that would sweep up communications that are not of bona fide foreign intelligence interest to the U.S. government.”
A U.S. official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Tuesday that collection can be done at various points and does not necessarily happen on a company’s private fiber-optic links.
A 2009 e-mail from a senior manager of the NSA’s MUSCULAR project specifies that a targeting tool called “MONKEY PUZZLE” is capable of searching only across certain listed “realms,” including Google, Yahoo and Microsoft’s Passport service. It is not clear what service a fourth listed realm, “emailAddr,” refers to. “NSA could send us whatever realms they like right now, but the targeting just won’t go anywhere unless it’s of one of the above 4 realms,” the e-mail said.
The tech industry’s response to revelations about NSA surveillance has grown far more pointed in recent weeks as it has become clear that the government was gathering information not only through court-approved channels in the United States — overseen by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court — but also through the massive data links overseas, where the NSA needs authority only from the president. That form of collection has been done surreptitiously by gaining access to fiber-optic connections on foreign soil.
Agency positioned itself to collect from among millions of accounts, many belonging to Americans.
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Smith, the Microsoft general counsel, hinted at the extent of the company’s growing encryption effort at a shareholders meeting last week. “We’re focused on engineering improvements that will further strengthen security,” he said, “including strengthening security against snooping by governments.”
People familiar with the company’s planning, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss matters not yet publicly announced, said that while officials do not have definitive proof that the NSA has targeted Microsoft’s communication links, they have been engaged in a series of high-level meetings to pursue encryption initiatives “across the full range of consumer and business services.” A cost estimate was not available; key decisions are due to be made at a meeting of top executives this week in Redmond, Wash., where Microsoft is headquartered.
When asked about the NSA documents mentioning surveillance of Microsoft services, Smith issued a sharply worded statement: “These allegations are very disturbing. If they are true these actions amount to hacking and seizure of private data and in our view are a breach of the protection guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.”
That echoes a similar statement by Google’s general counsel, David Drummond, who said last month that he was “outraged” by the report in The Post about the NSA tapping into the links connecting the company’s network of data centers. Google in September announced an ambitious new set of encryption initiatives, including among data centers around the world. Yahoo made a similar announcement last week.
Microsoft, Google and Yahoo also have joined other major tech firms, including Apple, Facebook and AOL, in calling for limits to the NSA’s surveillance powers. Most major U.S. tech companies are struggling to cope with a global backlash over U.S. snooping into Internet services.
The documents provided by Snowden are not entirely clear on the way the NSA might gain access to Microsoft’s data, and it is possible that some or all of it happens on the public Internet as opposed to on the private data center links leased by the company. But several documents about MUSCULAR, the NSA project that collects communications from links between Google and Yahoo data centers, discuss targeting Microsoft online services. The company’s Hotmail e-mail service also is one of several from which the NSA has collected users’ online address books.
The impact of Microsoft’s move toward expanded encryption is hard to measure. And even as most major Internet services move to encrypt their communications, they typically are decoded — at least briefly — as they move between different companies’ systems, making them vulnerable.
Privacy activists long have criticized Microsoft as lagging behind some rivals, such as Google and Twitter, in implementing encryption technology. A widely cited scorecard of privacy and security by tech companies, compiled by the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, gives Microsoft a single check mark out of a possible five.
“Microsoft is not yet in a situation where we really call them praiseworthy,” said Peter Eckersley, director of technology projects at the foundation. “Microsoft has no excuse for not being a leader in encryption and security systems, and yet we often see them lagging behind the industry.”
Encryption, while not impervious to targeted surveillance, makes it much more difficult to read communications in bulk as they travel the Internet. The NSA devotes substantial resources to decoding encrypted traffic, but the work is more targeted and time consuming, sometimes involving hacking into individual computers of people using encryption technology.
Documents provided by Snowden, and first reported by the Guardian, show that Microsoft worked with U.S. officials to help circumvent some forms of encryption on the company’s services. Microsoft has disputed the Guardian report and said it provides information to the government only when legally compelled to do so.
Soltani is an independent security researcher and consultant.
Mayor moves to limit medical marijuana dispensaries
By John Bryne Tribune reporter
7:39 a.m. CST, November 27, 2013
Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Ald. Edward Burke introduced a plan Tuesday to limit where medical marijuana dispensaries and growing operations can set up shop in the city after the drug becomes legal Jan. 1.
The proposal would require special use permits from the Zoning Board of Appeals, limit locations to manufacturing districts and establish minimum parking requirements.
"We regulate everything from liquor licenses to how many residences may be built above a certain height, so it makes sense to give Chicago residents some control over where these types of operations can be located," said Burke, 14th.
Burke also introduced a resolution Tuesday calling for a nonbinding ballot referendum in March asking Chicago voters if the state should outlaw firearms in businesses that sell alcohol as part of Illinois' concealed carry law. The City Council passed an ordinance in September to revoke liquor licenses of restaurants that don't ban guns, a move gun rights advocates promised to challenge in court.
Ald. James Balcer, 11th, introduced another proposal for a nonbinding referendum asking Chicagoans whether the state should ban gun magazines with a capacity of more than 15 rounds.
A third nonbinding referendum was proposed by Ald. Anthony Beale, 9th, to ask voters whether cab fares should be increased for the first time in eight years to "bring Chicago's taxi fleet in line with other cities." Cabdrivers have been pushing Beale, chairman of the Transportation Committee, to hold hearings about their desired rate increase, and he said a referendum is the best way to take residents' pulse on the matter.
Asked whether the nonbinding referendum could be used to kill a fare hike, since voters would seem unlikely to vote in favor of an increase, Beale said only, "It gives the people an opportunity to speak."
Tribune reporter Bill Ruthhart contributed.
jebyrne@tribune.com
Naperville setting zoning for medical marijuana businesses
By Gary Gibula, Special to the Tribune
November 25, 2013
With the state's medical marijuana law going into effect on Jan. 1, Naperville officials are taking advantage of language that enables them to "enact reasonable zoning ordinances" to regulate cannabis dispensaries or cultivation centers.
Members of the Planning and Zoning Commission refined guidelines last week for such businesses, should one want to set up shop within city limits.
Commissioners voted 7-2 to make cannabis facilities a conditional use in certain business and industrial areas, which means the board now will review each applicant. By a narrow 5-4 tally, a previous draft proposal was changed to allow drive-up windows at dispensaries.
Plan commissioners also voted 5-4 to keep the requirements that cannabis dispensing must be the primary purpose of the facility and that smoking accessories take up no more than 10 percent of the retail space.
"This is a large town with a lot of people who have a need for this," Commissioner Sean Hastings said. "I feel strongly that if we further restrict what the state has decided to do, it's going to deter businesses from coming here and trying to help people."
Officially known as the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program Act, the law will permit no more that 60 dispensaries and 22 cultivation centers across the state.
"This issue is near and dear to my heart," said Naperville resident Anissa Olley, who spoke before the commission. "My father passed, of cancer, and although this wasn't legal at the time, I always thought it would have helped his pain. The reason I'm standing up is to support people having the opportunity to get pain relief, an option my father didn't have."
Commissioners debated requirements over whether cannabis dispensaries could be permitted in pharmacies, where controlled substances already are kept.
"I have contended all along that a pharmacy is the best place for this," Commissioner Greg Bruno said. "People have cancer, they want some relief from pain and they want to come into a pharmacy to get their medicine."
Hastings took a similar view. "I would be much more comfortable having a pharmacy sell this than 'Jim & Bob's medical marijuana shop,'" he said.
For a standard pharmacy to dispense cannabis, according to state rules, each employee working behind the counter would be required to be licensed and certified for the new service. The proposed Naperville zoning adds the 'primary purpose' restriction.
Commissioner Patricia Meyer asked whether cultivation centers are intended to be indoor facilities.
"They're going to have to be indoors," answered Kristen Foley, senior assistant city attorney. "Based on the fact that dispensaries may only sell marijuana that is grown in the state of Illinois, the growing season will have to be longer than what it is outside."
"I was concerned that we won't be seeing what looks like a farm," said Meyer. "We won't see fencing and barbed wire that looks like a prison."
With the passage of the medical marijuana act, Illinois joined 19 other U.S. states and the District of Columbia that have removed criminal penalties at the state level for medical use and cultivation of cannabis. One proponent who lobbied diligently for the legislation was Dan Linn, executive director of Illinois NORML (the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws).
"It is good that more municipalities are discussing this matter, as it helps to eliminate the stigma that medical cannabis patients are criminals and continue to be treated that way," Linn wrote in an email. "Patients should not be forced to go to an industrial park to get their medicine. The place should be handicap-accessible and close to public transit options."
Illinois' medical cannabis law is more restrictive than that of some states. In order to obtain a medical marijuana card, a patient must have an established relationship with a doctor and be suffering from a condition on a narrow list of 30 afflictions such as cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS and spinal cord injuries.
Chronic pain is cited for medical cannabis use in some states, like Colorado, but that condition does not qualify in Illinois.
The state has set a 7 percent sales tax per ounce of cannabis sold from cultivation centers to dispensaries. Dispensaries may only sell marijuana produced at Illinois cultivation centers, and no more that 2.5 ounces of cannabis per 14 days to one individual.
The plan commission's recommendation will now go to the Naperville City Council for final action.
triblocaltips@tribune.com
Durbin, Kirk differ on marijuana laws
senators split on legal restrictions on the drug
By Katherine Skiba, Chicago Tribune reporter
6:22 p.m. CST, November 7, 2013
WASHINGTON—
— Sens. Dick Durbin and Mark Kirk staked out opposing positions on marijuana Thursday during a coffee with constituents on Capitol Hill.
Durbin, a Democrat, said he supported the use of medical marijuana for people with conditions such as glaucoma. Kirk, a Republican, said he preferred that marijuana "be restricted as much as possible."
Illinois lawmakers this year approved a medical marijuana pilot program for patients with serious illnesses.
"The medical marijuana laws in many states are really rapidly changing the public view toward marijuana," Durbin said. "So I think we are evolving toward a situation where there are less punitive responses to the use of marijuana."
Still, Durbin said he could not support decriminalization of marijuana because he worried about it being a "gateway" drug. He said he had several friends whose children became addicted to serious drugs.
But he said marijuana possession should not be treated in a criminal fashion, expressing concern over prisons being filled with nonviolent offenders who had either possessed drugs or sold small quantities of them.
He said young people who made "stupid decisions early in life" and tried marijuana shouldn't have that "dog" them for the rest of their lives.
Although Kirk said he favored full restrictions on marijuana, he did not comment directly on medical marijuana or Illinois' new law, which takes effect next year. He said he was worried about young people's academic achievement.
"In my own life, there were kids that in the '70s we would call the 'burnouts' who were heavily smoking," Kirk said. "Those kids, as they got to their 50s, were generally much lower performing in their careers and their lives. I don't want kids to have the opportunity to see what a life like that is like."
The two spoke in answer to a question from Steve O'Mara, 67, a retired credit union official from Arlington Heights. He attended the coffee with his wife, Judy, and two grandchildren, both age 10.
On another subject, Durbin sized up Congress' popularity by saying, "The approval rating is somewhere below Donald Trump and head lice."
That echoes the findings of a poll early this year by Public Policy Polling, a Democratic firm. Its survey found that in one-on-one matchups, Congress was less popular than Trump, head lice, cockroaches and root canals, but more popular than telemarketers, Lindsay Lohan and the ebola virus.
kskiba@tribune.com Twitter @KatherineSkiba
A Plea to Avoid Crush of Users at Health Site
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR and ROBERT PEAR
Published: November 26, 2013
WASHINGTON — White House officials, fearful that the federal health care website may again be overwhelmed this weekend, have urged their allies to hold back enrollment efforts so the insurance marketplace does not collapse under a crush of new users.
At the same time, administration officials said Tuesday that they had decided not to inaugurate a big health care marketing campaign planned for December out of concern that it might drive too many people to the still-fragile HealthCare.gov.
With a self-imposed deadline for repairs to the website approaching on Saturday, the administration is trying to strike a delicate balance. It is encouraging people to go or return to the website but does not want to create too much demand. It boasts that the website is vastly improved, but does not want to raise expectations that it will work for everyone.
“We are definitely on track to have a significantly different user experience by the end of this month,” Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, said Tuesday. “That was our commitment.”
Ms. Sebelius, who supervised development of the troubled website, tried to rally state and local elected officials in a conference call organized by the White House. “I would urge you and your folks on the ground to not hesitate to recommend that people go to HealthCare.gov and get signed up,” she said.
Officials said the website was now able to handle 50,000 users at a time, providing enough capacity on a daily basis to enroll millions of people in the next four months.
But those charged with fixing the site worry that 250,000 people might try to use the site simultaneously at times on Saturday and in the days ahead. They say that pent-up demand for insurance in the federal marketplace, combined with a surge of interest among people merely curious about whether it is working, could bring the website to a crawl.
“Our concern is that we want to make sure that people have the right expectation going into this,” said Jennifer Palmieri, the White House communications director. “Early October was a frustrating experience for users. We are preparing for the outcome that we have as many or more visitors as we had on Oct. 1.”
About 4.7 million people visited the website on that first day, the administration said.
White House officials offered a similar message on Monday in a meeting with some of their allies, including the Service Employees International Union and Enroll America. Both groups had pledged to work hard to drive traffic to the website.
In the meeting, Ms. Palmieri said, officials urged the groups to hold back, at least for the first several days of December, to see how much traffic the website is getting. Ms. Palmieri summarized the message: “Our recommendation is that we expect there to be really high traffic. You shouldn’t be driving traffic.”
If the website again crashes repeatedly, Mr. Obama’s critics are sure to pounce and some of his Democratic allies may become anxious and apprehensive. Since the website went live eight weeks ago, the botched system has become a symbol of what Republicans say is an overreaching, incompetent federal government. The debate about the website’s failures, and the broader role of government, may shape the outcome of next year’s congressional elections.
Aides to Mr. Obama have spent the last several days trying to manage expectations by offering high estimates of potential traffic at the end of the month, and by acknowledging that the system will still have problems in the weeks ahead.
“The system will not work perfectly,” Jeffrey D. Zients, who took over management of the website repair effort, told reporters on Friday. He said the site would be able to handle 50,000 users, but added, “To be clear, there will be times that volume on HealthCare.gov will exceed this capacity.”
Luke Chung, the president of FMS, a database company in Virginia, said building the website to handle 50,000 simultaneous users was “not unreasonable.” But he said the government must be prepared to handle much larger numbers at peak times like Dec. 23, just as the Internal Revenue Services does at the tax filing deadline in April.
In an effort to ease pressure on the website, officials have created what they call a waiting room for times when the site is operating slowly. People can ask the government to notify them by email of a better time to use the site, and they will then go to the front of the line, officials said.
Earlier this fall, the administration had envisioned an all-out push to persuade millions of uninsured Americans to log on to HealthCare.gov to buy insurance.
Instead, officials said the government would focus its efforts in December on people who had lost insurance because of cancellation notices and people who started but did not complete applications on the website.
Officials said they would also focus on urban areas in Texas, Florida, California, Illinois and a few other states with high concentrations of the uninsured. Ten counties have 18 percent of the nation’s uninsured, and more than half of the uninsured live in just 4 percent of all counties, according to data from the Census Bureau and Enroll America, a nonprofit group trying to expand coverage.
The White House, pummeled daily by critics of the federal website, is stepping up efforts to persuade states to expand Medicaid for lower-income people. “Nearly half of states are so locked into the politics of Obamacare that they’re willing to leave nearly 5.4 million of their own people uninsured,” the White House website says.
The White House is even trying to win support in Kansas, where a Republican governor and Republican legislators have resisted expansion, citing concerns about the eventual cost. “There is no justification for continuing to block Medicaid expansion,” Josh Earnest, a White House spokesman, said last week in a conference call for Kansas journalists.
But Representative Tim Huelskamp, Republican of Kansas, said: “We don’t need the likes of Kathleen Sebelius or Barack Obama telling us what we should like or need. Obamacare is on life support, and President Obama keeps giving it another jolt to keep it alive.”
Consumers must sign up by Dec. 23 to obtain coverage that takes effect on Jan. 1. The open enrollment period runs through March 31 for coverage that starts later. Federal officials expect three-fourths of the enrollees to qualify for subsidies, though it appears that no more than one-third qualified in the first month.
Caught on video: Woman's face shatters as she's shoved into jail cell
By Rene Lynch
November 28, 2013, 2:17 p.m.
A Skokie, Ill., police officer is facing abuse charges and up to five years in prison for allegedly shoving a woman so hard that she flew across a jail cell and slammed into a bench, shattering the bones in her face.
It was an incident caught on video, above. But, if you decide to watch that video, note that the images can be disturbing.
The video appears to show veteran Officer Michael Hart pushing Cassandra Feuerstein into the cell and captures the moment when she cracks her face across a bench at the back of the holding area. Her eye socket was shattered, her cheek was sliced open, and her teeth were loosened, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Feuerstein's attorney told the newspaper that she needed reconstructive surgery, and now has a titanium plate in her cheek. She still suffers from vision problems and numbness in her face, the attorney said.
The alleged incident took place on March 10, after Feuerstein was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving. Once in custody, she allegedly refused to comply with Hart's commands, and put both hands on either side of the cell door "to prevent Hart from placing her into the cell" -- behavior that Hart's attorney called "combative, unruly and disrespectful."
That attorney, Jed Stone, told the media of Hart: "He's a good cop," and noted that he has served the force for nearly 20 years with "an unblemished record."
The incident is coming to light now because Hart faces aggravated battery and official misconduct charges, charges that came after Feuerstein's attorney, Torri Hamilton, filed a federal lawsuit this month alleging police brutality, the newspaper reported.
