By Nicholas Riccardi, Los Angeles Times

July 28, 2010

Reporting from Phoenix

The Utah Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed the 2007 conviction of Warren Jeffs, a self-proclaimed prophet and polygamist who was found guilty of being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old child bride.

The court agreed with defense lawyers that the judge erroneously told the jury that Jeffs could be convicted if he knew unwanted sex would result from the marriage he presided over between the girl and her older cousin.

The unanimous ruling makes it unlikely that Jeffs, the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, can be tried again in Utah, state Atty. Gen. Mark Shurtleff said in a telephone interview. "It would be very difficult, based on this decision, to prosecute him," Shurtleff said.

Jeffs, 54, received two sentences of life in prison for his 2007 conviction, which was the culmination of a lengthy campaign against underage marriage in the FLDS, a breakaway sect that has been disavowed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is based along the Utah- Arizona border.

Jeffs still faces charges of bigamy and sexual assault on a child in Texas, which is seeking to extradite him from Utah. He will continue to be held in state prison until that process finishes, Shurtleff said.

Jeffs' conviction stemmed from his role in marrying the two cousins. The girl, Elissa Wall — who has since written a book about the case — implored FLDS authorities to stop the wedding. State prosecutors argued Jeffs was responsible for the subsequent rape, while defense attorneys contended that only the new husband was to blame.

Jeffs' attorneys on Tuesday hailed the ruling. "Mr. Jeffs should never have been charged with being an accomplice to rape," attorney Walter Bugden said at a televised news conference in Salt Lake City. "This is a case where the constitution really prevailed."

Shurtleff's office and local prosecutors in southern Utah were reviewing the ruling and said they had made no decision on whether to retry Jeffs. But Shurtleff was pessimistic. He said it appeared that no child marriages have been performed in Utah since 2005, when the state began to pursue Jeffs. He feared some other sect leaders may start trying to resume the practice in light of the ruling.

"It leaves us kind of scratching our heads as to how we can prevent this," Shurtleff said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-polygamist-trial-20100728,0,2533049,print.story

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The father of a woman who disappeared last year in Malibu filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, alleging negligence while she was in its custody.

July 27, 2010

Mitrice Richardson -- whose 25th birthday three months ago was observed by family and friends without her -- was arrested for not being able to pay an $89 dinner bill at Geoffrey's restaurant in Malibu.

She was released from the Lost Hills/Malibu Sheriff's station Sept. 17 around 12:30 a.m. without her car, which was impounded, or her purse and cellphone, which were in the car. Aside from a couple of sightings later that morning, she vanished.

Since then, Los Angeles police detectives investigating her disappearance found journals she kept that indicated she was probably suffering from severe bipolar disorder. The suit filed by Michael Richardson is similar to one filed four weeks ago by Mitrice's mother, Latice Sutton.

Both suits seek damages and contend that Mitrice exhibited signs of mental instability while in custody -- grabbing the walls of the holding cell, pulling her hair -- but officials did not hold her for a mental health evaluation.

Sutton said when she filed her lawsuit that she had been allowed to watch a sheriff's department videotape of her daughter that showed her acting strangely in the holding cell. Michael Richardson has spent enormous amounts of time searching for his daughter.

His lawyer, Benjamin Schonbrun, said Michael Richardson's biggest loss “is the big gaping hole in his heart from missing his daughter…I just want to make sure that people understand this lawsuit was not filed for his own monetary gain…This lawsuit is about seeking the truth, obtaining information the sheriff has not provided.”

Schonbrun said that would include videotapes, audiotapes, witness statements and internal reports.

Sutton's lawyer, Leo Terrell, similarly said last month that he expects his client's lawsuit to make tapes and reports available.

Sheriff's department spokesman Steve Whitmore said officials continued to stand by their previous statements that their personnel handled the Richardson arrest correctly and never saw evidence that she was mentally altered.

“We have been forthcoming about what did occur and didn't occur,” said Whitmore. “We look forward to telling the whole story. The sheriff feels transparency is much more than a buzzword…He has met with the family, he has cooperated with the LAPD by assigning homicide investigators to help.”

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/07/mitrice-richardson.html#more

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Dorian de Wind

July 27, 2010

In his July 22 Times Op-Ed article, " Every soldier a hero? Hardly ," retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. William J. Astore lists all the technical, logical and semantic reasons why our fighting men and women should not collectively be called "heroes."

