| NEWS
of the Day
- August 17, 2009 |
|
on
some issues of interest to the community policing and neighborhood
activist
EDITOR'S NOTE: The following group of articles from local
newspapers and other sources constitutes but a small percentage
of the information available to the community policing and neighborhood
activist public. It is by no means meant to cover every possible
issue of interest, nor is it meant to convey any particular
point of view ...
We present this simply as a convenience to our readership ...
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From
the Daily News
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Cartels go from drugs to full-scale mafias
CRIME: With cocaine sales stagnant, gangs have expanded to extortion, trafficking.
from the Associated Press
August 16, 2009 CIUDAD HIDALGO, Mexico - Shopkeepers in this pine-covered mountain region easily recite the list of "protection" fees they pay to La Familia drug cartel to stay in business: 100 pesos a month for a stall in a street market, 30,000 pesos for an auto dealership or construction-supply firm.
First offense for nonpayment: a severe beating. Those who keep ignoring the fees - or try to charge their own - may pay with their lives.
"Every day you can see the people they have beaten up being taken to the IMSS," said auto mechanic Jesus Hernandez, motioning to the government-run hospital a few doors from his repair shop.
Mexican drug cartels have morphed into full-scale mafias, running extortion and protection rackets and trafficking everything from people to pirated DVDs. As once-lucrative cocaine profits have fallen and U.S. and Mexican authorities crack down on all drug trafficking to the U.S., gangs are branching into new ventures - some easier and more profitable than drugs.
The expansion has major implications as President Felipe Calderon continues his 2 -year-old drug war, which has killed more than 11,000 people and turned formerly tranquil rural towns such as Ciudad Hidalgo into major battlefronts.
Organized crime is seeping into Mexican society in ways not seen before, making it ever more difficult to combat. Besides controlling businesses, cartels provide jobs and social services where government has failed.
"Today, the traffickers have big companies, education, careers," said Congresswoman Yudit del Rincon of Sinaloa state, which has long been controlled by the cartel of the same name. "They're businessman of the year, they even head up social causes and charitable foundations."
Local officials say they do not have the manpower to investigate cartel rackets and refer such cases to the state, which hands them over to overloaded federal agents because organized crime is a federal offense. A federal police report released in April notes that often no one confronts the cartels, "not the police, because in many cases there is probably corruption, and not the public, because they live in terror."
After media reports questioned whether Mexico was becoming a failed state, Calderon insisted in February that his country is in the hands of Mexican authorities.
"Even me, as president, I can visit any single point of the territory," he said. He has since sent 5,500 extra military and police officers to fight drug lords in Michoacan - his home state.
But in Ciudad Hidalgo and neighboring Zitacuaro, mayors have been jailed and charged with working for La Familia cartel, which controls swaths of central and western Mexico. Cadillac Escalades and Lincoln Navigators with low tires and chrome rims patrol the streets of Zitacuaro, even as trucks of army troops roll past.
In the Michoacan mountain town of Arteaga, La Familia boss Servando Gomez Martinez is revered for giving townspeople money for food, clothing and even medical care.
"He is a country man just like us, who wears huaraches," a farmer said of one of Mexico's most-wanted drug lords, pointing to his own open-toed leather sandals. He asked that his name not be used for fear of retaliation.
"It's almost like Chicago, when Al Capone ruled everything," said a senior U.S. law enforcement official who was not authorized to be quoted by name. "They control everything from the shoeshine boy to the taxi driver."
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_13141733
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From the OurLA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Right to Know Upgraded: Public Access to Government Data
.
by Chelsea Cody
August 16, 2009
For those that have an interest or the compulsion to dig into government data and information the internet is making things more and more accessible. Of course this also brings up some skeptical thoughts such as, "what are they leaving out?" and "why give it to us now?"
Even with the exit of the often secretive and closed-off Bush Administration, the press has gotten used to a certain level of reporting that frequently leaves out (due to a complete lack of access or difficulty accessing) the hard data...all of it. Perhaps the Obama camp's promise to increase transparency and access is being fulfilled after all.
Instinctual government distrust aside, there are a few sites that are worth looking into and having on hand when you wish to have a better handle on what is going on at the local, state, and national levels. After all, if you are going to report fraud, waste and abuse, you have to have the data. Speaking of which...
DATA.gov
Data.gov allows you to search various databases on multiple levels of government. The site describes itself as having following role:
"The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government."
It goes on:
As a priority Open Government Initiative for President Obama's administration, Data.gov increases the ability of the public to easily find, download, and use datasets that are generated and held by the Federal Government. Data.gov provides descriptions of the Federal datasets (metadata), information about how to access the datasets, and tools that leverage government datasets. The data catalogs will continue to grow as datasets are added. Federal, Executive Branch data are included in the first version of Data.gov.
USASpending.gov
The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (Transparency Act) requires a single searchable website, accessible by the public for free that includes for each Federal award:
1. the name of the entity receiving the award;
2. the amount of the award;
3. information on the award including transaction type, funding agency, etc;
4. the location of the entity receiving the award;
5. a unique identifier of the entity receiving the award. |
USAspending.gov, a re-launch of www.fedspending.org , provides this information to the public, as collected from federal agencies, in an easy to use website. The data is largely from sources: the Federal Procurement Data System , which contains information about federal contracts; and the Federal Assistance Award Data System , which contains information about federal financial assistance such as grants, loans, insurance, and direct subsidies like Social Security. RECOVERY.gov
Recovery.gov is a website that allows taxpayers to see how the money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is being distributed and managed.
In order to accomplish the mission set out in the Recovery Act, and provide information for the public to monitor the progress of the stimulus package, Recovery.gov features:
1, Weekly updates of the agencies' funding notifications and financial and activity reports
2, Map presenting state-by-state funding
3. Graphs charting the weekly progress of agencies's made available and paid-out funds
4. Map showing the recipients of funds and the resulting projects
5. Written reports on the agencies' plans for where and how they'll spend the funds
6. Information on Federal contracts, grants and loans
7. A map illustrating the estimates of jobs to be created or saved and links to job information sites
8. Links to State Recovery sites and other government Recovery sites
9. Tools for the public to report for waste, fraud and abuse of recovery funds
10. Oversight audits by the Inspectors General of each Agency |
WHITEHOUSE.gov
By no means a new site, WhiteHouse.gov is certainly more familiar to American's but it has been overhauled and made far more "user friendly."
Here you can keep up with pending legislation, recent press releases and public announcements, the progress of major issues-including healthcare reform, read biographies of the major members of the Obama Administration, and learn about the White House and the history of the U.S. government. All around, whitehouse.gov is a good learning tool...show your children, and if you don't have any, take it for a spin on your own.
http://ourla.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=432&Itemid=3233 |