China Aims to Curb Wrongful Convictions Amid Abuse
BEIJING November 27, 2013 (AP)
By GILLIAN WONG Associated Press
Associated Press
Chen Keyun's legal nightmare began in 2001 when he was accused of detonating a bomb outside a Communist Party office in his southern coastal city of Fuqing.
Chen denied committing the crime but was held for 12 years, during which he was tortured into confession and twice sentenced to death. He finally was released and exonerated this year, a case that exemplifies the miscarriage of justice that China's Supreme People's Court now says it wants to curtail.
Last week, it released its first set of detailed recommendations for preventing wrongful convictions: Judges should presume defendants are innocent until proven guilty, reject evidence obtained through torture, starvation or sleep deprivation and refrain from colluding with police and prosecutors.
The moves reflect Chinese leaders' recognition that an increasingly prosperous public is demanding a more predictable and fair justice system, though party officials are unlikely to fully loosen their grasp over the courts.
"It is of significance and if adopted seriously, it will effectively help prevent the occurrence of wrongful convictions," said Prof. Tong Zhiwei, a legal expert at the East China Politics and Law University in Shanghai. "The question is whether the regulation will be fully implemented at local levels."
The recommendations are seen more as an effort to build a more professional judiciary, one in which judges observe legal process and make rulings that are based on sound evidence — rather than grant courts full independence.
"If courts can be more independent, then these problems can be easily solved," said Li Fangping, a prominent defense attorney in Beijing. "This guidance can only increase their independence a little bit. On technical issues, it will be of help, but as long as there are cases where there will be intervention, it won't be of much use."
In China, the party controls the courts, police and prosecutors. Some judges are not trained in law, and they rarely acquit defendants for fear of embarrassing their partners in law enforcement. Experts and defense lawyers say police commonly fabricate evidence or use torture to obtain confessions.
Chen Keyun was a manager of a state-owned labor recruiter in Fuqing when a bomb exploded in 2001 outside the city branch of the party agency that investigates cadres for corruption. The explosion killed an agency driver.
Attacks on offices that represent party or government power in China are treated with great urgency, with authorities moving swiftly to solve the case and punish perpetrators to send a message of zero tolerance.
Police turned to Chen as a suspect because he previously had been investigated by the anti-graft office and punished. Five others, including Chen's driver Wu Changlong, Chen's wife, Wu's former brother-in-law and two migrant workers, also were arrested for involvement in the attack.
Police detained Chen, then 48, and in the two months that followed, he said, deprived him of sleep, beat him, starved him, and dangled him for hours by strapping his wrists to iron rods on a high window.
"They treated me like less than a dog," Chen, now 60, said in a phone interview. "I was an old Communist Party cadre who had been about to retire, I had never thought that something like this could happen to me."
Chen said he protested his innocence until he could no longer endure the torment.
His interrogators eventually forced him to sign a confession, though he later tried to retract it, telling other investigators he had been tortured. Chen's lawyer took pictures months later showing deep welts on his wrists. Others accused in the case also said they were tortured.
The Fuzhou City Intermediate Court sentenced Chen and Wu to death with a two-year reprieve in 2004, and three of the others to various terms of imprisonment. The defendants appealed in 2005 and several domestic newspapers reported that they might have been wrongfully convicted. The Fujian provincial high court turned the case back to the city court and ordered a retrial.
In 2006, the Fuzhou court tried the case again and upheld the suspended death sentences for Chen and Wu. They appealed again, and in 2011 the provincial court tried the case yet again. In May, the court acquitted all five defendants.
The court offered compensation of about 4.2 million yuan ($690,000) to the five of them in September but they are demanding more, as well as an acknowledgement that they were tortured.
Chen's is one of a few high-profile cases of wrongful convictions overturned in recent months. In March, a court in eastern Zhejiang province retried and acquitted two men who were convicted in 2004 of raping and murdering a woman, after DNA evidence from another case ruled out their involvement in the crime.
The Supreme People's Court's latest directive is seen as building on earlier comments by its president, Zhou Qiang, on the importance of preventing wrongful convictions. Rights activists say it is a welcome move, but may not be enough to curb abuses.
"The guidelines fail to address the structural problems that create wrongful convictions — police power that goes unsupervised, the lack of judicial independence, the absence of effective remedies when things go wrong, and weak defense rights," said Maya Wang, a Human Rights Watch researcher in Hong Kong. "Thus it will be unlikely to achieve much impact on the ground."
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Follow Gillian Wong on Twitter at twitter.com/gillianwong
Hotel amenities calm tensions at TSA checkpoints
Bart Jansen, USA TODAY 10:04 p.m. EST November 28, 2013
'The more you can calm down the situation at the airport, the easier it is to find somebody who is an anomaly — that's what we're looking for,' says one TSA official.
Plush couches. Soothing music. Tranquil pictures on the wall. It could be a hotel lobby. Except at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, these are the amenities at a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint, an experiment to ease tensions as passengers pass through security.
Charlotte's Checkpoint E, along with the one at Dallas/Fort Worth's airport, each began three-month experiments in October to see whether checkpoints could be made any more calming, under a project organized by SecurityPoint Media and SpringHill Suites by Marriott.
So far, airport executives and TSA officials say travelers and workers at these two airports want to make every checkpoint like this.
"What they have done is calmed the situation down," TSA Deputy Administrator John Halinski said. "The more you can calm down the situation at the airport, the easier it is to find somebody who is an anomaly — that's what we're looking for."
About $500,000 in remodeling didn't cost airports anything because SpringHill Suites offsets its expenses with advertising and the chance to introduce travelers to its amenities, according to Craig Fowler, Marriott International's senior director of brand marketing.
Leather couches are in the area where the security line begins. Colored lights dance on the wall, with a warmer effect than harsh white lights. Floor-to-ceiling pictures on the walls alternate views of hotel rooms with pictures of flowers or water.
"The idea was to transform a normally stressful moment in the traveler's journey with enhancements that are surprising and delighting," Fowler said.
Joseph Ambrefe, CEO of SecurityPoint, said the goal is to improve the traveler's experience without sacrificing security. Shoes are still removed and bags are still scanned, but in more pleasant surroundings. Ambrefe says it is too early to quantify whether passengers are getting through the checkpoint faster.
Television screens update passengers about the length of their waits to get to screening machines. The video screens also carry advertising for SpringHill Suites.
To eliminate TSA officers' shouting instructions or blaring public-address announcements, directional speakers remind passengers when it's time to remove belts or metal from pockets. Alternating with the official messages is music from the SpringHill Suites channel on Pandora.
"The concept is designed to inform and instruct our customers about the screening process at the security checkpoint while simultaneously creating a welcoming, calming environment for travelers from SpringHill Suites," said Jennifer Long, the passenger-experience manager at Charlotte's airport.
At the checkpoint, wider, flatter trays for belongings are decorated. The trays are also numbered and carry computer chips so that they can be tracked more precisely if a specific tray needs to be scanned twice.
"We want to lead the way in making passenger screening a positive encounter, while maintaining the highest levels of security," said Ken Buchanan, executive vice president of revenue management at the Dallas airport.
After screening, there are soft red couches where passengers can sit while putting on their shoes, tall tables to help slip a laptop back into its bag and a full-length mirror for a quick check before heading to the gate.
"The idea was to replace those hard, cold steel benches with something that people would feel comfortable sitting down on," Fowler said.
Halinski of TSA says the experience is so pleasant that officers from across the Dallas airport all want to work at Terminal E's Checkpoint 18.
"What they have done is make an incredible experience for the folks that go through that particular checkpoint," Halinski said. "Every TSO we have wants to work in that terminal because it's nice."
You can’t judge a person’s pain
Thu Nov 28, 2013 5:29 PM
Regarding “Republic’s readers deserve truth about medical-pot program” (Viewpoints, Saturday):
Kudos to Dr. Gina Mecagni, who has practiced emergency-room medicine for 12 years, for explaining that “pain is what the patient says it is.”
In the distorted media image of drug-crazed patients, the majority of patients with challenging chronic pain are overlooked. Most of us are not fakers, con artists or addicts. We are previously high-functioning, hardworking people who face sometimes little-known conditions.
In my case, it’s sciatic-nerve entrapment by the piriformis. No surgeons in Arizona treat this condition, so I had to go out of state. Chronic pain is a daily companion. Although I have not tried marijuana as a pain reliever, I know there are many who find relief from their symptoms by using it.
Everyone’s DNA is different, and we metabolize pain medicine differently. No one should cast aspersions until he or she stands in the shoes of a chronic-pain patient. We need the media to support us on this, not vilify or distort us.
— Linda VandeVerde, Scottsdale
Jacob Sullum, Contributor
11/22/2013 @ 6:24PM |10,120 views
DEA Debunks Krokodil Sightings
Since September officials around the country have been reporting sightings of krokodil, the notorious homemade desomorphine concoction that produces, along with a heroin-like high, gruesome pictures of necrotic flesh, caused by a combination of corrosive contaminants and unsanitary injection habits. A week and a half ago, for instance, Brian Brady, the interim police chief of Dillon, Colorado, told the city council his officers had come across krokodil on the streets of the tiny Summit County town. ““We’re seeing a trend big time,” he said. A reader posted a link to that story on Facebook, accompanied by a one-word comment: “Bullshit.” The Drug Enforcement Administration seems to agree:
DEA is aware of and tracking the nationwide reports of alleged abuse of the controlled substance desomorphine that is found in the drug krokodil, a homemade substitute for heroin invented and used in rural Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan.
DEA is investigating the matter by acquiring samples alleged to contain desomorphine, interviewing drug abusers, and monitoring intelligence reports. To date, none of our forensic laboratories has analysed an exhibit found to contain desomorphine. A sample sent to our Chicago forensic laboratory that was suspected to be krokodil was actually heroin.
As the International Business Times notes, ”Experts have said it is unlikely the drug has even really left Russia, as it is only used by people in remote parts of the country where heroin has become too expensive or unavailable—it is turned to as a last resort among addicts.” Russian junkies resorted to krokodil because 1) heroin was hard to come by and 2) codeine, which can be converted into desomorphine using common chemicals, was available over the counter. Since neither of those things is true in the United States, it hardly seems plausible that krokodil would appeal to American drug users. What seems to be happening is that cops, primed to think krokodil would be coming soon to their jurisdictions, are attributing yucky skin conditions associated with careless heroin injection practices to the exotic “flesh-eating drug.”
American krokodil apparently belongs in the same chimerical category as candy-flavored meth, another drug scare the DEA helped debunk. Sadly, American journalists are so eager to hype the drug menace du jour that they make the DEA sound like the voice of calm reason.
Last month I noted that the krokodil’s special hazards are entirely attributable to prohibition.
http://www.azfamily.com/news/health/Krokodil-Has-exotic-flesh-eating-drug-come-to-Arizona-232197291.html
Krokodil: Has exotic 'flesh-eating' drug come to Arizona?
Posted on November 16, 2013 at 11:46 AM
PHOENIX -- It's a deadly drug with an exotic name. Krokodil is a potent substitute for heroin and it literally has been eating people alive. A homemade morphine derivative, krokodil (desomorphine) was first seen in Russia in 2003, although it didn't attract worldwide attention until 2010.
Although the Drug Enforcement Administration has not confirmed it, it looks like krokodil is now turning up in the U.S., including here in Arizona. In fact, there are concerns that Arizona could be the epicenter of krokodil's U.S. invasion.
The videos and photographs of people who have fallen victim to krokodil are horrifying.
It was a call to the Poison Control Center at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center that touched off a national alert. "In this case someone called and said we have a patient or two that may have used krokodil," Dr. Frank Lovecchio said. "They claimed to have used krokodil."
After receiving another call -- a similar call -- Lovecchio sounded the alarm.
"When I heard of these cases, we did try to alert other physicians because we thought it was pretty serious -- you know, very life threatening," he said.
Those who have encountered krokodil describe is as a "flesh-eating" drug -- one that eats users alive.
"They usually die of overwhelming skin infection," Lovecchio explained. "They usually die because they lose their limbs or extremities."
The high from krokodil is 10 times more powerful than that of heroin. When you consider that the intense, albeit short-lived, high comes at a fraction of the price of heroin, it's clear that krokodil, which is fairly easy to make in a basic kitchen, is a toxic brew on every level.
"They take a drug like codeine, or a codeine-like drug, and they will try to get it out by using acids or turpentine or gasoline," Lovecchio said. "Unfortunately for the drug abuser, when they inject that, some of that gasoline and turpentine is left behind."
It looks like that is what drug users in Arizona, Utah, Oklahoma and Illinois have been injecting into their veins. The results are scaly green scars -- hence the name krokodil (Russian for crocodile) -- open sores, rotting flesh and amputations.
DEA Agent Ramona Sanchez says it's frightening enough to prompt an investigation.
"We start to monitor what chemicals are being used," she said. "We start to monitor who is doing it, and how it is being produced."
There's also an investigation right here at home.
"We are strictly a clinical lab. We service the poison control center and the emergency-room physicians," Phillip Gatewood said, describing the lab two stories below Banner Good Sam. That's where scientists are trying to determine how krokodil made its way to the U.S.
Gatewood is testing the two samples from Arizona patients in an effort to learn if what they took was actually krokodil. Patient privacy laws mean information is tightly guarded, but Gatewood was able to share some of his general findings.
"What we found was the patients had high levels of drugs that were not related to the new drug, the krokodil," he said.
Until investigators are able to get their hands on the drug the patients actually injected, there might not be much anybody can do.
"The average age of them living once they start using the drug daily is about one to two years," Lovecchio said.
Since these initial reports, both the Poison Control Center and the lab are getting more requests from doctors for information about krokodil and help identifying potential users.
Marijuana-smoking Mountie stirs the pot in Canada
Ottawa (AFP) - A Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer with a medical marijuana prescription for job-related stress provoked a national debate Thursday over whether he should be allowed to smoke in uniform.
Corporal Ronald Francis serves in Canada's New Brunswick province, and reportedly received a prescription for medical-grade marijuana on November 4.
He told Canada's public broadcaster CBC that he should be allowed to smoke joints while in uniform, but received a cool response from his bosses who fear tarnishing the RCMP's image.
Reactions poured in from across Canada both in support and against the corporal's plea, including from Attorney General Peter MacKay who said it would "set a very poor example for Canadians."
Cannabis advocates meanwhile said the case underscores the need for employers to better understand medical marijuana use.
Health Canada established regulations for accessing cannabis for medical purposes in 2001 after the courts struck down a broad prohibition of marijuana.
But it remains controversial.
Francis told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which aired video footage of him smoking a joint in his RCMP red serge, that pot has helped relieve symptoms of post-traumatic stress related to 21 years on the job.
His prescription allows for three grams, or up to 15 joints, a day, though he said he does not typically smoke that much.
"I get up in the morning, have my coffee and the marijuana. I go at lunchtime, have a marijuana joint, and then again in the evening. That would be my medical regime. But that may change with my tolerance to THC. It may take two joints in the morning, I don't know," he said.
"I'm still functional," he added. "But your nervous system is relaxed, and that makes a big difference."
"I had to really make a moral decision about it. Because the RCMP and law enforcement, they seem so anti-marijuana, and that's a hard thing to overcome, so I had to make that decision for my own health. It wasn’t based on my career or anything."
RCMP Deputy Commissioner Gilles Moreau meanwhile told the broadcaster that officers with a medical marijuana prescription can take their medication.
But he said they should not do so while in uniform in public.
"Definitely a member that has been prescribed medicinal marijuana should not be in red serge taking his medication," Moreau was quoted as saying.
"It would not be advisable for that member, it would not portray the right message to the general public, it's definitely not something we would support or condone."
The RCMP noted that Francis has been assigned to desk duty and does not carry a gun.
The Potential of LSD, Heroin, Marijuana and Other Controlled Substances in Brain Research
Scientific American
By David Nutt November 27, 2013 2:27 PM
Imagine being an astronomer in a world where the telescope was banned. This effectively happened in the 1600s when, for over 100 years, the Catholic Church prohibited access to knowledge of the heavens in a vain attempt to stop scientists proving that the earth was not the center of the universe. ‘Surely similar censorship could never happen today,’ I hear you say–but it does in relation to the use of drugs to study the brain. Scientists and doctors are banned from studying many hundreds of drugs because of outdated United Nations charters dating back to the 1960s and 1970s. Some of the banned drugs include cannabis, psychedelics and MDMA (now widely known as ecstasy).
The most remarkable example is that of the psychedelic LSD, a drug accidentally discovered by the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann while he was working for the pharmaceutical company Sandoz to find new treatments for migraine. Once the ability of LSD to alter brain function became apparent, Hofmann and others realized it had enormous potential as a tool to explore and treat the brain. The immediate effects of LSD to alter brain states offered unique insight into states such as consciousness and psychosis; the long-lasting changes in self-awareness it brought on were seen as potentially useful for conditions such as addiction. Pharmaceutical company Sandoz saw LSD as so important that they chose to make it widely available to researchers in the 1950s. Researchers conducted over 1,000 studies at that time, most of which yielded significant results. However, once young Americans started using the drug recreationally–partly in protest against the Vietnam War–it was banned, both there and all over the world. Since then, research into the science behind the drug and its effects on the brain has come to a halt. Yet, we have begun to rectify the situation using the shorter-acting psychedelic psilocybin (also known as magic mushrooms). In just a couple of experiments, scientists have discovered remarkable and unexpected effects on the brain, leading them to start a clinical trial in depression. Other therapeutic targets for psychedelics are cluster headaches, OCD and addiction.