I am one of those misguided people who, when writing about our military men and women slugging it out in Iraq and Afghanistan — engaged in combat, just trying not to get killed or maimed by an improvised explosive device or just driving a truck with supplies across the desert — instinctively and invariably refers to them as heroes.

Let me explain why.

When I refer to U.S. service members as heroes, I do that out of general, across-the-board respect and admiration for them, and out of deep gratitude for the sacrifices they make for our country.

I know darn well that not every one of them fits Astore's definition of a hero: "Someone who behaves selflessly, usually at considerable personal risk and sacrifice, to comfort or empower others and to make the world a better place."

Still, so many of our military come very close to doing so.

But why nitpick? Why be stingy when it comes to praising our military?

Those few whom Astore would label "real heroes" will still be singled out and honored with the appropriate military awards and decorations reserved for such acts of valor and heroism. I do not believe the "real heroes" would begrudge their brothers and sisters in arms from being referred to as heroes.

I guess I could call our fighting men and women "our brave ones" or "our dedicated ones," but the nitpickers would surely claim that not all of our military members are brave or dedicated.

However, it is beyond nitpicking for Astore to say that calling our troops heroes could create a "legion" of heroes, ensuring that "the brutalizing aspects and effects of war will be played down," or that "we blind ourselves to evidence of destructive, sometimes atrocious, behavior."

Astore cites atrocities that may have been committed in Gardez, Afghanistan, and claims that such atrocities "produce cognitive dissonance in the minds of many Americans, who simply can't imagine their 'heroes' killing innocents and then covering up the evidence. How much easier it is to see the acts of violence of our troops as necessary, admirable, even noble."

I consider this an affront to Americans' intelligence and, worse, our moral compass.

Yes, there are those very few bad actors in the military who would rape, murder or commit other atrocities. But — believe me — calling the other 99.9% of our troops heroes will definitely not produce "cognitive dissonance" in the minds of Americans, nor will it result in Americans calling acts of violence of our troops "necessary, admirable, even noble."

Even more troubling is Astore's reference of Germans' overuse during World War I of the term "helden" (heroes) to, as he puts it, "ennoble German militarism." I know Hitler and his ilk also called the Nazi troops during World War II, including those involved in the Holocaust, helden.

So what? What does that have to do with American troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, unless one wants to compare those wars, as much as one may disagree with them, to the Nazi atrocities?

I totally oppose the Iraq war. I have written frequently about my opposition. Still, I call those men and women fighting that war heroes, and I will continue to do so.

Astore writes that "in rejecting blanket 'hero' labels today, we would not be insulting our troops." He's right, but only because our troops "collectively" cannot be insulted, just as calling them heroes does not cheapen true acts of heroism, nor does it justify, humanize or glorify war. Governments and politicians who take us into war might justify and glorify wars, but not the troops who fight and die in them.

Let me conclude with a hypothetical question. Given the choice of collectively calling our troops heroes, because of those few "real heroes," and collectively calling our troops murderers and criminals because of those few bad apples, which one would you go for?

Believe me, some have actually opted for the latter choice. So forgive me if I continue to opt for the first choice at the risk of erring — technically, logically and semantically — on the side of our troops.

I thank Astore for his service. In my eyes, he is a hero too.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-oew-dewind-20100727,0,4293400,print.story

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By Evan Wood

July 28, 2010

Last week, thousands of scientists, physicians and activists fighting the HIV and AIDS pandemic around the world gathered in Vienna to discuss the latest breakthroughs — and frustrations.

There were reports on several landmark studies describing the crucial role that treatments can play in reducing the infectiousness of HIV-positive individuals. And there was encouraging news from Africa, where a study found that an intra-vaginal anti-viral gel could reduce the risk of HIV infection among women who used it by 40%.

But there was also sobering news at the 18th International AIDS Conference, including stark evidence of how the HIV epidemic is raging unchecked among some populations of illicit drug users.

Vienna was selected to host the biannual meeting of HIV experts because it is the gateway to one of the world's most rapidly growing HIV epidemics: that among heroin users in Eastern Europe. Outside sub-Saharan Africa, about 1 in 3 new HIV infections stems from injecting illegal drugs, and in some parts of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 70% of those who inject illicit drugs are infected with the virus.

In response to these alarming statistics, this year's conference endorsed as its official statement the Vienna Declaration, a document I helped draft to draw widespread attention to how the U.S.-led war on drugs has played a central role in driving the HIV epidemic around the world.

Writing in the medical journal the Lancet, where the Vienna Declaration was also published, Michel Sidibe, the executive director of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and other prominent scientific leaders stated the situation succinctly: "The war on drugs has failed."

Criminalizing drug abuse drives addicts deeper underground and into the kinds of unsafe practices such as needle-sharing that spread infection. We have seen clearly that countries with the most draconian drug laws also have the highest rates of HIV infection among users. In Russia, for example, where 1 in 100 adults is now estimated to be HIV-infected, a fierce drug war has outlawed basic harm reduction tools, such as methadone maintenance treatment. Methadone is on the World Health Organization's list of essential medicines, but Russian physicians cannot even openly discuss the need to prescribe the treatment without fear of reprisals.

The mass incarceration of drug users is particularly alarming, given the spread of HIV in prisons. A Pew Trusts analysis of U.S. Department of Justice data noted that 1 in 9 African American males aged 20 to 34 is in prison, many of them as a result of drug law enforcement. Given the link between prisons and HIV, it is not surprising that in places such as Washington more than 80% of HIV cases identified between 2001 and 2006 were among African Americans.

Beyond HIV and AIDS, the declaration also notes that the war on drugs is ineffective. "National and international drug surveillance systems have demonstrated a general pattern of falling drug prices and increasing drug purity — despite massive investments in drug law enforcement."

In just a few short weeks since being made public, the Vienna Declaration has been endorsed by more than 13,600 individuals, including five Nobel laureates and various other global leaders in science, medicine and public health.

There also have been signs that the world may be heading toward more reasoned drug policies. Just before the Vienna conference, the Obama administration announced overdue and welcome steps to help fight the HIV epidemic among drug users. Most important, given the strong support for syringe exchange programs from the U.S. Institute of Medicine and WHO, the administration has reversed a longtime ban on funding clean syringe programs.

But there is still much that needs to be done. The Vienna Declaration calls for governments to "implement and evaluate a science-based public health approach to address the individual and community harms stemming from illicit drug use." Not surprisingly, considering that strident special-interest groups have long misled U.S. voters into believing that the drug war is an essential crime-reduction tool, most government delegations at AIDS 2010, including the U.S. government delegation, remained largely silent on the Vienna Declaration.

Decades of worldwide drug-related violence have made clear that drug prohibition enriches organized crime and causes bloodshed. But the devastating public health consequences of the drug war have been less recognized, and government acknowledgement of the link between the war on drugs and the HIV epidemic is urgently needed. The next International AIDS Conference will be in Washington in 2012. Before that meeting, governments around the world will be asked to state a formal position regarding the declaration.

In the meantime, the declaration also asks for several noncontroversial steps, including that governments "undertake a transparent review of the effectiveness of current drug policies." Given the international public health emergency presented by HIV among drug users and the estimated $2.5 trillion in tax dollars wasted on the drug war over the last 40 years, the U.S. should move forward with this simple call.

Evan Wood, a physician and associate professor of medicine at the University of British Columbia, directs the Urban Health Research Initiative at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-wood-hiv-vienna-20100728,0,5752329,print.story

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From the New York Times

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Videos Rouse Russian Anger Toward Police

NOVOROSSIYSK, Russia — One day last fall, a police officer here put on his uniform and sat on a drab tan couch before a video camera. In a halting monotone, he recorded two video appeals to Vladimir V. Putin , 13 minutes in all .

He was a nobody cop from a nowhere city, but his words would startle this country.

“How can a police officer accept bribes?” the officer asked. “Do you understand where our society is heading?

“You talk about reducing corruption,” he said. “You say that it should not be just a crime, that it should be immoral. But it is not like that. I told my boss that the police are corrupt. And he told me that it cannot be done away with.

“I am not afraid of quitting. I will tell you my name. I am Dymovsky, Aleksei Aleksandrovich.”

The videos were uploaded to YouTube in November, and a nation that has grown increasingly infuriated by police wrongdoing could not take its eyes off them.

Here, finally, was an insider acknowledging the enveloping culture of corruption in Russia 's police forces — the payoffs large and small, the illegal arrests to extort money, the police chiefs who buy fancy cars and mansions on modest state salaries.

The videos have been watched more than two million times, giving Mr. Dymovsky a kind of fame in Russia similar to that of the police whistleblower Frank Serpico , who in the 1970s spoke out against police corruption in New York City.

But despite the attention, Mr. Putin, the prime minister, has spurned him. So has Mr. Putin's protégé, President Dmitri A. Medvedev , though Mr. Medvedev has conceded that police corruption has reached shameful levels. And local authorities quickly retaliated against the officer.