The drug affected most by this research censorship is cannabis. People have used cannabis as a medicine for 4,000 years; the cannabis plant contains about 100 active ingredients, many of which are likely to be useful medicines. Yet, because UN convention banned research on the drug in 1962, almost none are studied. Even in the U.S. in states that have made medicinal cannabis available it remains illegal to research this drug! To do research on cannabis, scientists need a special license from the Drug Enforcement Agency. But the license costs so much and takes so long to acquire that virtually no American researchers have one! In the U.K., I work with heroin all the time–I can do this because it is a medicine. Yet researchers need a special license to work with cannabis or psilocybin, which are much less dangerous!
This case of research censorship is the worst since the banning of the telescope. The laws, which do not discriminate between research and recreational drug use–are a relic of another age. Scientists still need a license to work with quantities (typically milligrams) that would have no brain effects at all if taken recreationally. These laws serve no safety value; scientists are very unlikely to sell their research, and why would they when users can get anything they want from the street dealers or the Internet? The licenses and bureaucracy surrounding them can increase the costs of research tenfold, further limiting what is done. It is time for scientists and doctors change the rules so research and clinical treatments can flourish.
Efforts to relax marijuana laws lose billionaire backer
By Julie Carr Smyth Associated Press Fri Nov 29, 2013 11:42 AM
COLUMBUS, Ohio — With the death of Cleveland billionaire and philanthropist Peter B. Lewis, the push for relaxed U.S. marijuana laws lost its most generous supporter. That’s left supporters wondering what comes next.
Lewis, chairman of Progressive Insurance, died Saturday at age 80. Since the 1980s, he had donated an estimated $40 million to $60 million to marijuana law reform — including underwriting ballot campaigns, research, political polling and legal defense efforts.
Largely through Lewis’ efforts, and those of several other billionaires, 20 states since 1996 have passed medical marijuana laws, 17 have decriminalized the drug and two have passed legalization language.
Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said organizations that relied on Lewis’ largesse will almost certainly need to build new fundraising structures if they want to carry on. Those include some 25 nonprofit groups that have grown up around the medical marijuana and marijuana legalization questions.
“For this epoch, from 1995 to 2013, there’s no peer on the Earth regarding who put money up for marijuana law reform,” St. Pierre said.
St. Pierre calls that a bittersweet state of affairs for the cause he shared with Lewis — the sweet being because Lewis was so reliably generous and bitter because he believes Lewis’ deep pockets made others complacent.
He said polling has identified 40 million U.S. marijuana consumers among 300 million Americans, yet only perhaps 30,000 people over a decade have donated to groups like his.
“Frustratingly, Peter Lewis really was the sole funder for so many entities,” he said. “Now we’re going to find out whether, when the funder’s no longer there, is this really a movement?”
Carla Lowe, founder of the California-based political action committee Citizens Against Legalizing Marijuana, said she has no doubt that proponents of relaxed drug laws will find the resources to promote their agenda.
“There’s plenty of money out there. The drug money is beyond what I can begin to comprehend,” she said. “I’ve been fighting this for 37 years and I’ve seen nothing but more money, not less.”
She named billionaires George Soros, George Zimmer of Men’s Warehouse and Phoenix University CEO John Sperling among those who will carry on.
“On our side, we need a George Soros but we don’t have one,” she said. “It’s moms, dads and grandparents just pounding away and never giving up.”
A key element of Lewis’ reform efforts was the funding of $7 million provided for the American Civil Liberties Union’s drug litigation task force, St. Pierre said. That was on top of tens of millions of dollars given to the ACLU in general support.
Christine Link, executive director of the ACLU-Ohio, said Lewis was a risk-taker who was full of ideas for meeting his goals, and he left a mark on every organization he served, whether it was his alma mater Princeton University, the Guggenheim Museum, Case Western Reserve or his insurance company.
“In the old days, who’s out there arguing for marijuana are the people that wanted to light up a joint in church,” she said. “Peter believed that’s just not the way to lead on a controversial social issue. So he figured out you had to be smart about it, and present an appearance with confidence and integrity.”
She said Lewis’ efforts may very well carry on through his family.
“The good thing to know is that his family — his wife, former wife Toby, all the children — all extremely charitable and all have exhibited degrees of interest in his issues,” she said.
Nuke lab works on liquids scanner for airport use
Associated Press Thu Nov 28, 2013 10:20 AM
SANTA FE, N.M. — Scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory are working to perfect a technology that could eliminate the need for travelers to toss their liquids when they go through airport security.
A lab team has combined magnetic resonance with low-power X-rays that together can better distinguish between harmless liquids and those that could be used to make explosives.
The Santa Fe New Mexican (http://bit.ly/1eu6wVR ) reports the goal is to see what’s inside an unopened bottle.
Lab physicist Michelle Espy leads the team that’s developed a device they call the MagRay. She says neither travelers nor airport security officers like the current ban on liquids in containers larger than three ounces.
The ban has been in place since an al-Qaida plot to sneak liquid explosives onto U.S.-bound planes was thwarted in 2006.
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Information from: The Santa Fe New Mexican, http://www.sfnewmexican.com
FBI local boss: Terror, spying among threats in Arizona
By Paul Giblin The Republic | azcentral.com Sat Nov 30, 2013 1:00 AM
Arizona’s technology sector and its international border combine to make the FBI’s Phoenix District one of the most dynamic in the country, according to Special Agent in Charge Douglas Price, who took its helm in April.
There are targets and vulnerabilities aplenty.
Arizona offers an array of opportunities for commercial espionage, terrorism, trafficking and public corruption, among other crimes, Price said during an hourlong interview at his north Phoenix office.
Yet, in accordance with FBI protocol, Price remained vague about potential criminal activity and about the bureau’s efforts to thwart it.
“We’ve got some things going on,” he said. “It’s kind of hard to quantify, because some of the stuff we’re doing is incremental and making strides towards disrupting something internationally or nationally, but I will tell you that we certainly are in the forefront.”
The district office, which serves as the headquarters for the FBI’s operations across the state, is among the 15 largest of the bureau’s 56 field offices nationwide. It oversees seven satellite offices in Tucson, Sierra Vista, Yuma, Lake Havasu City, Flagstaff and Lakeside in Arizona, plus Gallup, N.M.
The district has hundreds of employees, split fairly equally among agents and civilian support personnel, though Price declined to specify the exact numbers.
Price, 48, took the top spot in Phoenix after a 17-year career that featured posts in Las Cruces, N.M.; Los Angeles; Salt Lake City; Baghdad, Iraq; Athens, Greece; and Washington, D.C.
During that tenure, he took assignments that concentrated on gangs, cargo theft, civil-rights violations, organized crime and terrorism. His most recent stop was in Washington, where he oversaw human-resource matters, including senior-executive service appraisals, promotion processes and career-development programs, among other programs.
In Phoenix, he succeeded James Turgal, who was promoted to an assistant-director position in Washington.
Price has kept a mostly low profile since becoming the 41st special agent in charge of the Phoenix District, which was created in 1919.
He has met with science and defense-industry leaders and law-enforcement chiefs statewide. His one-on-one interview with The Arizona Republic last week marked his first extensive meeting with the media.
He said that the FBI’s overall mission shifted significantly since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, to focus more extensively on counterterrorism and counterintelligence operations and that the Phoenix Division’s mission shifted accordingly.
“One of the big switches from 9/11 was trying to be more proactive and trying to get in front of things, rather than reactive and responding to an incident that happened,” he said.
In Arizona, those initiatives largely involve interaction with an array of high-tech, aerospace and defense companies. The state’s science-and-technology sector encompasses thousands of companies, with products ranging from semiconductors to missiles to medical equipment, according to the Arizona Technology Council.
Aerospace and defense firms alone generated $14.9 billion in sales last year, according to council.
FBI agents try to identify threats to those firms and to other potential high-value targets, such as military installations, Price said.
Threats come from foreign countries, foreign and domestic terrorist organizations, ideological activists and business competitors, among others. There is no shortage of opponents who want to know what U.S. institutions do and how they do it, he said.
“Some of them we consider just your traditional spies, who are trying to get our secrets, and some of them are just economic espionage,” he said. “They want everything we have. They’ve basically made the determination that R&D is hard and expensive. They’d rather steal it.”
FBI agents meet with government, military and business leaders in Arizona to discuss security efforts.
Many industry leaders initially were reluctant to engage with the FBI on counterespionage efforts, said Steve Zylstra, the tech council’s president and CEO.
“It’s like when an individual sees a police car in their rearview mirror and automatically gets concerned,” he said.
More recently though, industry leaders have acknowledged the gravity of potential attacks and are more likely to report suspected infiltration to the FBI, Zylstra said.
“It’s one of the highest concerns of our day — that either their data is going to be tampered with in some way or obtained by others who seek them ill will. It’s a real issue, a huge issue,” he said.
FBI agents monitor the cyberverse to detect threats and potential attacks, Price said. They watch terrorist organizations as well as “hackivists” — computer-savvy activists bent on causing havoc.
So-called insider threats like Army Pfc. Chelsea Manning and former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden have changed the game in how the FBI and other agencies secure information, Price said.
Manning gave thousands of classified documents about military operations to the website WikiLeaks and was convicted of espionage. Snowden leaked thousands of documents about NSA surveillance operations to several media outlets and fled to Russia.
“Sadly, in today’s world, security is not a fence anymore. Security is people who walk out with thumb drives,” Price said.
The border presents another set of issues for the bureau.
“A lot of people look at the southwest border in terms of immigration. We look at the southwest border a little differently,” he said. “We look at it in terms of threats to the country, people being able to get through that southwest border. What kind of threat are they going to bring to us? We look at how the Border Patrol or other agencies are working on the border. Are there issues there? We look at civil-rights issues. We look at public corruption.”
The FBI’s involvement along the border is needed because other law-enforcement agencies give civil rights sparse consideration, said Isabel Garcia, co-founder and co-chairwoman of the immigrant-rights organization Coalicion de Derechos Humanos, which is based in Tucson. “I absolutely welcome that — if it turns out to be truly independent without conflicts of interest,” she said.
The FBI’s toughest job will be monitoring tactics used by other agencies, which increasingly appear to depend on racial profiling, Garcia said.
One of the bureau’s top priories along the border is uncovering public corruption, Price said. The money involved with moving people, drugs, guns and other contraband across the border presents temptations for federal employees who are supposed to monitor the border.
In 2005, an FBI investigation in Arizona called Operation Lively Green unveiled a narcotics-smuggling ring that involved military personnel, prison guards and others. Ultimately, 57 suspects were convicted, including about a dozen soldiers and airmen, some of whom used government vehicles to transport packages they thought contained drugs.
The FBI currently has active programs along the border, but Price declined to specify their purposes or targets. “We have people that are working that from all angles,” he said.
Price earned a master’s degree in public administration from Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., in 1994, and a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, in 1989.
Maricopa County sales tax for safety considered
By Michelle Ye Hee Lee The Republic | azcentral.com Fri Nov 29, 2013 9:39 PM
A half-cent-per-dollar sales tax is under discussion by Maricopa County leaders as they explore ways to provide additional funding for county public-safety programs.
The early talks have taken place internally, and there is no formal proposal or timeline on the table. The county would need legislative approval before levying a sales tax, but it is unclear whether the issue will come up in the 2014 legislative session.
In recent budget cycles, county officials expressed concerns regarding public-safety funding — including courts and law-enforcement agencies — and how to come up with sustainable ways to pay for services and programs.
The Board of Supervisors has cut its property-tax revenues and its budget in recent years. The board has not yet made any decisions regarding fiscal 2015 property-tax revenues.
Three of five county supervisors took office early this year. Fiscal 2015 will be their second budget cycle. The board plans to dive deeper into the county’s financial structure and will be holding strategic-planning meetings throughout December.
Public safety accounts for 51 percent of the county’s fiscal 2014 expenditures. The largest spending chunk after public-safety costs is far less: 22.66 percent for health, welfare and sanitation. County supervisors repeatedly have said they prioritize public safety and the county’s statutory duties to its citizens to provide services ranging from county jail operations to probation programs.
Maricopa County’s tax revenues are made up of property taxes, a jail sales tax and car-rental surcharges.
The county currently levies a voter-approved sales tax of one-fifth cent per dollar that voters approved in 2002 for jail facilities.
Maricopa County is the only Arizona county that must get legislative approval to levy a county general-fund sales tax.
State statutes allow counties with fewer than 1.5 million residents to levy a sales tax with the unanimous consent of the local board of supervisors. Most counties in the state have exercised this tax authority. Maricopa County has 3.8 million residents.
“There’s a lot of discussion going on about how we fund public safety in the future,” Maricopa County Manager Tom Manos said.
One of the topics of discussion centers on “what ifs and what could be” regarding the potential half-cent-per-dollar sales tax, Manos said.
Options include expanding the existing jail tax or creating a new, separate sales tax. County officials have not yet decided which option to pursue.
“Right now, what the jail tax can be used for is very restricted. It can basically be used for operating jails and for keeping people out of jails,” Manos said. “So, there has been some thinking that if the amount was increased, that we would look at a broader base of uses. But we don’t have a consensus on that.”
The Legislature authorized the county’s current jail tax to be used to construct, maintain, operate and renovate county jail facilities, and to pay for certain programs to “reduce the expense of adult and juvenile jail facilities.”
If county leaders decide to pursue a half-cent-per-dollar sales tax, residents may see a citizens committee being formed to evaluate public-safety needs and the existing funding structure. The Board of Supervisors already has approved a legislative agenda for 2014. If the board is going to “modify the agenda to include something like this, it has to be a public process,” Manos said.
More than 10 years ago, Sheriff Joe Arpaio supported asking voters to pay for new jails through the current jail tax. He said he believed it was necessary to build the new jails.
Arpaio now says that he would need to see the details of a potential new sales tax to fund the criminal-justice system before deciding whether to support it.
Arpaio agreed that public-safety funding should be reviewed. If the county decides to move forward with planning for a potential sales tax, Arpaio said there needs to be transparency and voter education.
“We can’t let public safety suffer — that’s top priority for the people of this county, so something should be looked at,” Arpaio said.
Release ordered for Pinal County sex offender because of delay
Associated Press Fri Nov 29, 2013 3:33 PM
A man accused of being sexually violent must go free because authorities violated his rights by failing to timely schedule a trial, an Arizona appellate court ruled Friday.
The state Court of Appeals said Steven Lane Fuller was entitled to have a trial within 120 days and that a delay of more than a year means he went without treatment that might have resulted in his release.
Fuller, 57, was discharged from the state prison system in January 2012 after serving sentences for Pinal County convictions for public sexual indecency and indecent exposure.
He was immediately transferred to the state mental hospital in Phoenix. That was after a Pinal County Superior Court judge granted a prosecutor’s request that Fuller be committed for civil proceedings on whether Fuller should receive treatment for sexual violence.
The case then fell in the cracks until February 2013, when a court official noticed that his case was still in the pretrial phase.
Proceedings then started to be scheduled, and a public defender was appointed to represent Fuller.
Fuller’s lawyer asked for dismissal of the proceeding, but a trial judge refused, saying that the 120-day deadline set in state law wasn’t mandatory.
However, a Tucson-based three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals ruled that the “grave violation” entitled Fuller to relief.
“We recognize that the effect of our opinion today will be the release of a person who the state maintains has a mental disorder,” Judge Peter Eckerstrom wrote in the ruling. “But … we may not assume that Fuller would be deemed sexually violent before the state has proven that fact at a trial — and before Fuller has been permitted to rebut the state’s evidence with his own.”
Pinal County Attorney Lando Voyles issued a statement saying the case languished under his predecessor, and as soon as his office learned of the situation, it notified the court and argued to a judge that Fuller’s rights hadn’t been compromised.
Voyles said a new system is now used in Pinal County where prosecutors retain a case through trial. He said his office will review the appeals court decision and determine “what legal tools remain to protect Pinal families from a potential sexually violent person.”
Fuller was represented by Assistant Pinal County Public Defender David Wilkison, who did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Long-shot legal challenges to health-care law abound
USA Today Fri Nov 29, 2013 11:04 AM
WASHINGTON — President Obama's signature health care law could get nicked by the Supreme Court next year when the justices take up the mandate that most businesses provide free coverage for contraception. But that's not the only legal hurdle it faces.
In courtrooms across the country, Republican state attorneys general and conservative groups are challenging the way the law was passed, the way it was worded and the bureaucracy it created.
For Obama and the millions of Americans who stand to benefit from the law's insurance expansion, the good news is that the lawsuits are long shots. Most are pending at federal district courts, which gives the government more time to implement the law and could make judges less likely to rule against it.
Still, a favorable appeals court ruling in any of the cases might lead to another Supreme Court showdown like the one expected in March or April, when the justices will consider business owners' religious objections to providing certain types of birth control coverage.
"An act this complicated was always going to raise additional legal questions," says Randy Barnett, a Georgetown University law professor who was a primary force behind the original legal challenge to the health care law.
Perhaps the most closely watched lawsuits are those in the District of Columbia, Virginia, Oklahoma and Indiana that, ironically, accept the law's wording at face value.
As passed by Congress and signed by Obama in 2010, the law offers federal subsidies to — and threatens tax penalties on — individuals and businesses in state marketplaces, or exchanges. But 35 states are served by a federal exchange, and while proponents intended for the subsidies to apply nationwide, the law refers to them only in state exchanges.
The lawsuits challenge an Internal Revenue Service rule that applies the hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies to all states and subjects employers and taxpayers nationwide to penalties. A victory could threaten the subsidies, making health coverage unaffordable for millions and the health care marketplace unworkable.