Mr. Dymovsky, 32, was immediately fired from his job here in Novorossiysk, a port on the Black Sea, 750 miles south of Moscow. The police interrogated him, his relatives and his close friends, and raided their homes.

During one search of Mr. Dymovsky's apartment, investigators tried to plant drugs, according to his wife, who was nearly nine months pregnant at the time.

In January, they arrested him and charged him with abuse of office and fraud under a law governing state secrets. The crime they alleged: embezzling $800 in petty cash from the department over several years.

In jail, Mr. Dymovsky was isolated, and prosecutors sought to subject him to a lengthy psychiatric examination. But with the affair proving an embarrassment, he was released after six weeks, and the charges were eventually dropped.

Still, the chief of the Novorossiysk police and a high-ranking officer sued Mr. Dymovsky for slander, and a judge ordered him to pay the equivalent of $3,500 in damages.

International research organizations rank Russia as having the world's most corrupt large economy , in part because of bribery linked to law enforcement personnel. But senior Russian officials have long seemed to view the loyalty of police officers as more important than their integrity.

And the authorities appeared to do nothing to correct the abuses that Mr. Dymovsky publicized.

The Interior Ministry, which oversees the police nationwide, denied Mr. Dymovsky's charges. All was in order, the ministry said, with the Novorossiysk police force.

Mr. Dymovsky's Internet appeals have been imitated by other Russians who are despondent about official malfeasance and believe that they have no other outlet for their views because the state-controlled media whitewashes these problems.

But the Kremlin is seeking to curtail this trend, at least among the police. Parliament, controlled by Mr. Putin's party, this month toughened penalties for officers who criticize their superiors. It is being called the “Dymovsky law.”

Making Ends Meet

Mr. Dymovsky admits that his own hands are not clean. According to his personnel records, he had a promising career as a police officer, with commendations and promotions. Even so, he said in an interview, he took bribes.

As a major, he was paid only about $450 a month. He said that the authorities know that on such low salaries, officers must find other ways to make ends meet.

He insisted that he accepted only small bribes, never more than $20 at a time. But this was his point: Corruption is endemic.

“The system, from your first day at work, requires you to go out and obtain bribes,” he said. “How else are you going to survive?”

Mr. Dymovsky also described a practice that is considered common in Russia: When officers end their shifts, they have to turn over a portion of their bribes to the so-called cashier, a senior member of the department. Typically, $25 to $100 a day.

If officers do not pay up, they are disciplined.

Mr. Dymovsky said that by 2007, he had become so demoralized that he pledged to himself that he would never again accept a bribe.

Around the same time, he tried to speak with Mr. Putin on his annual call-in television show , during which he responds to complaints and questions from Russians. Mr. Putin was president then.

Mr. Dymovsky said he had called and informed the operator that he hoped to ask Mr. Putin what he was doing about the “lawlessness and corruption” among the police.

He was kept off the air, and later found out that his call had been traced. The Interior Ministry in Moscow alerted his department, and he was reprimanded at several meetings. He was told that a letter had been drafted under his name, in which he would deny having called.

“I realized how this system of covering each other's backs worked, and that it was not just restricted to Novorossiysk, but reached as far as the Kremlin,” Mr. Dymovsky said.

He decided to record the videos after months of tension.

Mr. Dymovsky said he was upset that his superiors did not care that he had suffered a work-related injury to his arm. (Mr. Dymovsky devoted part of his appeals to denouncing workplace conditions for the police.)

In person these days, Mr. Dymovsky is far more relaxed than the stiff officer in the videos. Tall, with light red hair and a slightly mischievous laugh, he has become a confident public speaker, and seems to enjoy — if not crave — the spotlight.

Luxury on $25,000 a Year

In Novorossiysk, Mr. Dymovsky offered a tour of what he maintained were among the most dispiriting symbols of corruption: the luxury homes of the police brass.

The main stop was the spacious beachfront home where the head of the department, Chief Vladimir Chernositov, lives.

The building, with a conspicuous light blue roof, is on the Black Sea, some of the most expensive real estate in Russia, valued at roughly $800,000 an acre, according to advertisements.

Chief Chernositov has not denied that the home is his, but has never publicly explained how he can afford it. A police chief's salary for a city like Novorossiysk, which has 225,000 people, is typically about $25,000 annually, experts said.

One of Chief Chernositov's deputies, Vladimir Grebenyuk, said in an interview that the department was offended by Mr. Dymovsky's video appeals.

He said Mr. Dymovsky had been an average, though not disgruntled, employee.

Deputy Chief Grebenyuk said that after the videos were publicized, a special committee examined Mr. Dymovsky's accusations.

“Not a single fact presented by Dymovsky was confirmed,” Deputy Chief Grebenyuk said. “Everything he said was false and invented.”

“You know, our system, the system of the Interior Ministry, is very transparent,” he said.

Asked how many members of the department had been punished for corruption recently, he said the number was tiny. But he would not provide any details.

A Backlash Felt in Moscow

Those who have helped Mr. Dymovsky or demanded a wholesale revamping of the police have also come under pressure.

In Novorossiysk, a human rights activist named Vadim Karastelyov was jailed for a week for distributing leaflets asking residents to attend a rally for Mr. Dymovsky. After Mr. Karastelyov was released, he was savagely beaten by two strangers who did not try to rob him.

Mr. Karastelyov had been receiving anonymous threats by phone and text message, but the police would not provide him with protection. He recently fled Novorossiysk with his family.

“The police leaders want everyone to forget about Dymovsky, so they can continue to doing what they have been doing — committing corrupt acts and fabricating cases against innocent people,” Mr. Karastelyov said.

The backlash extended to Moscow.

A few weeks after Mr. Dymovsky's video appeals, a senior member of Parliament from Mr. Putin's own party, Andrei Makarov, declared that the police were so corrupt nationwide that the entire Interior Ministry should be abolished.

Mr. Makarov was disavowed by his party.

“When I made that statement, believe me, for several days, no one knew what would happen to me,” Mr. Makarov said in an interview. “It was as if, ‘How dare he!' What happened was that I was talking about the people who have the real power in this country.”

Mr. Makarov said he was not a fan of Mr. Dymovsky, expressing doubts about Mr. Dymovsky's honesty. But Mr. Makarov said reform was desperately needed.

Reform Plan Stalls

He said the government should dismiss half of the country's 1.2 million police officers and establish a system to fairly adjudicate complaints about the police.

President Medvedev has proposed reducing the number of officers by 20 percent, but there are already indications that his reform proposal has stalled.

“Police officers know for sure that nobody will hold them accountable if a crime is not solved, but they will be held accountable if they allow a demonstration to occur,” Mr. Makarov said. “They will not be held accountable for putting an innocent person in jail or beating one on the street, but they will be if somebody takes a stand against the authorities.”

Mr. Dymovsky said the only real answer is for Russians to create a grass-roots anticorruption movement. Since his release from jail, he has been traveling around the country, trying to rally support for new policies.

But he is still apparently considered a danger.

Recently, he went to Novosibirsk, Russia's third-largest city, to attend a protest. He said he was accosted by four plainclothes police officers, who told him that if he ever wanted to see his family again, he should leave and never return.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/world/europe/28russia.html?_r=1&ref=world&pagewanted=print

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Rethinking Criminal Sentences

A federal conviction for white-collar fraud is no guarantee of a heavy prison sentence. When five defendants in the fraud case involving the American International Group were sentenced, they could have faced life in prison; instead, a judge handed down sentences of one to four years for causing more than $500 million in losses. A Ponzi-scheme criminal who caused more than $40 million in losses got 25 years. A man convicted of securities fraud that caused more than $50 million in losses got a three-and-a-half-year sentence.

Sentencing for white-collar crimes — and for child pornography offenses — “has largely lost its moorings,” according to the Justice Department, which makes a strong case that the matter should be re-examined by the United States Sentencing Commission.

Five years ago, federal judges were set free to make their own sentencing decisions. The Supreme Court said that they had to consult federal guidelines when sentencing criminals to prison and imposing fines but were not required to abide by them. It was a smart move away from the rigidity demanded by many lawmakers, balancing judicial discretion with a “reasonableness” test to be applied by appellate courts.

The change did not lead to the widespread chaos predicted in 2005. But in a report last month, the Justice Department said something appears to be wrong in the sentencing guidelines for white-collar fraud cases and child exploitation crimes, including pornography, where outcomes vary widely from judge to judge.

As a general principle, sentences for the same federal crimes should be consistent. As the Justice Department notes in its report, a sense of arbitrariness — sentences that depend on the luck of getting a certain judge — will “breed disrespect for the federal courts,” damaging their reputation and the deterrent effect of punishment.

Possession of a single piece of child pornography, for example, is supposed to result in a five-to-seven-year sentence — longer with aggravating circumstances — but many judges instead are imposing probation or one year for first offenses. Many federal judges have told the sentencing commission that the child pornography guidelines are far too severe.