One of the cases, Halbig v. Sebelius, will be back in federal district court in the District of Columbia on Tuesday. Judge Paul Friedman has said he will rule by mid-February. Another case in Virginia could be decided before the end of the year.
"If the courts rule for us, a majority of the country is not going to be under the subsidy provisions," says Sam Kazman, general counsel at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, who is coordinating the legal action. "Politically, that has a huge impact."
Administration allies say the law clearly was intended to make subsidies available nationwide, and the IRS rule is just a logical step in that process. "Courts usually do not reach conclusions that defy common sense," says Robert Weiner, a former associate deputy attorney general and a leading defender of the health care law.
While those lawsuits could wreak havoc with the law, a longer-shot challenge has the potential to wipe it off the books.
That case, Sissel v. U.S., argues that the Affordable Care Act is a revenue-raising bill, which under the Constitution should have originated in the House of Representatives. After all, its proponents argue, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts upheld the mandate that people buy insurance only because the penalty can be seen as a tax.
The conservative Pacific Legal Foundation, which mounted the lawsuit, contends that when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid amended the House bill by wiping it out entirely and starting over, he violated the Constitution's "origination clause."
If that argument wins in court, says Cato Institute health economist Michael Cannon, "not only do they have to strike down every other revenue measure in the law ... they would have to strike down the entire law."
But no court ever has struck down a law based on its origination in the Senate rather than the House. U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell denied the challenge in June, reasoning that the law did originate in the House and was not the brand of revenue measure that had to start there anyway.
That case now goes to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, where others soon will follow. That court's decisions could be the final word for several health care cases — one of the reasons why its makeup is considered crucial to both sides.
The Senate's recent decision to eliminate its 60-vote threshold for presidential nominations will enable Obama to get three pending nominees to that court confirmed by Democrats. That could help the law's chances in what has been a conservative-leaning court.
Yet another lawsuit comes from the conservative Goldwater Institute, an Arizona-based group that has challenged the powers of the Independent Payment Advisory Board, which was created under the law to control costs.
In its brief, the institute calls the board "perhaps the most egregious consolidation of power in American history."
District Court Judge G. Murray Snow dismissed that portion of the institute's challenge shortly after the law was upheld by the Supreme Court last year, but his ruling is being appealed and will be heard by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in January.
One problem for the administration as it fights the various lawsuits is that the law cannot be amended to make technical corrections, a common congressional procedure. That's because Republicans opposed to the law would attempt to undermine it during the amendment process.
"There's absolutely no prospect of making even small, modest changes to the law," says Josh Blackman, a conservative blogger and assistant law professor at South Texas College of Law who has written a book on the challenges to Obamacare. "The second anything is modified in this law, it would just be gutted."
Ridership discrepancy calls Metro's estimation method into question
By Jon Schleuss, Laura J. Nelson and Doug Smith
November 29, 2013, 7:30 p.m.
After officials began locking the turnstiles to the Los Angeles subway in June, stopping many passengers from riding for free, the volume of people entering the system may have fallen significantly, according to data reviewed by The Times.
From May through October, the number of people passing through turnstiles each month fell from 4.8 million to 4 million, according to the data. Over the same time frame, however, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's ridership estimates climbed by about 400,000 passengers.
In September, the first full month that all gates were locked, about 3.7 million people were counted entering the subway — a decrease of 23% from May.
Metro officials said they cannot explain the discrepancy, and aren't sure whether ridership has fallen or not. They cautioned that the data were preliminary.
"Metro needs to find out what's going on and why, because that's just a huge number," former Metro director Richard Katz said. "You expect the number to drop by a few percent when you make a change, but nothing that big."
The gap raises questions about how Metro calculates ridership, a statistic that helps determine future federal funding, and what effect locking the subway system's gates will have on those who depend on the mass transit system.
In June, officials began locking the turnstiles, creating the system's first barrier to prevent people from riding for free. To board now, commuters must purchase an electronic card that they scan to unlock the turnstiles.
Clicks of a turnstile are automatic and mechanical, said David Sutton, who runs Metro's fare system, but they don't account for every passenger.
For example, turnstiles aren't installed between train lines at the 7th Street/Metro Center station, spokesman Marc Littman said, so people transferring are only counted once. Some passengers also skirt the gates by going through wheelchair-accessible entrances or emergency exits, he said. Others could be switching to buses, a ridership statistic that Metro measures separately.
"I ride the system every day," Littman said. "It sure doesn't look like there's a ... drop in ridership." Officials said their current estimates meet federal accuracy benchmarks: a 95% confidence interval, with a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
Two dozen Metro employees create the estimates by counting the people who board every train at every station during key times of the day, said Conan Cheung, a deputy executive officer for the transportation authority.
A complete count takes about six months, he said, so every estimate is a cumulative tally of boardings from the previous half-year. For example, October's official ridership estimate of 4.6 million comes from a rolling tally starting in May.
Cheung said the samplings are a "snapshot of a day" and typically average out seasonal variations or unusually high or low days. He added it could take a few months for the estimates to adjust for any drastic ridership changes.
The estimation method Metro uses differs from that of other U.S. subway systems, including New York City and Washington, D.C., which rely solely on turnstile counts, officials for those agencies said.
"[Metro] should start incorporating turnstile data into their ridership estimate for their lines that have near 100% latched turnstiles," said Juan Matute, the associate director at the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies.
He added that he'd like to see the turnstile and fare-entry data available on Metro's website, "so that researchers and even app developers could use that data in ways we've never thought of before."
In June, the Los Angeles subway recorded 700,000 more turnstile counts than estimated riders, according to the data obtained by The Times through a public records request. By October, the data points had reversed, showing 600,000 more riders than turns of the metal barriers.
Experts said that could indicate that before the subway turnstiles were locked, more customers were riding for free than the agency realized. Metro officials said they don't know the current fare evasion rate, but that it was 5% to 6% before the turnstiles were locked. A standard subway ticket costs $1.50, and transfers are not free.
Metro officials said they don't believe the dip in turnstile counts is purely a result of fare evaders who've stopped riding. Cheung said about 80% of passengers buy a seven-day or monthly pass, which allows for unlimited trips. "To have 23% fare evasion goes against that … relationship," Cheung said.
Metro officials said they hoped to incorporate turnstile counts — and possibly electronic ticket data — into their federal ridership estimates once the numbers are validated.
jon.schleuss@latimes.com
laura.nelson@latimes.com
doug.smith@latimes.com
Speed limits largely ignored, Tollway report finds
1 in 20 obey 55 mph limit while average speeds rise above 70
By Joe Mahr, Chicago Tribune reporters
9:04 a.m. CST, November 30, 2013
Recent studies show what area drivers may have long suspected: Hardly anyone obeys the speed limit on the Tollway.
Just one driver in 20 follows the law in 55 mph zones, while most tend to cruise at least 11 mph over the limit, according to the studies.
In some stretches around metro Chicago, one in seven motorists speed at least 20 mph over the limit, according to data analyzed by the Tribune.
As Illinois gets ready to allow speed limits to rise to 70 mph, the research stirs debate about just what the speed limit should be on the Tollway. Some say it would be safer to let most drivers go as fast as they’re comfortable with, while others fear high limits would foster more dangerous crashes.
The findings also raise questions about how human psychology plays a role in determining how fast motorists choose to drive.
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jmahr@tribune.com
tgregory@tribune.com
Scandal Widens Over Contracts for Navy Work
By CHRISTOPHER DREW and DANIELLE IVORY
Published: November 29, 2013
A scandal involving the Navy’s ship supply network, until now focused on the Pacific Fleet, has spread to another contractor working for Navy ships in the waters off the Middle East, Africa and South America.
The Justice Department is looking into allegations that the company, Inchcape Shipping Services, with the help of subcontractors, overcharged the Navy by millions of dollars, interviews and previously undisclosed court documents show.
Inchcape, which is owned by the government of Dubai, was suspended this week from winning new federal contracts and is expected to meet with Justice Department officials soon to discuss the case.
The civil fraud investigation, which was prompted by a whistle-blower who had worked for the company, is another serious embarrassment for the Navy, which is already grappling with a criminal investigation of its main ship supplier in the Pacific, Glenn Defense Marine Asia.
The firm’s owner, Leonard Glenn Francis, was arrested in September on charges of conspiring to bribe Navy officials with cash, trips and prostitutes. In exchange, investigators say, those officials helped divert ships to certain ports where Glenn Defense submitted inflated bills. Three Navy officials have been charged with crimes, and four others, including two admirals, have been suspended over their ties to Mr. Francis.
“It’s like finding a couple of cockroaches in the kitchen when you turn on the light,” said Charles Tiefer, a former member of the federal Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan and a professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law. “This suggests that this area of contracting is infested with problems, including a lack of competition, overbilling and resistance to government investigations.”
Investigators accuse Inchcape of a different scheme: that it paid commissions to subcontractors willing to give large discounts, then pocketed the difference instead of refunding it to the Navy.
A federal subpoena issued in March 2011 demanded that Inchcape turn over its records involving Navy ships and any discounts or rebates from subcontractors since 2002, court records show.
A Justice Department lawyer later sent the company an email saying investigators were especially concerned about its deals in supplying six aircraft carriers and four other ships from 2005 through 2009, and about its charges for fuel in Peru and for removing waste from ships in Bahrain, Dubai and South Africa. The email, which was included in court records, asked the company for a spreadsheet listing what the suppliers charged Inchcape, what it charged the Navy, and the company’s profit margin for those and other port visits.
As was the case with Glenn Defense, contracting experts say, the Navy ignored warning signs about Inchcape’s questionable practices.
Records show that the Naval Supply Systems Command extended Inchcape’s largest contract seven times since 2010, when the Justice Department began investigating the whistle-blower’s allegations. The company has won at least $257 million for work in the Middle East under the contract. Since 2010, the Navy has awarded the firm at least eight other contracts, estimated at more than $41 million, including three this year.
The Navy said it suspended Inchcape this week after finding “evidence of conduct indicating questionable business integrity.” Rear Adm. John F. Kirby, the Navy’s chief spokesman, cited significant overpayments to Inchcape and “conduct so serious” that it warranted the suspension. Inchcape can keep its contracts while suspended, but cannot win new orders without special agency approval.
Sheila Armstrong, head of corporate communications for Inchcape, said in an email that the Justice Department investigation and the suspension involved “a small number of Navy ships between 2005 and 2008.” The company has been discussing its billings for that work with the Justice Department “with a view to bringing this matter to a conclusion,” she said.
She also said that the company had conducted an “independent audit into its billing processes in 2009 and believes that this provided full answers to all of the questions raised.”
Under federal rules, suspensions, which are rare among major contractors, are not intended to punish firms for past deeds, only for continuing problems.
The government’s subpoena in 2011 also asked Inchcape for documents about any entertainment, gifts, cameras and cellphones it had provided to Defense Department employees.
Such gifts were a major part of Mr. Francis’s case, but Admiral Kirby said there were “no indications right now” of wrongdoing by naval officers in the Inchcape case.
Inchcape, which also works for commercial shipping lines and other navies, calls itself the world’s largest independent marine management company. The firm, which has its headquarters in Britain, was bought in 2006 by Istithmar World, a subsidiary of Dubai World, a state-run investment business headed by Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum, a relative of Dubai’s ruler.
Dubai World also has stakes in Cirque du Soleil, Barneys New York and the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Manhattan.
Shortly after it bought Inchcape, Dubai World came under fire in Washington when it acquired a British company that operated several American ports. Politicians in both parties opposed the deal, contending that Dubai’s ownership of those port operations was a threat to American security. Dubai World bowed to the pressure and sold its interests in the ports.
Dubai World also tried to sell Inchcape in 2010. But the potential buyers walked away, according to news media reports, after hearing that the Justice Department might be investigating its work for the Navy.
The case started in early 2010, when a former employee filed a whistle-blower suit accusing Inchcape of defrauding the government. Under such suits, the claimants receive a percentage of any money recovered.
The Justice Department joined the suit and told Inchcape in September 2010 that it was investigating whether the company had “overcharged the Navy for its services in potential violation of the False Claims Act.”
Even though such lawsuits are sealed to protect whistle-blowers from retribution, a few records in the case were placed in a public file late last year, when the Justice Department persuaded a federal judge to order Inchcape to hand over an internal audit of some of its billing practices. Inchcape claimed that the audit, which was completed in May 2008, was protected by attorney-client privilege. But Lawrence E. Cosgriff, a former United States merchant marine officer who had been an executive at Inchcape, filed a declaration saying that Claus Hyldager, the chief executive of Inchcape, had rejected a proposal that the law firm Arnold & Porter conduct the audit.
Mr. Cosgriff wrote in his declaration that he had sent two Inchcape employees to a workshop in Dubai in December 2007, where they heard about billing practices that “caused me to be concerned that there was potential liability for fraudulent conduct.” But, he said, Mr. Hyldager “expressed dismay” that he had talked to a lawyer and decided the company would do the audit itself.
Simon Tory, the group company secretary for Inchcape, wrote in another filing that Arnold & Porter had prepared a memorandum “summarizing the potential criminal and civil liability implicated by the activities as reported.” Mr. Tory said that he oversaw the work on the audit, and that Mr. Hyldager “decided to follow up directly with some of the witnesses” to ensure the information was complete.
Mr. Cosgriff, through a lawyer, declined to comment. The company’s spokesmen said Mr. Hyldager was unavailable for an interview.
People involved in the case said Mr. Cosgriff and several other Inchcape employees left the company in 2009 after the problems appeared to recur.
Court records show that five of the 10 port visits that the Justice Department singled out as among its top investigative priorities occurred after the audit. They included a stop in South Africa in October 2008 by the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt — the first visit there by an American carrier in 40 years — and three ship visits to Dubai and Bahrain in 2009.
Marijuana's risk to drivers debated
Dan Freedman
Updated 11:13 pm, Friday, November 29, 2013
Washington -- As California advocates ponder a renewed push to legalize marijuana for adults, law enforcement officials and traffic safety experts are warning of a side effect of states allowing the drug for medical or recreational use: the danger caused by people driving while high.
Research is incomplete on how much marijuana it takes to impair driving. But Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said being even a little intoxicated on marijuana is unacceptable. [Of course Gil Kerlikowske makes his salary by throwing marijuana users in prison and has a vested interest in keeping medical marijuana illegal!!!]
"Smoking marijuana has a very negative effect on your ability to operate a motor vehicle," Kerlikowske said. "It's quite dangerous to you, your passengers and others on the road." [true to some degree, but smoking pot and driving is nowhere near as dangerous as drinking and driving]
Marijuana advocates acknowledge that driving under the influence of cannabis is ill-advised. But they argue that law enforcement's concern is overblown, and point to a 2012 study that concluded the auto accident risk posed by marijuana is on par with antihistamines and penicillin.
Legalization moves
The debate over marijuana and highway safety is set against the backdrop of last year's decision by Washington state and Colorado voters to legalize marijuana for personal use, as well as the passage of medical marijuana laws in California and 19 other states. Californians rejected full legalization in 2010, but advocates buoyed by polls showing increasing public acceptance of recreational use by adults hope to return to the ballot next year or 2016.
Law enforcement officials say that while traffic fatalities in Colorado decreased 16 percent from 2006 to 2011, deaths involving drivers testing positive for just marijuana increased 114 percent during the same period.
And in Washington, according to Chuck Hayes of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, tests confirming the presence in drivers of THC - marijuana's active ingredient - have made up 42 percent of the state's toxicology lab caseload this year, an increase from 26 percent last year.
"I'm not sure the public really understands the danger of it," said Hayes, a retired Oregon State Police captain who trains police officers to be drug-recognition experts. "A lot of education needs to be done in this area." [If the only way a cop can tell that a person is driving while intoxicated is by calling in a cop who is trained as a drug-recognition expert, then I don't think the person should be legally considered intoxicated. Sure his driving is perfect, but his left pupil is dilated 1 percent more then the right pupil so any expect should be able to tell the guy his high on something.]
Threat to patients
But those favoring marijuana legalization for medical or recreational uses insist the greater danger comes from one-size-fits-all state laws that target anyone behind the wheel with traces of THC in their system, or peg violations to a particular THC blood-test threshold.
Such laws, they say, are a particular danger to medical marijuana users because THC lingers in blood and urine for days after consumption. [or monthis] These "zero tolerance" laws are on the books in 14 states.
"The data doesn't support the disproportionate policy response that law enforcement is asking for," said Paul Armentano, deputy director of NORML - the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "We're not having a public outcry saying we need a serious crackdown for antihistamine and penicillin."
Kerlikowske, a former Seattle police chief, called advocates' assertion that medical marijuana patients are unfairly affected by impaired-driving laws "a bit of a red herring."
"It's pretty obvious you're getting stopped for a reason - bad driving," he said. "In the real world, those arguments go up in smoke."
California law
California's law forces prosecutors seeking a DUI conviction for marijuana to prove that a driver was impaired because of ingesting the drug, not just that a driver took it.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's 2007 National Roadside Survey of nearly 10,000 drivers nationwide found 11.3 percent tested positive for illegal drugs. The most popular: marijuana, at 8.6 percent.
A similar survey of 1,300 California drivers pulled over last year on Friday and Saturday nights found that more tested positive for drugs than for alcohol, and that the most prevalent drug detected was marijuana.
The public campaign against drunken driving has succeeded in reducing alcohol-related accidents. In turn, the reduction is "revealing the previously obscured and now growing problem of drug-impaired driving," said Chris Cochran, spokesman for the California Office of Traffic Safety, which conducted the survey.
Research into driving and drugs is continuing, but "the problem is (drugs) are causing tragedies on our roadways today," Cochran said.
Although California's legal standard is not as draconian as those of the 14 "zero tolerance" states, medical marijuana advocates see a danger in hyped-up law-enforcement concern over drugged driving.
Law enforcement is "criminalizing thousands of medical marijuana patients unnecessarily," said Kris Hermes, spokesman for Americans for Safe Access in Oakland. "For the most part, they're not behaving any differently than any other driver."
Residual traces
Hermes says his organization has no problem with police pulling over impaired drivers. But it worries that medical marijuana patients who commit minor traffic infractions, such as not using a turn signal or failing to wear a seat belt, could end up facing DUI charges if they have residual traces of THC in their systems.
"Marijuana has been in use for decades without significant risk on the roads," Hermes said. "We don't need to suddenly protect the public from a problem that doesn't exist."
Some academic studies have concluded there is clear evidence of a link between marijuana consumption and traffic accidents.
A study conducted last year at Dalhousie University Medical School in Canada found that those who drive within three hours of consuming cannabis are almost twice as likely to cause an accident as those who are drug- or alcohol-free.
However, a 2011 study by two researchers found a decrease in traffic deaths in states with medical marijuana laws. The researchers, Mark Anderson at Montana State University and Daniel Rees at the University of Colorado Denver, concluded that marijuana often is a substitute for alcohol and that users tend to consume it at home rather than driving to bars or restaurants.
Dan Freedman is a reporter in the Hearst Newspapers Washington bureau.
U.S. military readiness is questioned after cuts
Nov. 30, 2013 3:59 AM |
WASHINGTON — Warnings from defense officials and some experts are mounting and becoming more dire: The nation’s military is being hobbled by budget cuts.
“You’d better hope we never have a war again,” the House Armed Services Committee chairman, Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., said of the decline in what the military calls its readiness. [Don't worry Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, the American Empire only invades third world counties that can't defend themselves. We certainly ain't going to do our bully act with a military superpower that can defend it's self like Red China or the Soviet Union!!]
So should Americans be worried?
A look at what the Pentagon means by “ready” and where things stand:
Readiness
It’s the armed forces’ ability to get the job done, and it’s based on the number of people, the equipment and the training needed to carry out assigned missions.
As an example, an Army brigade has a list of the things it would have to do in a full-level war, called its “mission essential task list.” And a 4,500-member brigade is deemed ready when it has the right supplies and equipment, is in good working condition and pretty much has that full number of people to conduct its tasks.
Military units are rated on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the best, or fully ready. Typically, a unit freshly returned from a tour of duty would carry a 5 rating: It’s missing people because of casualties or because some are moving on to other jobs, and it’s missing equipment that was battered or worn in the field and is in for repairs or must be replaced.
A unit can be sent out in less-than-full ready status, but officials warn that would mean it could do less, take longer to do it, suffer more casualties, or all of the above.
Rating now
Detailed information on that is classified secret so adversaries won’t know exactly what they’re up against. But because of ongoing budget fights, officials in recent weeks have given broad examples of readiness lapses in hopes of convincing Congress and the American people that cutbacks, particularly in training budgets, are creating a precarious situation.
For instance, an Air Force official says the service has grounded 13 combat fighter/bomber squadrons or about a third of those active-duty units. And the Army says only two of its 35 active-duty brigades are fully ready for major combat operations. The service typically wants to have about 12 ready at any given time so a third of the total can be deployed, a third is prepared for deployment and a third is working to get ready. [Let's see with those numbers we could invade Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Iran and still have enough military might to invade 3 or 4 other third world countries if we decide to!!!]
Analysts say a decade of massive spending increases has built a strong force superior to anything else out there. [As I said before the American military gets more money then ALL the other countries of the world spend on their military combined!!!!]
“We could certainly fight another war on the order of the first Gulf War (1991) without any problems; the Air Force could do air strikes in Syria,” said Barry M. Blechman of the Stimson Center. “We wouldn’t want to get involved in another protracted war (like Iraq and Afghanistan), but in terms of the types of military operations we typically get involved in, we’re prepared for that.”
Even those who believe the situation is not yet dire say that eventually these budget cuts will catch up with the force. Some analysts say another two or three years of training cuts will leave the U.S. military seriously unprepared. [Yea, unprepared to invade more then 6 or 7 third world countries]
As an added wrinkle, the cuts come just as the military had planned a significant retraining of the force. That is, the bulk of U.S. forces were organized, trained and equipped over the past 12 years for counterinsurgency wars like Iraq and Afghanistan and now need to sharpen skills needed to counter other kinds of threats.
Lets face it government is all about MONEY!!!! Which is why elected officials love the lottery. Of course the "lottery" is a government monopoly in which only the government is allowed to sucker poor people out of their money with.
When the lottery was passed, as they always do the cops claimed that the lottery would cause the state government to be taken over by the Mafia. That didn't happen. Unless you a Libertarian and realized that the government is already run by a bunch of criminals who's behavior is almost identical to that of the Mafia.
Thats the same louse excuse the cops use against legalizing drugs.
Would you give to a charity that only gives 50 percent of its revenues to charity??? That's all the lottery is required to do!!! - "the Lottery isn’t stingy with its winners: In fiscal 2013, 61.9 percent of revenue went to prize money. Statute requires at least 50 percent goes back to the players."
Would you give to a charity where 18.5% of the proceeds went to the management team?
"By statute, the Lottery is permitted to spend up to 18.5 percent of revenue on operating and game expenses ... Last fiscal year, its operating budget, which includes employing 98 people, totaled $8.3 million plus $20 million for game expenses — equaling 4 percent of revenue."
When lottery first came out the odds at winning their premier game where about as high as a person being struck by lightening. Since then the odds have been raised. Now the odds are you will be struck by lightening 4 times before you win the lottery.
Source
Arizona Lottery revenue has grown, but tracking how funds are used proves difficult
By Alia Beard Rau The Republic | azcentral.com Sat Nov 30, 2013 11:28 PM
Every week, thousands of Arizonans fork over a few dollars, and often more, for a handful of Lottery tickets and a head full of dreams.
For the players, it’s about buying hope — a chance at a lifestyle they would likely not otherwise obtain. But the real winner in this game is the state, and it seems it has become addicted to the revenue.
The Arizona Lottery’s sales revenue over the past 30 years totals more than $9.8 billion, with $1.3 billion of that going to the state general fund. In fiscal 2013 alone, $117 million, or 17 percent, of the Lottery’s $694 million in annual revenue landed in the general fund.
That wasn’t the deal sold to voters when they approved the Lottery in 1980 — and several more times since then.
Since its inception, the Lottery has marketed itself as a way to help the people and places of Arizona. Its advertising focuses on how revenue goes to education, health and public welfare, the environment and economic development.
But its marketing can be misleading.
An Arizona Republic analysis of 30 years of Arizona Lottery revenue and disbursements found that the Lottery has met at least the minimum requirements set by voters and lawmakers for allocations to those key areas over the years. Yet as Lottery revenue has grown, particularly in recent years, less money has gone to those promised areas of focus, while more has gone toward prizes and retailer bonuses — and into the state’s general fund, where it is impossible to track how specific general-fund dollars are spent. That revenue might have gone to schools and public-welfare programs as promised, or it might have gone to prisons and lawmaker pensions.
The Lottery, overseen by a five-member, governor-appointed commission and an executive director, controls the marketing. But it’s the Legislature that has taken control of where the revenue is allocated.
In fiscal 2013, $59.6 million — 8.6 percent of the Lottery’s $694 million in annual revenue — went directly to programs touted to voters. Despite popular belief, no Lottery money has gone directly to K-12 education.
During tight budget years, particularly 2010, the Arizona Legislature used Lottery revenue as an emergency fund. Money normally directed by lawmakers toward advertised programs like public transportation and forest health was diverted into the general fund to balance the state budget.
“In Arizona, where the Lottery has been in place for so long, it is now seen as an absolutely indispensable source of revenue — particularly in times when state budgets are very, very tight,” said Patrick Pierce, political-science professor at St. Mary’s College in Indiana and author of “Gambling Politics: State Government and the Business of Betting.”
Though the state Legislature’s Republican body once decried the creation of a Lottery as a sinful vice, there is no longer mention of eliminating it — especially as Lottery proceeds have risen while other revenue has faltered.
“The current Arizona Legislature would never approve the Lottery, in my opinion,” said House Appropriations Chairman John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills. “But it won’t be repealed because there’s no way we could replace the money.”
The Lottery website boasts it has generated a lifetime total of more than $1 billion for economic development, $833million for education, $415 million for the environment and $732 million for health and public welfare.
But those numbers are deceiving.
No Lottery revenue has ever been given directly to K-12 education, according to state budget documents. In its education total, the Lottery counts $752 million given to the general fund, $32 million to pregnancy prevention, $21 million to disease-control research and $27 million to repay university bonding for building construction.
Arizona Lottery revenue grew from $551 million in fiscal 2010 to $694 million in fiscal 2013.
The Lottery website advertises that “education receives 55.5 percent of the Lottery’s general fund total,” and states that was nearly $65 million this past fiscal year. Lottery officials conceded in an e-mail that that’s how much the Legislature “should” allocate to education, and they admit that there is no way to know if it is actually happening. Nothing in state statute requires it.
However, Arizona Lottery Budget, Products and Communications Director Karen Bach said the Lottery is confident the spending from the general fund mirrors the directives of the Legislative Budget Process as specified in the Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) Appropriations Report.
However, she said the 2013 figures posted on the Lottery’s website are unaudited and will not be finalized until the end of the year.
No Lottery officials were available to discuss the discrepancy in marketing materials and allocations, and the e-mail did not elaborate on that topic.
Similarly, $548 million counted under health and public welfare was also given directly to the general fund as opposed to a specific health or public-welfare program.
For the programs that were given money directly from the Lottery, many have seen the amount they get fall even as annual Lottery revenue has more than doubled since 1990.
For example, Arizona Lottery revenue grew from $551 million in fiscal 2010 to $694 million in fiscal 2013.
The economic-development fund got $3.5 million in fiscal 2013, compared with $5.7 million in fiscal 2010. The Heritage Fund, which benefits the environment, got $10 million in fiscal 2013, compared with $16 million in 2010.
And funding for transportation slipped from $17.8 million in 2010 to $11.2million in fiscal 2013.
Health and public-welfare program recipients, which include teen-pregnancy-prevention programs and food assistance for children and mothers, did see an increase from $18.7 million in 2010 to $19.6 million in 2013.
Arizona voters approved the creation of the Arizona Lottery in 1980 by a narrow margin.
Ballot literature promised proceeds would “pay for law enforcement, health services, education and other vital programs.” But the proposition wording required only that at least 30 percent of revenue go into the general fund. The governor and Legislature could distribute the general-fund revenue as they chose.
In 1990, voters required that $20 million in Lottery revenue a year go into heritage funds for Arizona State Parks and the Arizona Game and Fish Department. The heritage funds were to be paid annually before the general fund landed its share.
Lawmakers in 1993 required up to $23 million a year in Lottery revenue to be put into a fund for local transit projects, and up to $7.6 million a year to be divided among counties. The law required that the general fund get at least $45 million before any other fund was paid, instead of the original 30 percent requirement.
In 1996, voters added yet another provision: that $17 million in revenue be spent annually on specific health and social-service programs, including teen-pregnancy prevention, food assistance for infants and mothers, and disease research.
In 1998, as casinos opened and Lottery revenue fell, then-House Speaker Jeff Groscost led an effort asking voters to decide the Lottery’s fate. He fought to kill the Lottery, saying it had been fraught with mismanagement and fraud. Church leaders advocated against the Lottery, calling it moral poison.
Various non-profit organizations pushed to keep it. Their election literature criticized the Legislature for not spending the money as promised.
“Legislators argued that Powerball money was ‘not Lottery’ and endorsed the little rule they had made for themselves legislatively that the first 25 or so million (dollars) from Powerball was theirs to spend as they decide, leaving no money for projects as the voters have decided,” said an election argument from Healthy Arizona Coalition.
Voters that year, and again in 2002, chose to keep the Lottery.
In 2010, the Legislature didn’t bother with a public vote, electing itself to extend the Lottery through 2035. The same year, lawmakers borrowed against future Lottery revenue, eliminated allocations to the counties and essentially cut in half Lottery allocations to both the transportation fund and the heritage funds, sweeping nearly an extra $30 million a year into the general fund.
Moral arguments against the Lottery have vanished with rising dependency on revenue.
“Opponents once argued that states should not be involved in running a service that preyed upon human weakness and led citizens to what they saw as an essential immoral behavior,” Pierce, the St. Mary’s political-science professor, said. “That just sounds silly now.”
Illustration by Ginger Rough/The Republic
Many Lottery players, and some state lawmakers, concede they don't know where ticket revenues go.
Officials continue to sell it as a public benefit.
“We need the Lottery to generate funds for good causes for Arizona like education, health and public welfare, economic and business development and the environment,” Bach said.
Of the $694 million taken in the most recent fiscal year, $11.2 million went to public-transportation projects and $3.5million to the Arizona Commerce Authority. The Game and Fish Department Heritage Fund, which supports outdoor recreation and protects critical wildlife, got $10 million; health and welfare programs, $19.6 million. Homeless shelters took home $1 million, and a state program for problem gamblers got $300,000.
“Without the Lottery, many of these programs would not exist,” said Kerry Carmichael of Tempe, a Powerball regular who with his wife, Diane, won $2.5million in 1995 and $1 million in March.
That common public perception is cultivated by Lottery marketing. Designated programs have received hundreds of millions of dollars over the years, and Lottery officials tout those benefits.
Yet Pierce argued that there’s no evidence to show that Lottery disbursements to even the designated programs truly improve services in any of those areas.
“Even when the revenue is dedicated for a particular purpose, you can’t really trace them,” Pierce said. “You don’t know for sure that those are dollars added on top of what legislators would have appropriated.”
Senate President Andy Biggs, R-Gilbert, who usually prides himself on his budget knowledge, concedes he has no idea where Lottery revenue goes — nor do players.
“I don’t think people even think about where it goes,” he said.
By statute, the Lottery is permitted to spend up to 18.5 percent of revenue on operating and game expenses, including ticket printing, distribution, online-vendor fees, advertising and retailer sales commissions. While revenue has risen, its operating budget hasn’t changed dramatically in more than a decade.
Last fiscal year, its operating budget, which includes employing 98 people, totaled $8.3 million plus $20 million for game expenses — equaling 4 percent of revenue.
Its big boost in spending over the years has been in advertising, which grew from $6 million in 2002 to more than $14 million last fiscal year. That covers sponsoring events, paying public-relations company Lane Terralever and marketing new games, all with the goal of hooking Arizonans.
Large jackpots, like the multi-state Mega Millions, boosts the number of players, and revenue to the state.
Commissions to retailers have also grown, particularly in recent years, as revenue has spiked. Retailers got $46million last fiscal year compared with $26.5 million in 2005.
With growth in those areas, the Lottery is nearing its 18.5 percent limit. Last fiscal year, those costs hit about 13 percent. According to the Lottery’s strategic plan, it intends to ask the Legislature for an additional 10 percent in the marketing budget.
The bigger the pot, the more people play. Arizona Lottery announced in October that the multistate Mega Millions was boosting its jackpot from at least $12 million to at least $15 million and adding a $1 million second prize. Record-breaking multistate Powerball games, and a $587 million Arizona winner last November, helped attract Lottery players.
“Powerball is the gateway game for new players,” Bach said.
And the Lottery isn’t stingy with its winners: In fiscal 2013, 61.9 percent of revenue went to prize money. Statute requires at least 50 percent goes back to the players.
Bach said one goal is to introduce new games to attract new players while at the same time retaining core players.
According to the Lottery’s analysis, the average state player is White, 52 years old, likely attended college and has a median annual income of $53,630. A push is on to bring in younger buyers.
This year, the Lottery introduced Ghostbusters and Duck Dynasty Scratcher tickets, joined Instagram and gave away concert tickets.
Bach said the Lottery is in the process of finishing a study targeting 20-somethings.
As the Lottery works to fatten revenue, Arizona’s counties plan to fight to restore their share of the winnings. Officials have begun talks with state lawmakers in the hopes of making that happen next session.
Until 2010, the state’s 13 rural counties each landed $550,000 a year in Lottery revenue, while Pima and Maricopa counties each got $250,000. The counties would like to restore the funding at those levels again.
Some Democratic state lawmakers have mentioned an interest in trying to restore revenue for mass transit as well.
Reach the reporter at alia.rau@arizonarepublic.com.
Phoenix police precinct expansion focuses on helping downtown’s homeless
By Eugene Scott The Republic | azcentral.com Sun Dec 1, 2013 12:14 AM
The Phoenix Police Department in January expanded the size, geographic boundaries and hours of operation of its Downtown Operations Unit. Officials had one major goal: find better ways to deal with the homeless population.
A key focus area on the revitalization of downtown is public safety, and people often base their perceptions of safety on the homeless population, officials said.
Police officials said their efforts are paying off — they’ve seen a decline in the number of homeless people on the streets, and they’ve connected more to services.
The downtown Phoenix precinct has decreased the number of arrests by more than half in the past few months, said Jeff Alexander, police commander of the Transit and Downtown Operations Bureau.
Instead of booking the homeless into jail — on suspicion of offenses from trespassing to disorderly conduct — police are connecting them to Central Arizona Shelter Services, Arizona’s largest shelter provider.
“We’re not going to arrest our way out of the homeless problem,” Alexander said. “They can get out (of jail), and they still don’t have a place to live and they’re still going to go where they’re comfortable.”
Leaders at CASS said this new approach allows the organization to better serve the city’s homeless population.