The Justice Department is not explicitly recommending that sentences be lowered; in fact, the new financial regulatory law suggests higher sentences in some areas. But readjusting the guidelines downward in some cases is clearly one of the possible routes the sentencing commission could take. The rules for child pornography, for example, include extra penalties for using a computer, but everyone in that repugnant world uses a computer, rendering the rules obsolete.

The key in both areas is helping judges find ways to differentiate the worst offenders from those who have caused less damage or are less of a threat to society. White-collar sentences are now based on the size of the fraud, but that may not be the best way to measure the role of a defendant or the venality and damage involved.

As repellent as child pornography is, it does not help judges when someone found with a few photographs is held to similar standards as someone disseminating thousands of them. These are sensitive areas, but a thoughtful re-examination by the commission and Congress could bring new respect for the federal judiciary.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/opinion/28wed1.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

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From the White House

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Giving Our Kids the Care they Need

Since the Affordable Care Act was signed into law on March 23, the President's team has worked diligently to implement the new law. As part of this effort, we've held countless meetings with individuals and organizations to hear their thoughts and suggestions for how we can best deliver the benefits of reform to the American people. 

One important change in the new law is a provision that prevents insurance companies from discriminating against children with pre-existing conditions. This new provision takes effect on September 23 and will bring welcome relief to parents of children with medical conditions who often were denied access to health insurance.

Since this policy was announced, we have had helpful discussions on how to ensure children with pre-existing conditions have access to care, while not disrupting the insurance marketplace.   Some state insurance commissioners expressed concern that, without an open enrollment period that was widely communicated, people might wait until their children got sick to enroll them in coverage, causing plans' costs to increase. And we were concerned when last week, some indicated that insurance companies would choose to stop offering policies for children rather than cover kids with pre-existing conditions.

Today, the Administration is releasing new guidance to health insurance plans to help ensure children get the high-quality care they need. The new FAQ document notes that insurance companies may establish an open enrollment period for children with pre-existing conditions and makes clear that the Administration will not hesitate to issue regulations if insurance companies unfairly limit access to insurance for children who need it most.   The document also signals that kids with pre-existing conditions should not be shifted from the Children's' Health Insurance Program to the individual market in an attempt to reduce State health care spending and that these policies will apply to health plans that start on or after September 23.

Insurance companies have pledged to conduct a significant consumer education campaign to ensure more Americans and their children know about the coverage options that are available to them. And some of the companies that reportedly planned to stop offering policies for children have reversed course and committed to continuing to provide coverage for the youngest Americans.

The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association said the “policy will ensure that children get the comprehensive coverage they need,” and pledged to “work with our Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies on outreach efforts to educate consumers about this new provision.” Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida said they were “pleased to announce that it will establish a process to resume the sale of Child Only policies.”  

For too long, parents have been forced to worry about what they would do if their child developed a serious medical condition. Others have found that children born with illnesses were forever ineligible for insurance. Thanks the Affordable Care Act, kids will get the care they need and parents will have one less thing to worry about.

To learn more, read the FAQ document .

Nancy-Ann DeParle is Director of the White House Office of Health Reform

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/07/28/giving-our-kids-care-they-need

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From ICE

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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The third individual indicted for conspiracy to commit human trafficking offenses involving Haitian nationals was arrested in Miami on Thursday.

The arrest of Willy Edouard, 47, follows a four-count indictment on June 22 by a federal grand jury in the Northern District of Florida that charged him and two others with forced labor and conspiracy, visa fraud, holding documents and conspiracy, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents in Jacksonville and Miami and other state, local and federal agencies.

Edouard and Carline Ceneus, 32, both of Miami, and Cabioch Bontemps, 34, of Gainesville, Fla., were charged with crimes arising from an alleged scheme to coerce the labor and services of Haitian nationals brought by Ceneus and Edouard to northern Florida to work under the federal agricultural guest worker program. Ceneus was also charged with taking the victims' travel and identity documents.

"Targeting human traffickers is a top priority for ICE," said Susan McCormick, ICE special agent in charge of the Office of HSI in Tampa. "Those who are motivated by greed to prey on people have a callous disregard for the value of human life. That is why ICE will continue to aggressively investigate those involved in this kind of criminal activity."

On July 1, ICE special agents in Miami arrested Ceneus after she arrived from Haiti at Miami International Airport. Bontemps was arrested July 6 in Gainesville.