“If they can get people off the street, that’s good for everybody,” said Mark Holleran, CASS executive director. “I kid Jeff Alexander about this, but I’ve said, ‘I apologize, but I think I’ve turned some of your police officers into case managers.’ ”
Finding services
Police officials said the expanded relationship between officers and CASS has allowed police to make connecting homeless people with essential services their first response instead of arresting them.
“We’re giving those people an opportunity to have somebody come out to them and take them to the shelter, get connected to care in lieu of being taken to jail right away,” Alexander said.
While providing an alternative is the new norm, there are exceptions.
“That’s what we try to do, but it’s not a given that that’s what we do all the time. If the person needs to go to jail, that person goes to jail,” Alexander said.
Initial results indicate the new approach is working. As a comparison:
On June 7, Alexander said his unit came in contact with 68 homeless people they could have arrested. More than half of them — 42 — were connected with services at CASS. Police arrested 26 of them.
On Oct. 1, police came in contact with even fewer homeless people — only 11. Police connected three of them with CASS and arrested eight.
Holleran said the organization served less than 700 people a day in spring. In October, the number reached 900 a day.
Because of a lack of space, CASS opened a parking lot at the northwestern corner of 12th Avenue and Madison Street where hundreds of homeless people sleep.
“The east lot has been very effective for us. It doesn’t look great when you drive by there at night and see a lot of people sleeping outside,” Alexander said. “But there’s not a lot of rules. They can stay there, be comfortable and they’re outside.”
The philosophical change also has a financial impact. Phoenix pays $251.53 to book someone into a Maricopa County jail and $78.94 per day to house someone, Phoenix police Sgt. Tommy Thompson said.
Boundaries
The Downtown Operations Unit expanded its boundaries to better reach the areas where many homeless people gather.
The unit’s northern boundary was previously Fillmore Street. But Phoenix now considers McDowell Road the boundary, so the unit patrols the area including Interstate 10.
This was a significant change for the downtown unit because the precinct now includes Margaret T. Hance Park, a large Phoenix park where homeless people sometimes congregate.
Addressing the homeless issue surrounding the park is necessary for downtown’s growth, said David Roderique, president and CEO of the Downtown Phoenix Partnership, a development-focused organization.
“Anytime you make an area safer, especially in terms of people’s perception of crime, that becomes a desirable attribute in terms of reasons to locate there,” he said.
The unit’s coverage area also expanded west, so now it includes CASS and the immediate areas where homeless people sometimes gather.
This change allowed the unit to increase their presence at the shelter. There are now at least two officers always assigned to CASS.
Hours and staff
The Downtown Operations Unit now patrols its newly expanded area 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Previously, officers from other precincts or units less familiar with the area patrolled downtown in the early-morning hours.
“Downtown is a different entity, and (police) need to have a relationship with the business owners and partners downtown,” Alexander said.
The department also added three squads to staff the area. Holleran said this increased presence has made Phoenix as a whole much more effective in dealing with the homeless.
“In a lot of other cities and towns in the United States, you won’t hear this, but we actually have a very good relationship with the Police Department,” he said.
Steep Mesa City Council pay raises are back on city agenda
By Gary Nelson The Republic | azcentral.com Fri Nov 29, 2013 11:59 AM
Last year, the amity of Mesa’s City Council was sorely tested when it was asked to approve significant pay raises for the mayor and council members.
The proposal failed on a 4-3 vote in a meeting that was described by one member as “stressful” and “painful.”
Now the idea is back, with a tweak that may make it more palatable to one or more of last year’s opponents.
The issue arose in 2012 as the Mesa Chamber of Commerce sought ways to broaden the base of residents who could serve on the council. The chamber also wanted to ensure that Mesa has a professional-caliber mayor paid commensurately with the job’s full-time duties.
In response, the council created a five-member citizens panel called the Independent Commission on Compensation for Elected Officials. After meeting several times last year, the panel proposed raising the mayor’s pay by $35,000 a year to $73,300. Council members would get a $16,000 raise, to $35,200.
Those raises would have taken effect almost immediately, at the beginning of this year.
Mayor Scott Smith argued strongly for the pay raises in the tense Dec. 10 meeting, saying that once the council had set the process in motion by creating the citizens panel, it would be inconsistent to reject the recommendations.
He also argued that financial considerations keep many otherwise qualified people from seeking office in Mesa.
Others, though, worried about the political fallout of a council voting to raise its own pay while the city and many residents were still smarting from the recession.
Scott Somers, who was vice mayor at the time, said the council had built considerable goodwill during its tenure.
“There are other problems — big ones, I think, some of them — that we could tackle with that political capital,” Somers said.
Only Smith, Dave Richins and Dennis Kavanaugh favored the pay raise. But the citizens panel remained in existence, and now the dynamics of the issue have changed.
For one thing, Dina Higgins, one of the more outspoken opponents of the pay raises, resigned this year and was replaced by David Luna.
Another difference is the timing of the raises.
The proposal now on the table calls for the pay hikes to be effective in January 2015, when terms begin for the council members who voters will elect this coming year from Districts 4, 5 and 6.
The incumbents in 4 and 5 — Chris Glover and Luna, respectively — are eligible to run in 2014. But Somers is termed out, so that even if he voted yes and the raises pass, he wouldn’t see a nickel of the extra money.
If Glover won re-election, he would receive the higher pay for four years; Luna for as long as eight years; and the other four council members until their terms end in January 2017.
Alex Finter, who became vice mayor in January, indicated a year ago he might accept the pay raises if they were indeed deferred to 2015.
The citizens commission met on Nov. 5 — the same day Mesa residents voted on a $131 million bond package — and recommended:
A $73,545 annual salary for mayor.
Council pay at $36,832 a year.
Vehicle allowances of $550 a month for mayor and $350 for council members. The car allowance is now $150 across the board.
Continuing the current $80 monthly phone allowance for all council members.
Commission members said those amounts would bring Mesa’s compensation more in line with what other cities offer. And while the raises seem steep, members said they reflect what council members and the mayor would now be receiving if they had gotten raises averaging 4.5 percent over the years.
Council pay was established in the 1967 city charter and has been increased only twice, the last time being 1998. Council members do receive the same cost-of-living raises that other city employees receive.
In a preliminary agenda for the Monday, Dec. 2, meeting, the pay raise was listed on the consent agenda. That means it would be voted on in one motion combined with numerous other items, without debate.
Any council member or a member of the public, however, can ask that it be taken off consent, with discussion and a separate vote.
The meeting is scheduled for 5:45 p.m. at 57 E. First St.
Geek wars: Techies combat NSA spies
Encryption in demand after Snowden revelations
Nov. 29, 2013 |
SAN JOSE, CALIF. — Encrypted email, secure instant messaging and other privacy services are booming in the wake of the National Security Agency’s recently revealed surveillance programs. But the flood of new computer security services is of variable quality, and much of it, experts say, can bog down computers and isn’t likely to keep out spies.
In the end, the new geek wars — between tech industry programmers on the one side and government spooks, fraudsters and hacktivists on the other— may leave people’s PCs and businesses’ computer systems encrypted to the teeth but no better protected from hordes of savvy code crackers.
“Every time a situation like this erupts you’re going to have a frenzy of snake oil sellers who are going to throw their products into the street,” says Carson Sweet, CEO of San Francisco-based data storage security firm CloudPassage. “It’s quite a quandary for the consumer.”
Encryption isn’t meant to keep hackers out, but when it’s designed and implemented correctly, it alters the way messages look. Intruders who don’t have a decryption key see only gobbledygook.
A series of disclosures from former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden this year has exposed sweeping U.S. government surveillance programs. The revelations are sparking fury and calls for better encryption from citizens and leaders in France, Germany, Spain and Brazil who were reportedly among those tapped. Both Google and Yahoo, whose data center communications lines were also reportedly tapped, have committed to boosting encryption and online security. Although there’s no indication Facebook was tapped, the social network is also upping its encryption systems.
“Yahoo has never given access to our data centers to the NSA or to any other government agency. Ever,” wrote Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer in a Nov. 18 post on the company’s Tumblr blog announcing plans to encrypt all of its services by early next year. “There is nothing more important to us than protecting our users’ privacy.”
Not without risks
For those who want to take matters into their own hands, encryption software has been proliferating across the Internet since the Snowden revelations broke.
Many of the people behind these programs are well known for pushing the boundaries of privacy and security online. The quality of these new programs and services is uneven, and a few have run into trouble.
“What we found is the encryption services range in quality,” says George Kurtz, CEO of Irvine, Calif.-based CrowdStrike, a big data, security technology company. “I feel safe using some built by people who know what they are doing , but others are Johnny-come-latelies who use a lot of buzzwords but may not be all that useful.”
Even so, private services report thousands of new users, and nonprofit, free encryption services say they have also see sharp upticks in downloads.
And for many users, encryption really isn’t enough to avoid the U.S. government’s prying eyes.
Paris-based Bouygues Telecom told its data storage provider Pogoplug in San Francisco that it needs the data center moved out of the U.S. to get out from under the provisions of U.S. law. So this month, PogoPlug CEO Daniel Putterman is keeping Bouygues as a client by shipping a multimillion dollar data center, from cabinets to cables, from California to France.
Moving data to France
“They want French law to apply, not U.S. law,” says Putterman, who is also arranging a similar move for an Israeli client.
Bouygues spokesman Alexandre Andre doesn’t draw a direct connection with the Patriot Act, and says Bouygues’ arrangement with Pogoplug is driven by concerns over performance and privacy. Andre says Bouygues wants the data stored in France, but it was up to Pogoplug to decide whether this would be done on Bouygues’ own servers or Pogoplug’s.
“There is a general worry in France over data security, and storing data in France permits us to reassure our clients,” Andre says. The arrangement also helps improve the service’s performance, Andre says, another reason for the move.
For Pogoplug, business is booming — it’s garnered close to 1 million paid subscribers in its first year — and Putterman says the company is anxious to accommodate concerned clients. And this month, Pogoplug launched a $49 software package called Safeplug that prevents third parties, from the NSA to Google, from learning about a user’s location or browsing habits.
But many warn that encryption offers a false sense of security.
“The fundamental designers of cryptography are in an arms race right now, but there are a series of weaknesses and missing oversights that have nothing to do with encryption that leave people vulnerable,” says Patrick Peterson, CEO of Silicon Valley-based email security firm Agari. And many that do work, bog down or freeze computers, forcing “a trade-off between security and convenience,” he says.
In any case, most attacks don’t happen because some cybercriminal used complicated methods to gain entry into a network, he adds.
“Most attacks occur because someone made a mistake. With phishing emails, it just takes one person to unwittingly open an attachment or click on a malicious link, and from there, cybercriminals are able to get a foothold,” Peterson says.
Airport chaplains let fliers connect with heavens
Today in the Sky
Scott Mayerowitz, AP Airlines Writer 3:49 p.m. EST November 26, 2013
ATLANTA (AP) - The Rev. Frank Colladay Jr. stood at the end of the gate waiting. On the arriving plane was a passenger whose husband had just died of a heart attack on another flight. Her name was Linda Gilbert. The two had never met before.
Colladay's parish happens to be the world's busiest airport. His flock consists of people passing through who might need comfort, spiritual advice, or someone to pray with.
On this day, a traumatized Gilbert needed even more. Colladay guided her through Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, drove her in his silver Ford Fusion to the medical examiner to see her husband's body and arranged for a flight home for both of them.
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"He didn't say a whole lot. But just his presence being there, it just felt comforting and reassuring," Gilbert says. "I didn't know that airports have chaplains."
Most people don't.
Airports are mini-cities with their own movie theaters, fire departments and shopping malls. Many also have chapels, typically tiny non-denominational spaces, in out-of-the-way locations. They offer an escape from constant gate change and security announcements and are staffed by 350 part- and full-time chaplains worldwide - Roman Catholic, Protestant and, to a lesser extent, Jewish, Muslim or Sikh.
The positions are highly sought-after and considered glamorous, with chaplains saying they love the excitement and unpredictability of airports.
The job is unlike other church assignments. There isn't a permanent congregation. No baptisms, weddings or funerals. Instead, airport chaplains preach to a crowd that is transient by nature.
Trust must be earned quickly. There's little time for small talk. Everybody is rushing to catch a flight.
"You only get one chance to impress them; one chance to help them," says Bishop D.D. Hayes, a non-denominational pastor at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. "Many times, we touch lives we never see again."
There are daily or weekly services but most ministering occurs elsewhere.
Chaplains see troops off to war and are on hand when bodies of the fallen return. They comfort fliers visiting sick relatives and those traveling for medical treatment themselves. During weather delays, chaplains take the heat off gate agents by standing nearby - passengers tend to be on their best behavior when in the presence of a priest.
They aren't at airports to proselytize and - surprisingly - very few passengers confess to a fear of flying. Often, they just roam terminals offering a friendly face and occasional directions. Some walk up to seven miles a day.
"When I came into the job, my predecessor said you have to buy good shoes," says the Rev. Jean-Pierre Dassonville, a Protestant who just retired after 12 years at Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris.
Chaplains need outgoing personalities. They have to recognize the signs that something is wrong and know how to approach strangers.
The Rev. Wina Hordijk, a Protestant minister at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, recently saw a teenage girl sitting by herself, crying. The girl was supposed to travel throughout Europe with her boyfriend, but he dumped her at the start of the trip.
"I always have a lot of handkerchiefs in my bag," Hordijk says.
Then there are the more serious situations.
The Rev. Jonathan Baldwin, who is assigned by The Church of England to London's Gatwick Airport, was once asked by a couple to join them as their son and his new wife returned from their honeymoon. The groom's sister had committed suicide the day after the wedding. Baldwin obtained a quiet room for them to meet, break the news and cry privately.
Chaplains don't just support fliers; there are also thousands of airport workers. Employees at ticket counters, security checkpoints and control towers are under extreme stress. They often need to chat with somebody independent from their job.
For those who work Sundays, the airport chapel becomes their de facto church.
"You come into a chapel, you know you're in God's house," says Vibert Edwards, who prays daily before starting his shift as a baggage handler at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.
To relate, chaplains learn airport lingo, for instance calling workers who unload luggage from planes "ramp rats."
The first airport chapel was founded at Boston's Logan International Airport in 1954. Today there are chapels as far away as Geneva, Istanbul and Bangkok. Catholic dioceses assign- and pay - for priests at larger airports. In some cases, airports or airlines will provide financial support. Many chaplains are volunteers.
Services are quick and informal. If 20 people arrive, it's a big crowd. As flights near boarding, worshippers duck out.
"People are a little bit uptight already. It's a great environment for ministry," says the Rev. Hutz Hertzberg, the senior Protestant chaplain at Chicago's two airports. "In the 21st century, we need to bring the ministry to where the people are instead of waiting for them to come to our churches."
Getting them to services isn't always easy.
The focus of this year's annual conference of the International Association of Civil Aviation Chaplains in Atlanta - yes, the chaplains have their own trade group - was marketing. Announcements are made prior to services, but most travelers are too preoccupied with their travel plans to notice.
"We sometimes have to reach out to people who have no idea we exist," says the Rev. Chris Piasta, a Catholic priest at JFK's Our Lady of the Skies Chapel, home to a statue of Mary standing on a propeller.
JFK is one of the few airports with separate chapels for each religion. Most airports share non-denominational spaces. Crosses are placed on altars prior to services and removed after. Bookshelves are stocked with texts of all religions, often in multiple languages.
Even those who know chapels exist sometimes can't find them. They are tucked away in odd corners of the airport: next to baggage claim in St. Louis, sandwiched between two tram stations in Orlando and above a Cinnabon and barbecue joint in Charlotte, N. C.
"Can you imagine the smells we're getting?," says Ben Wenning, a Roman Catholic deacon there.
Chaplains are also there for major crises.
When volcanic ash shut down European airspace in 2010, New York's chaplains provided stranded passengers with bagels and cream cheese, fresh shirts and socks, laptops to check emails and helped refill medications.
After a crash, they help console victims' families.
"When the first responders leave, we're the ones who show up," says the Rev. Gordon M. Smith, a Protestant chaplain at Canada's Calgary International Airport.
Within the clergy, airport postings are in high demand. The job typically doesn't open up until an existing chaplain dies. And even after death, some chaplains remain close to the airport.
When the Rev. Peter Holloway, an Anglican priest at Australia's Melbourne airport, died in June at the age of 91, he was buried in a cemetery directly below the landing approach to runway 16.
With HealthCare.gov, the government’s bad management skills are showing again
By Linda J. Bilmes and William M. Daley, Published: November 27
Linda J. Bilmes, a professor of public policy at Harvard University, was chief financial officer at the Commerce Department from from 1999 to 2001. William M. Daley served as commerce secretary for President Bill Clinton from 1997 to 2000 and White House chief of staff to President Obama from 2011 to 2012.
The plight of the Affordable Care Act Web site has focused attention on a problem that seldom receives it — the absence of good management in the U.S. government. Despite more than three years of lead time and $400 million to $600 million in taxpayer money, the government can’t seem to deliver something that is bread and butter to the average online retailer.
Of course, the task is much more complex with health care, and there are plenty of excuses: poor coordination among technology contractors, shifting goals for the design of HealthCare.gov, the need to coordinate between federal and state governments. But these challenges are hardly unprecedented. Based on our experience in the public and private sectors, we’ve concluded that the core problem is that the federal government lacks many of the basic skills private firms rely on.
Over the past three decades, fierce global competition has forced corporate America to modernize how it manages projects so that they can be delivered as efficiently as possible. The federal government, insulated from market pressures, has fallen badly behind. In government, managerial jobs — such as chief financial officers, technology officers and procurement executives — are considered the least glamorous, a poor second to policymaking and politics.
Civil servants who manage government programs are judged by their ability to expand their departments, in terms of the number of employees and the size of their budgets. Most people who work in government are committed to their mission, so they naturally want their programs to grow bigger and do more. There is seldom much personal benefit, in pay or promotion, for a manager who delivers services at the same quality for lower cost. There are few thank-yous for simplifying Web sites or delivering faster, better service. Managers are actually penalized for being more efficient: If an agency saves money, its budget will most likely be reduced the following year.
And the media pounces on mistakes, but when the government accomplishes something skillfully — such as the smooth launch of the new GI Bill Web site, which provides education benefits to nearly 1 million veterans — few reporters take notice.
The malfunctioning HealthCare.gov is simply the latest in a long series of problems for large, complex government technology projects. The price tag of the Coast Guard’s project to modernize its fleet ballooned from $17 billion to $29 billion because of cost overruns, oversight failures and massive contracting flaws. The Homeland Security Department’s multibillion-dollar initiative to develop an electronic “virtual” fence along the border with Mexico has been halted after software and contractor problems. A four-year effort to integrate service-member files between the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Defense Department has been plagued by delays and dysfunction. And the IRS’s decades-long effort to improve electronic filing of tax returns and issue refunds faster is several years behind schedule and vastly over budget.
Altogether, these failures cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars. In the end, the problems usually turn out to be not technical but related to procurement, incentive structures, the way objectives are defined, and the management of schedules and costs. Most congressional “oversight” focuses on pinning political blame rather than improving how programs are executed.
More perniciously, repeated failure reinforces a belief — widely promoted by the right wing of the Republican Party — that government cannot do anything right. If we lose faith in the idea that our nation can collectively accomplish great things, talented young people who could be interested in government will take their technical or administrative skills to the private sector, where they will be better appreciated and better paid.
There are three steps the government should take to restore Americans’ confidence in its ability to get things done. First, we need more and better incentives for workers. President Obama has said he wants to make working in government “cool again.” For that to happen, the hot opportunities must be in the managerial ranks, not just in policy positions. We need to train our civil servants how to be managers. And managers and their programs should benefit directly from improvements in efficiency. “Gainsharing,” or letting a department keep a portion of any savings to spend the next fiscal year, is one technique; another is to mimic some U.S. cities that have introduced individual and team bonuses for successful reforms. Managers also need greater flexibility to reallocate resources.
Second, the federal bureaucracy should consolidate programs with similar missions. The Government Accountability Office has provided a blueprint of hundreds of programs that should be considered. For example, there are dozens of programs serving veterans that, in many cases, duplicate efforts and make it harder for states to help men and women who have served.
In a related step, government programs should make performance targets more meaningful. We should understand which of the programs that we fund year in and year out actually work, prune the poor performers and be willing to experiment with new approaches. Right now, objective evaluation succumbs to finger-pointing among different agencies.
Third, the federal government needs to align its systems and processes to work better with state and local governments, which disperse more than a quarter of all federal money. The lack of coordination with state governments has been a particular problem in the launch of the federal health insurance exchange. The success of the ACA will vary considerably from state to state, and states with the fewest insured residents — Texas, for example — are likely to lag behind in providing care for their populations.
More broadly, state governments, most of which must by law balance their budgets every year by July 1, are at the constant mercy of federal budgeting — which, inexplicably, is supposed to be set by Oct. 1. In recent years, budgeting has been especially uncertain as Congress lurched from crisis to crisis, passing only temporary funding measures.
Poor management is undermining public trust in our government. It makes it hard for departments to run programs effectively and for citizens to have faith in our leaders. Starting with Congress, our elected officials need to change the attitude in Washington to one that values and rewards efficient government.
outlook@washpost.com
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The Supreme Court confronts the line between free speech and security with protester’s case
Jamie Rector/For The Washington Post
By Robert Barnes, Published: November 30 E-mail the writer
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — Dennis Apel has crossed many lines in his life.
One marked his transition from trucking-company salesman to caretaker of the poor. He stepped past another when he went from persistent, perhaps quixotic, protester to antiwar vandal. Tossing his blood on this military base’s entrance sign a decade ago earned him two months in prison.
But the line at issue in his free-speech case before the Supreme Court on Wednesday is real and tangible — painted in thick green on a portion of the Pacific Coast Highway.
The federal government owns the land on both sides of the road, which runs through this sprawling air base north of Santa Barbara. On one side of the line are guarded gates and the main entrance to the military installation; on the other is a spot that base officials have set aside for people to protest the preparation for war that goes on there.
The federal government says John Dennis Apel does not belong on either side of that line, or standing near the highway, or for that matter anywhere else in the 22 square miles that constitute the base’s property.
The justices on Wednesday will hear the government’s plea that national security demands base commanders be able to keep people such as Apel, who have been formally banned from a military installation, from setting foot in any part of their domain — even the spots designated for protesters.
The 63-year-old Apel said he cannot believe his monthly vigils — he has been at it since 1997 — are worth all this trouble. “It’s surreal. It’s bizarre,” he said last month after showing a visitor the official protest spot. He is allowed there now that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has overturned his most recent convictions.
“I can’t even imagine they took this thing to our local court,” he said. “I thought they’d just keep arresting me forever, hoping that someday I’d just finally stop.”
Apel’s is the first of several cases the Supreme Court will hear this term that raise important free-speech concerns. They will test the justices — and the public — on First Amendment protection for speech that both ends of the ideological spectrum might find objectionable.
In January, the justices will consider a Massachusetts law that expanded a buffer zone around abortion clinics. State officials said it was necessary to protect clinic workers and those entering the facilities from violence and harassment. People who oppose abortion say the law unconstitutionally silences their voices and makes it impossible to reach women who might be persuaded not to have an abortion.
And this past week, the justices decided to consider whether Secret Service agents may be sued if they treat those who are denouncing a president differently from those who support him. The case involves a decision by two agents to move a group of protesters slightly farther away from an appearance by President George W. Bush than those who were there to cheer him.
Michael W. McConnell, head of the Stanford Constitutional Law Center, said he wished Apel’s case and the one concerning the Massachusetts law had been scheduled for the same day.
“The most important thing about free-speech doctrine is that all speech is treated the same, no matter what its subject and viewpoint,” said McConnell, a former federal appeals court judge nominated by Bush. “It will be interesting to see how many defenders of the right to protest on the public highway outside a military base find excuses to suppress speech on public streets near abortion facilities.”
In Apel’s case, Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr., representing the federal government, told the justices that a consideration of constitutional rights was unnecessary. He said in his brief that the 9th Circuit’s decision simply misinterpreted a federal law that gives base commanders wide and necessary latitude to control what is in the best interest of their installations.
Apel was prosecuted under the law that makes it a crime to reenter any military “reservation, post, fort, arsenal, yard, station or installation” after being lawfully banned from such a place.
But the 9th Circuit reasoned that the law applies only when the federal government has exclusive control over the land in question. Vandenberg shares control of busy Highway 1 with the state of California and the county of Santa Barbara.
Moreover, Apel and his attorney Erwin Chemerinsky, a prominent constitutional scholar who is dean of the law school at the University of California at Irvine, say the justices must consider the important free-speech issue at hand. They argue Apel cannot be prosecuted for what all agree were peaceful protests in 2010 that took place in a public space that was specifically set aside by base officials for that purpose.
“Apel was arrested and convicted for exercising his constitutional right to peacefully protest the military’s activities,” Apel claims in his brief. “Neither the First Amendment nor [the federal law] permits this result.”
Apel said he hopes the case will bring attention to the issue that drives him and a small band of like-minded activists to stage their simple protests each month: the expansion of warfare and weaponry “into the higher frontier of space.”
“In all the back-and-forth about easements and jurisdictions and statutory arguments — and even in the First Amendment issues — what gets completely lost is, why do we go out there in the first place?” he said.
With thick gray hair and a gap-toothed smile, Apel is soft-spoken and earnest as he describes a life trajectory that went from salesman to hospital volunteer to chaplain to activist in the Catholic Worker movement.
He and his wife, Tensie Hernandez, run a Catholic Worker house in Guadalupe, a town north of Vandenberg with a large population of poor and undocumented farmworkers. Unaffiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, Apel and Hernandez depend on donations — about $35,000 a year, Apel says — to provide donated clothing and food and run a medical clinic.
One night at the clinic in 2003, as the Iraq war approached, the couple asked a doctor to withdraw some of their blood. Apel put it in a bottle, and the next time he went to Vandenberg to protest, he crossed the green line and poured the blood on the letters that marked the entrance.
Hardly an original idea, he said, but symbolic. Blood was spilled among the innocent of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and more would come from the cruise missiles fired at Iraq. At least during the initial phase of the war, Apel said, the military would not see firsthand the carnage.
“We felt that in solidarity with the people — not the government, certainly, but the innocent people — that the military should see some blood,” he said.
He was convicted of trespassing and vandalism, and again for trespassing in 2007. But he said he has been careful not to cross the green line since, and his three arrests in 2010 were all for being in the protest zone, which is across the street and about 200 yards from the guard station.
The base
Vandenberg, a Defense Department space and missile test base, is so vast it defies the traditional image of a military installation. One can drive for miles without a reminder that it is military property. There are beaches open to the public — except during the endangered snowy plover’s nesting season — and an Amtrak line runs through it, providing spectacular views of the Pacific.
At the intersection where the protest site is located, thousands of cars drive by. (Apel was allowed to be in one, as long as he did not stop and get out.) There is a public middle school at the spot, and a local transit bus lets off passengers between the green line and the guarded gate station.
The government says that just because the base commander has allowed such accommodations for protesters does not mean he has forfeited the right to exclude people such as Apel. A request to talk to base officials about Apel was turned down.
Verrilli relies on a 1985 Supreme Court decision that upheld the conviction of a man who was banned from a military base but entered during a public open house. He, too, claimed a First Amendment right, but the court said the law was “content-neutral” and met an important government interest in banning those whose “previous conduct demonstrates that they are a threat to security.”
But Apel and his attorney argue that he is not attempting to enter a space where the military actually conducts business. They rely on a 1972 decision that said a man could not be convicted for distributing leaflets on a Texas base, because he was on a street that was used by both civilians and military personnel.
For now, Apel and a small group of like-minded activists protest at Vandenberg the first Wednesday of every month. He acknowledges it might not seem he is making much of an impact.
“Do we think we’re going to make a change? No. I would say no,” Apel said. “Efficacy is not our primary goal. . . . We are not called to be successful. We are called to be faithful.”
The case is U.S. v. Apel.
Sheriff's Department hired officers with histories of misconduct
By Robert Faturechi and Ben Poston
December 01, 2013
Of the nearly 400 officers and supervisors from the Office of Public Safety who applied to the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department in 2010, about 280 were hired. Of those:
188 Were rejected for jobs at law enforcement agencies before being hired by the Sheriff's Department.
97 showed evidence of dishonesty.
92 were disciplined previously by other police agencies for significant misconduct on duty.
29 were fired or pressured to resign from a previous law enforcement job.
15 were flagged by background investigators for trying to manipulate the results of a polygraph exam.
About the numbers
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department hired dozens of officers even though background investigators found they had committed serious misconduct on or off duty, sheriff's files show.
The department made the hires in 2010 after taking over patrols of parks and government buildings from a little-known L.A. County police force. Officers from that agency were given first shot at new jobs with the Sheriff's Department. Investigators gave them lie detector tests and delved into their employment records and personal lives.
The Times reviewed the officers' internal hiring files, which also contained recorded interviews of the applicants by sheriff's investigators.
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Ultimately, about 280 county officers were given jobs, including applicants who had accidentally fired their weapons, had sex at work and solicited prostitutes, the records show.
For nearly 100 hires, investigators discovered evidence of dishonesty, such as making untrue statements or falsifying police records. At least 15 were caught cheating on the department's own polygraph exams.
Twenty-nine of those given jobs had previously had been fired or pressured to resign from other law enforcement agencies over concerns about misconduct or workplace performance problems. Nearly 200 had been rejected from other agencies because of past misdeeds, failed entrance exams or other issues.
Several of those with past misconduct have been accused of wrongdoing since joining the department, including one deputy who was terminated after firing his service weapon during a dispute outside a fast-food restaurant.
David McDonald was hired despite admitting to sheriff's investigators he had a relationship with a 14-year-old girl whom he kissed and groped. He was 28 at the time.
"I was in love," he said in an interview with The Times. "I wasn't being a bad guy."
McDonald had been fired from the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department amid allegations he used excessive force on prisoners. A fellow deputy told a supervisor that he didn't want to work with McDonald because he harassed inmates.
L.A. County sheriff's officials made him a jail guard, a decision that surprised even McDonald.
"How can you put me back in the jails when I already had a problem there?" McDonald told the newspaper.
A fellow deputy asked not to work with McDonald because he said McDonald harassed inmates by calling them names. Asked by a supervisor how he thought inmates should be supervised, McDonald said "Well, like Clint Eastwood, tell them what to do and they either do it or else."
Since being hired by the L.A. County Sheriff's Department, McDonald said he has been disciplined in connection with using physical force on an inmate.
"They want you to be more touchy-feely," he said of the discipline. "Whenever you're gonna jack up an inmate, you have to call a supervisor first."
After sheriff's officials learned The Times had access to the records, they launched a criminal investigation to determine who had leaked them. They also said they would review whether some applicants had been improperly hired. The union representing deputies unsuccessfully tried to get a court order blocking publication of information from the files.
The records provide a rare look into hiring decisions at the nation's largest sheriff's department, an agency dogged in recent years by a string of scandals related to deputy abuse and racially biased policing.
Interactive: A look inside the hiring files »
The department's hiring files detail proven and unproven allegations of misconduct based on information from past employers, romantic partners and others. The files also document when applicants were arrested or charged for alleged crimes but not convicted. One new hire had been charged with assault under the color of authority, and another had been arrested for assault with intent to murder and rape.
The Times, however, focused its analysis on allegations that had been proved in court, sustained in workplace investigations or in cases where the applicants themselves admitted to wrongdoing to sheriff's investigators.
The Times attempted to contact all of the new hires through visits to their homes, phone calls or by email. More than a third granted interviews or declined to comment. Others received inquiries but did not respond. Some could not be located. Of those who did respond, some disputed the contents in their files. Others characterized past problems as mistakes made many years ago that did not reflect how qualified they are to work in law enforcement today.
Law enforcement experts said hiring officers with problematic backgrounds undermines the department's integrity.
I was under the impression that people with backgrounds like that were not being hired.”
— Edward Rogner, a retired Sheriff's Department commander
"Cops are held to a higher standard than the average member of society because we've got to be able to trust them," said Edward Rogner, a retired Sheriff's Department commander who was involved in the expansion but not in hiring decisions.
When told about The Times' findings, Rogner added: "I was under the impression that people with backgrounds like that were not being hired."
Sheriff Lee Baca declined to comment, but his spokesman said Baca was not aware people with such backgrounds were hired.
Before he knew of the newspaper's investigation, Baca told Times reporters that people with records of violence or dishonesty have no place in law enforcement. He said applicants who had been fired from other agencies shouldn't be given a second chance, and that he would not hire applicants with histories of illegal sexual conduct.
"Men that take women and use them as a sexual object are going to always come up against my wrath," he said.
As a county police officer, Ferdinand Salgado had just gotten off work when he was arrested on suspicion of soliciting a prostitute who was actually an undercover cop at a Yum Yum Donuts parking lot in El Monte. According to authorities, he grinned at her, asked for oral sex and arranged to meet her at a motel.
During the sheriff's background investigation, it was determined that he tried to manipulate the results of the polygraph test by controlling his breathing, a common tactic used to manipulate the outcome of the exam. He denied it, but admitted knowing about a memo circulating among his colleagues on cheating techniques.
He pleaded to a lesser charge of disturbing the peace. During his Sheriff's Department interview, he denied he said anything to the woman.
"I ain't buying it," an investigator told him after reviewing the police report. "You know you're not telling me the truth."
Salgado, who was hired as a jail guard and has since left the agency, wasn't the only one with a conviction on his record.
Records show almost 30 other hires had been convicted of drunk driving, battery or a variety of lower-level crimes. About 50 disclosed to sheriff's background investigators misdeeds such as petty theft, soliciting prostitutes and violence against spouses.
One hire told investigators of having inappropriate sexual contact with two toddlers as a teenager.
In another case, Linda Bonner was given a job after revealing that she used her department-issued weapon to shoot at her husband as he ran away from her during an argument. He wasn't hit; he was lucky he was running in a zigzag pattern, she told investigators, because if not the end result "would have been a whole lot different."
She told investigators that she got into a fight with her then-husband, who slapped her in the face. She told them that she got her service weapon from her purse and fired it at her husband as he was running away from her.
An opportunity to expand
About four years ago, a Los Angeles County police force called the Office of Public Safety was disbanded. Its responsibilities — patrolling county buildings, parks and hospitals — were handed over to the 18,000-person Sheriff's Department in an effort to save money.
The Sheriff's Department was not required to hire any of the former county officers, officials said.
The agency ended up hiring about 280. The majority were taken on as sworn deputies, while others were hired as custody assistants in the department's troubled jail system, security guards or for other lower-level positions.
Baca's then second-in-command, Larry Waldie, and a small circle of aides, were responsible for scrutinizing applicants.
Waldie, now retired, said he personally reviewed many of the applicants' files. He said he was unaware of any hires with histories of significant misconduct.
Presented with some of The Times' findings, Waldie said: "That information was not brought to me ... I don't recall any of these specifics so don't ask me anymore."
Waldie then said he and his aides were under "significant pressure" from the county Board of Supervisors and other officials to hire as many county officers as possible.
"We had to have grave reasons for not hiring them," Waldie said.