Edouard had been considered a fugitive when he was arrested Thursday by the U.S. Marshal's Service.

If convicted, Ceneus faces a maximum sentence of 25 years and Edouard and Cabioch each face 10 years in prison.

"Human trafficking denies individuals their freedom and their dignity. Those who prey on the most vulnerable through force, fraud or coercion will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," said Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Thomas E. Perez. "The Civil Rights Division will continue to work with DHS, law enforcement agencies across the globe, and victim assistance organizations to vindicate the rights of victims, bring traffickers to justice and dismantle human trafficking networks."

According to the indictment, Ceneus, Bontemps and Edouard engaged in a conspiracy and devised a scheme to obtain the labor of 34 Haitian nationals by enticing them to the Gainesville area to pick beans and peas with false promises of lucrative jobs over three years culminating in permanent residency.

The three defendants then maintained the victims' labor and services through threats of serious harm, according to the indictment. Ceneus and Edouard arranged for the workers to pay substantial recruitment fees, procured by loans provided by loan sharks and often secured by the victims' property. After arrival in the United States, the defendants confiscated the victims' passports and failed to honor the promised terms of employment. The defendants kept the Haitian nationals in their service by threatening to report them to law enforcement and have them deported or sent home to face their large unpaid debts. The indictment also charges that the defendants engaged in visa fraud by making false statements in documents filed with the U.S. Department of Labor to procure H2A guest worker visas.

The charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

This case is being investigated by ICE; the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General; and the Alachua County, Fla., Sheriff's Office.

The case is being prosecuted by trial attorney Susan French of the Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit of the Civil Rights Division, Criminal Section, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Williams of the Northern District of Florida.

Numerous non-governmental organizations have provided services to the victims and include: Alachua County Victim Services and Rape Crisis Center; Alachua County Housing Authority; Gainesville Harvest; Alachua County Health Department; Trinity United Methodist Church; Child Advocacy Center of Gainesville; United Way; St. Francis House; Peaceful Paths; Florida Rural Legal Services in Fort Myers, Fla; Florida Freedom Partnership in Miami; and World Relief in Jacksonville.

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/1007/100726jacksonville.htm

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Clark County to benefit from ICE strategy to enhance the identification, removal of criminal aliens

Biometrics used to prioritize immigration enforcement actions against convicted criminal aliens

LAS VEGAS, Nev. - On Tuesday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began using a new biometric information sharing capability in Clark County that helps federal immigration officials identify aliens, both lawfully and unlawfully present in the United States, who are booked into local law enforcement custody for a crime. The capability is part of Secure Communities, ICE's comprehensive strategy to improve and modernize the identification and removal of criminal aliens from the United States.

Previously, fingerprint-based biometric records taken of individuals charged with a crime and booked into local custody were checked for criminal history information against the Department of Justice's (DOJ) Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS). Now, through enhanced information sharing between the DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), that fingerprint information will be automatically checked against both the FBI criminal history records in IAFIS and the biometrics-based immigration records in DHS's Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT).

If fingerprints match those of someone in DHS's biometric system, the new automated process notifies ICE, enabling federal authorities to prioritize immigration enforcement action against individuals who are potentially deportable based on their criminal convictions. Top priority is given to criminal aliens who pose the greatest threat to public safety, such as those convicted of major drug offenses, murder, rape, robbery and kidnapping.

"The Secure Communities strategy provides ICE with an effective tool to identify criminal aliens in local custody," said Secure Communities Executive Director David Venturella. "Enhancing public safety is at the core of ICE's mission. Our goal is to use biometric information sharing to remove criminal aliens, preventing them from being released back into the community, with little or no additional burden on our law enforcement partners."

With the expansion of Secure Communities to Clark County, the biometric information sharing capability is now being used in more than 450 jurisdictions in 25 states. Clark County is the second jurisdiction in Nevada to gain this capability. Secure Communities was activated in Washoe County earlier this month. ICE expects to make it available in jurisdictions nationwide by 2013.

Since its inception in October 2008, Secure Communities has led to the deportation of more than 9,800 criminal aliens nationwide who had convictions for Level 1 crimes, such as murder, rape and kidnapping. Additionally, the biometric information sharing capability has resulted in the removal of more than 24,800 criminal aliens convicted of Level 2 and 3 crimes, including burglary and serious property crimes, which account for the majority of crimes committed by aliens.

The IDENT system is maintained by DHS's US-VISIT program and IAFIS is maintained by the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS).