A county spokesman denied Waldie's account, saying the Board of Supervisors "clearly and emphatically" told the Sheriff's Department to only hire applicants who met the agency's hiring standards.
Internal Sheriff's Department records reviewed by The Times show the union representing the former county officers was also lobbying Waldie to hire specific members, including some who had committed serious misconduct during their careers.
The department's hiring guidelines give officials wide latitude to employ people with histories of bad behavior, according to records and interviews. The specific rules are confidential to prevent applicants from tailoring their answers to meet the guidelines. A year before the county police hiring process, the Sheriff's Department's civilian monitor criticized officials for their lax hiring guidelines during a previous recruitment drive.
One taped recording of a background interview suggests the department made special accommodations for the county officers.
In the recording, a sheriff's investigator tells an applicant who was caught cheating on his polygraph exam that normally that would have meant "goodbye, you're done, there's no second chances." The investigator then told the applicant that he and other suspected cheaters might not be disqualified "as a favor because, you know, it's law enforcement." The applicant was eventually hired.
New allegations
It is difficult to assess the performance of the new hires because law enforcement personnel records in California are not available to the public. But interviews and records reviewed by The Times show several officers hired in 2010 have faced new allegations of misconduct.
Gary Esquibel had been suspended as a county police officer for not stopping a colleague from using excessive force and failing to report the incident. Still, the Sheriff's Department hired him as a sworn deputy. He has since been accused of doing nothing as three inmates beat another inmate bloody, according to court records.
Sheriff's background investigators determined he was using "countermeasures" — tactics aimed at manipulating the results of the test. Esquibel denied it. He was suspended for 20 days in 1996 for failing to stop another officer from using excessive force and for failing to report the force.
The department is investigating those allegations, which surfaced during a criminal trial of those charged in the beating. Esquibel declined to comment.
Sheriff's polygraph examiners found that county police Officer Desmond Carter was deceptive when asked about his involvement in domestic disputes. They also determined he tried to manipulate the results of his polygraph exam.
He lasted three months as a sworn deputy. A motorist who bumped Carter's car in a McDonald's parking lot started to drive off before they were done settling the matter, according to a district attorney's memo. Carter, who was off duty, drew his service weapon and fired several rounds at the man's car, one of which hit the wall of a nearby business.
Carter said he fired his gun after he was dragged 15 feet by the man's car, but investigators found no evidence that his clothes were damaged or that he was injured, prosecutors wrote. The district attorney did not charge him with a crime, but the Sheriff's Department fired him. Carter did not respond to inquiries from The Times left with his attorney.
Background investigators concluded Carter was using "countermeasures" — tactics aimed at manipulating the results of a polygraph exam when he was asked about incidents of illegal sexual conduct.
Another officer, Niles Rose, was hired despite being the subject of several unreasonable force allegations.
Rose had been investigated for misconduct 10 times at the Office of Public Safety since 2001. In three of those cases, the allegations were found by investigators to be true, according to the sheriff's background file. A former supervisor said Rose developed a reputation as being heavy-handed with suspects.
"If you want smart force used, you make sure he's in the locker room," Marc Gregory, a former county police captain, said in an interview with The Times.
After the Sheriff's Department hired Rose as a jailer, he faced new allegations of misconduct, according to interviews and a court declaration.
An inmate accused Rose in the declaration of hurling an inmate uniform at him, causing him to recoil and hit his head against a wall. Rose then allegedly declared the man a "child molester" and threatened to put him in the general population, where sex offenders have been targeted by other prisoners.
Sheriff's background investigators noted that he was the subject of 10 internal affairs investigations from 2001 to 2007. Three were founded. At least six of those inquiries related to allegations of unreasonable force, threats or intimidation.
Rose declined to discuss the inmate's allegation of abuse, saying it still may be under investigation. He did confirm that he had so many physical confrontations with inmates that jail managers moved him to the time card office, where he would no longer have contact with prisoners.
He called the move an overreaction.
"I'm not one to just walk around and beat on people for no reason," Rose said. "I never put my hands on someone or fought with somebody who didn't swing at me first."
Allegations of misconduct continued after Rose was reassigned to administrative work.
Sheriff's officials suspect he stole thousands of dollars in overtime funds, according to several law enforcement sources who requested anonymity because the case was ongoing. Rose is now on leave, and a sheriff's spokesman said he's under criminal investigation.
Contact the reporters | Follow Robert Faturechi (@RobertFaturechi) and Ben Poston (@bposton) on Twitter
2 Calif police officers on trial in homeless death
By GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press
Updated 7:46 am, Sunday, December 1, 2013
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — Two California police officers accused in the death of a homeless man are heading to trial more than two years after the violent confrontation.
Manuel Ramos goes on trial Monday on charges of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in the death of 37-year-old Kelly Thomas, who died after an encounter with six Fullerton police officers.
Jay Cicinelli also heads to trial on charges of involuntary manslaughter and excessive use of force.
Both have pleaded not guilty.
The case marks the first time in the history of Orange County that a police officer has been charged with murder for on-duty actions. The confrontation was captured on surveillance video.
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NSA says Fourth Amendment not null and void???
Put this guy everywhere - snowden, cops, drugs, spies, nsa
NSA says Fourth Amendment not null and void???
CIA freed detainees to work as U.S. spies
This sounds more like a criminal enterprise, then something that is run by
a government that is interested in protecting your rights.
Source
NSA says Fourth Amendment not null and void???
Jury convicts Okla. cop in death of unarmed teen
This is kind of unusual, a cop getting punished for murdering civilians.
On the other had the guy hasn't been sentenced yet, and will probably get a slap on the wrist, that most cops do.
Source
U.S. sends B-52 bombers over China-claimed waters
No wonder the American Empire is always getting into wars.
What do you think is going to happen when we intentionally
provoke foreign governments by doing illegal stuff like this???
I worked with an ex-Air Force guy and he told me that stuff like
this is routinely done to test how quickly the enemy can respond
to our actions. He also said that on and off sometimes these planes
which intentionally violate foreign air space are sometimes shot down.
He said in those cases our government denies provoking the incident
and claims the plane was shot down because it accidentally strayed
into enemy airspace.
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Supreme Court to hear cases on Obamacare and birth control
Personally I think it is wrong for the government to force a business to provide
health services which the owner of the business thinks violate his religious
beliefs. Would it be OK for the government to force Jewish or Arab business
owners to feed their employees pork because pork is healthier then
beef, despite the fact that the Jew and Arab owners think eating pork is a sin???
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Judge orders Sriracha hot sauce plant partly closed over odors
After Cholula Hot Sauce, Sriracha hot sauce is my favorite hot sauce. My only complaint about it is the sugar. Why would somebody mix sugar with hot sauce????
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Microsoft, suspecting NSA spying, to ramp up efforts to encrypt its Internet traffic
You can trust the government to honor your 4th Amendment rights??? Well about as far as you can throw a 500 pound gorilla!!!!!
Sadly our government masters in the US Congress and US Senate, along with the government bureaucrats who are spying on us in the NSA and CIA aren't any more honest then the criminals and terrorists they are pretending to protect us from.
If our Congressmen and Senators had one honest bone in their bodies they would instantly repeal the unconstitutional police state Patroiot Act and
stop their police thugs in the NSA and CIA from spying on us. In addition to jailing all the criminals at the NSA and CIA who have been spying on ut.
I am sure if George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were alive today they would says that Bush and Obama are both a thousand times worse then King George ever was.
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Mayor moves to limit medical marijuana dispensaries
These government tyrants in Chicago sounds like a clone of the
government tyrants in Arizona who are doing the best they can
to flush our medical marijuana laws down the toilet!!!!
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Naperville setting zoning for medical marijuana businesses
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Durbin, Kirk differ on marijuana laws
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A Plea to Avoid Crush of Users at Health Site
Honest, we fixed that website!!!! But don't use it because it might crash!!!
Don't worry, I suspect that Obamacare, once it's implemented won't work any better then the silly website!!!
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Woman's face shatters as she's shoved into jail cell
Caught on video: Woman's face shatters as she's shoved into jail cell
Here is the embedded link of the video:
Here is the URL of the video:
http://landing.newsinc.com/shared/video.html?freewheel=91002&sitesection=selatimes&VID=25310287
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China Aims to Curb Wrongful Convictions Amid Abuse
The last time I checked on the statistics, the American government had more people in prison then China. The American government also has more people in prison per capita then China.
On the other hand China executes a lot more alleged criminals then the US does. And some people say that China has a huge number of people in "educational institutions" which are really prisons.
If you ask me it's a toss up on which government is a bigger violate of human rights!!!!
Also while in the USA we no longer beat people with physical rubber hoses to get confessions the "9 Step Reid Method" is used almost universally, world wide to get confessions.
"9 Step Reid Method" replaces physical rubber hoses with mental rubber hoses and is pretty well know to be effective at getting confessions from people. Well it is very good at getting confessions from both innocent people and guilty people.
The basic premise that the "9 Step Reid Method" uses is the "bad cop, good cop logic". The bad cop tells the suspect that they have enough evidence to send him to the electric chair, which is almost always a lie. And the good cop tells the guy if he confesses he will just get a slap on the wrist and be quickly released if he just confesses and says he is sorry.
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TSA - Bend over you will enjoy this - Honest!!!!
Hotel amenities calm tensions at TSA checkpoints
TSA - Bend over you will enjoy this - Honest!!!!
Of course the real solution to the painful, humiliating experience of having your Constitutional rights violated by criminal TSA thugs at the airport is to end the illegal and unconstitutional searches.
But f*ck that. The Patriot Act is a jobs program for the government criminals at the TSA and they are certainly not going to end the searches which would end their jobs.
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You can’t judge a person’s pain
Hey, let's not let logic and reason interfere with the government's "jobs program" for cops which throws people who commit the victim-less crime of using or selling medical marijuana in prison.
If cops were not spending all their time arresting people for victim-less drug war crimes they might have to risk their lives and hunt down real criminals like robbers and rapists.
Well at least that's what the cops want us to think.
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DEA Debunks Krokodil Sightings
When I read a column today on the illegal drug "krokodile" by Gary Patrone, the CEO of ARCpoint drug testing labs in Tempe, I figured it was just another government lie to justify their insane, illegal and unconstitutional war on drugs.
While I suspect Gary Patrone is using this lie to increase business at his ARC Point labs, even the DEA admits that it's a big lie.
Of course that isn't to say the the government doesn't routinely make up lies about the dangers of illegal drugs. They do.
In high school I remember being show the movie "Reefer Madness" to alert us to the dangers of marijuana.
About all I learned out of that racist movie was that if a Black man smokes one marijuana cigarette it will make him go out and rape 6 White woman.
Hoping to get laid I smoked my one and only marijuana cigarette. I was kind of angry because it didn't even make me rape one White woman.
All I did was go to Taco Bell and eat 6 burritos before going home to bed.
Last time I ever smoked pot in my life!!! Honest!!!!
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Marijuana-smoking Mountie stirs the pot in Canada
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The Potential of LSD, Heroin, Marijuana and Other Controlled Substances in Brain Research
The article is probably referring to when the Catholic Church sentenced Galileo to be burned at the state for saying that, gasp, that the Earth rotates around the Sun, not that the Sun rotates around the Earth as it says in the Bible.
Lucky for Galileo, he admitted he lied and made the whole silly thing up about the Earth rotating around the Sun and his death sentence was commuted to being under house arrest for the rest of his life!!!
Sadly the morons in our government have the same head in the sand views about drugs, as the Pope had in 1600 about the Earth rotating around the Sun.
I think it was in the 1970's that the Catholic Church admitted it f*cked up about sentencing Galileo to death for claiming that the Earth rotates around the Sun and their was a big article in the New York Times about it.
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Efforts to relax marijuana laws lose billionaire backer
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Nuke lab works on liquids scanner for airport use
If you ask me it would be a lot easier to end the illegal and unconstitutional searches that the TSA criminals do at the airports.
Of course let's not throw any logic and reason into the the insane "war on terrorism" which is really just a jobs program for police thugs.
Numbers from the Feds say that less then one percent of the people arrested by the TSA thugs under the unconstitutional Patriot Act are arrested for "terrorist" crimes. Over 50 percent of the arrests are for victim-less drug war crimes.
The second most common arrests the TSA thugs make after arrests for victimless drug war crimes is arrests for possession of illegal guns. The Federal government seems to be at war with the Second Amendment in addition to it's war on drugs.
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FBI chief Douglas Price refuses to tell us why FBI is needed
FBI chief Douglas Price refuses to tell us why FBI is needed - "In accordance with FBI protocol, Price remained vague about potential criminal activity and about the bureau’s efforts to thwart it."
Of course H. L. Mencken famous quote can probably give us a good idea of why the FBI needs all these overpaid and under worked cops - "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
Last but not least FBI chief Douglas Price refused to tell us what his cops arrests most people for which is victim-less drug war crimes!!!
According to Federal statistics 51 percent of the people in Federal prisons are there for victim-less drug war crimes.
Under the Patriot Act, again over half of the arrests are not for terrorist crimes, but victimless drug war crimes.
Slightly less then 1 percent of people arrested for Patriot Act crimes are arrested for "terrorist" crimes.
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A Maricopa County tax for more cops???
A Maricopa County tax for more cops???
According to this article about 51 percent of our county taxes go toward the cops, or public safety as they like to call it - "Public safety accounts for 51 percent of the county’s fiscal 2014 expenditures." I think that also includes the courts, prosecutors and everything to do with the criminal injustice system, not just Sheriff Joe's goons.
The city of Phoenix spends about 40% of it's taxes on cops, and most of that goes towards salaries to pay the cops. The city of Phoenix spends the next 20% of it's budget on firemen, with a total of about 60% of it's budget going to "public safety" as they call it.
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Release ordered for Pinal County sex offender because of delay
You want a fair trial??? Don't make me laugh!!!!
Maybe this guy is a scrum bag sexual predator. But if he was the cops and prosecutors only have themselves to blame for not giving him a fair trail.
Everybody deserves a fair trial. The whole purpose of a fair trial is to protect innocent people who are falsely arrested.
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Lots of lawsuits say Obamacare is unconstitutional???
Lots of lawsuits say Obamacare is unconstitutional???
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Government math???
Government math???
Sensors claim ridership is down, government claims it's up????
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Speed limits largely ignored - only 1 in 20 obey 55 mph limit
Speed limits largely ignored - only 1 in 20 obey 55 mph limit
From this article it seems that the government bureaucrats who set the speed limits on our highways are totally out of touch with the people who pay for the highways and use them!!!!
I suspect our government masters are setting the speed limits to maximize revenue from speeding tickets rather then to make the highways operate safer.
This article doesn't mention the friendly photo radar bandits that our government masters use to rob us with for trivial traffic violations.
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Scandal Widens Over Contracts for Navy Work
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Marijuana's risk to drivers debated
Marijuana's risk to drivers debated
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U.S. military readiness is questioned after cuts
Another article fitting for H. L. Mencken's quote of "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
Let me get this straight. The American Empire spends more on our military then ALL of the other countries of the world spend combined.
But this article seems to say if the American Empire cuts it's budget we could be in danger of bad guys invading American???
Sadly when Congress argues this issue, it ain't about protecting the American public from bad guys, but rather keeping the bloated budges for the military industrial complex and guaranteeing a huge government welfare program for those folks in the military industrial complex.
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Phoenix Police Shake Down Homeless???
I suspect the reason the cops shake down homeless people is they are safe easy arrests to make. It's a lot easier to bust a homeless person for committing some victim-less crime then hunting down a real criminal like a bank robber or rapist!!!
Which is the same reason the cops arrest people for victim less drug war crimes.
But techniques are easy ways to boost arrest rates and brag to the public that the cops are making the streets safer. Yea, safer from what??? Harmless pot smokers and harmless homeless folks!!!
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Mesa rulers think they deserve to be paid like royalty!!!!
Mesa rulers think they deserve to be paid like royalty!!!!
$73,000 for the part time job of mayor???? $35,200 for the part time job of city council member????
"the panel proposed raising the mayor’s pay by $35,000 a year to $73,300. Council members would get a $16,000 raise, to $35,200"
If you assume the mayor and city council members have part time jobs and work 10 hours a week that is about $140/hr for the mayor and $67/hr for city councilmen. And I suspect that 10 hours is on the high side! I doubt if they actually work more then 5 hours a week!!!! Well not including the time they are shaking down people for campaign contributions, which the rest of us call bribes. And of course they have no business in the world expecting to be paid for the time they spend shaking down people for money!!!
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Geek wars: Techies combat NSA spies
If you are going to commit a victimless drug war crime or other victimless crime don't do it on the Internet and tell everybody on the planet about it. Remember 10 million or so cops also use the Internet to catch criminals.
Same for talking about it on a cell phone, which broadcasts your phone call on the airwaves.
If you use encryption software be aware that their is a good chance you may get a "government supplied" encryption tool which will give you a false sense of security while allowing every cop on the planet to read your emails.
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Airport chaplains let fliers connect with heavens
F*ck that silly 1st Amendment thing. These religions nut jobs want to force Jesus on you and the government is helping them do it at airports!!!!
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Why government routinely fails!!!
Of course I differ with the author on the solution to this problem.
As long as government exists, it will always serve the special interest groups that are in power, not the "people" that government pretends to serve.
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Only "good citizens" have Constitutional Rights???
Well it sure seems like that is what our government masters are saying in this article!!!!
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An honest cop?? An oxymoron???
An honest cop?? An oxymoron???
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Remember when the Fullerton cops beat Kelly Thomas to death????
Remember when the Fullerton cops beat Kelly Thomas to death????
We do!!! Check out the bloody details
here.
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