"US VISIT is proud to support ICE, helping provide decision makers with comprehensive, reliable information when and where they need it," said US-VISIT Director Robert Mocny. "By enhancing the interoperability of DHS's and the FBI's biometric systems, we are able to give federal, state and local decision makers information that helps them better protect our communities and our nation."

"Under this plan, ICE will be utilizing FBI system enhancements that allow improved information sharing at the state and local law enforcement level based on positive identification of incarcerated criminal aliens," said Daniel D. Roberts, assistant director of the FBI's CJIS Division. "Additionally, ICE and the FBI are working together to take advantage of the strong relationships already forged between the FBI and state and local law enforcement necessary to assist ICE in achieving its goals."

For more information, visit www.ice.gov/secure_communities .

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/1007/100727lasvegas.htm

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Lewis and Clark and Missoula counties first in Montana to benefit from ICE strategy to enhance the identification, removal of criminal aliens

Uses biometrics to prioritize immigration enforcement actions against convicted criminal aliens

HELENA, Mont. - On Tuesday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began using a new biometric information sharing capability in Lewis and Clark and Missoula counties that helps federal immigration officials identify aliens, both lawfully and unlawfully present in the United States, who are booked into local law enforcement's custody for a crime. This capability is part of Secure Communities -- ICE's comprehensive strategy to improve and modernize the identification and removal of criminal aliens from the United States.

Previously, fingerprint-based biometric records were taken of individuals charged with a crime and booked into custody and checked for criminal history information against the Department of Justice's (DOJ) Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS). Now, through enhanced information sharing between DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), fingerprint information submitted through the state to the FBI will be automatically checked against both the FBI criminal history records in IAFIS and the biometrics-based immigration records in DHS's Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT).

If fingerprints match those of someone in DHS's biometric system, the new automated process notifies ICE. ICE evaluates each case to determine the individual's immigration status and takes appropriate enforcement action. This includes aliens who are in lawful status and those who are present without lawful authority. Once identified through fingerprint matching, ICE will respond with a priority placed on aliens convicted of the most serious offenses first - such as those with convictions for major drug offenses, murder, rape and kidnapping.

"The Secure Communities strategy provides ICE with an effective tool to identify criminal aliens in local custody," said Secure Communities Executive Director David Venturella. "Enhancing public safety is at the core of ICE's mission. Our goal is to use biometric information sharing to remove criminal aliens, preventing them from being released back into the community, with little or no additional burden on our law enforcement partners."

With the expansion of the biometric information sharing capability to Lewis and Clark and Missoula counties, ICE is now using it in 481 jurisdictions in 27 states. ICE expects to make it available in jurisdictions nationwide by 2013.

"These two counties mark the first jurisdictions in Montana to use Secure Communities," said Steven Branch, field office director for the Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations in Salt Lake City. "Now anyone who is booked into these county jails will also automatically and simultaneously be screened through DHS's immigration database to identify criminal aliens who may pose a significant threat to public safety. Ultimately, Secure Communities will be implemented in all counties throughout the state." Branch oversees the states of Montana, Idaho, Nevada and Utah.

"We are pleased to partner with ICE to provide increased safety to our citizens and the security of our Nation. Violent offenders do not belong on our streets and this partnership will enhance our ability to identify and notify the proper authorities for action," said Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton.

"We're looking forward to this new Secure Communities partnership with ICE and adding this new public safety tool," said Missoula County Sheriff Mike McMeekin. "This program will identify aliens who have already been arrested for a criminal offense."

Since ICE began using this enhanced information sharing capability in October 2008, immigration officers have removed from the United States more than 9,800 criminal aliens convicted of Level 1 crimes, such as murder, rape and kidnapping. Additionally, ICE has removed more than 24,800 criminal aliens convicted of Level 2 and 3 crimes, including burglary and serious property crimes, which account for the majority of crimes committed by aliens. ICE does not regard aliens charged with, but not yet convicted of crimes, as "criminal aliens." Instead, a "criminal alien" is an alien convicted of a crime. In accordance with the Immigration and Nationality Act, ICE continues to take action on aliens subject to removal as resources permit.

The IDENT system is maintained by DHS's US-VISIT program and IAFIS is maintained by the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS).

"US-VISIT is proud to support ICE, helping provide decision makers with comprehensive, reliable information when and where they need it," said US-VISIT Director Robert Mocny. "By enhancing the interoperability of DHS's and the FBI's biometric systems, we are able to give federal, state and local decision makers information that helps them better protect our communities and our nation."

"Under this plan, ICE will be utilizing FBI system enhancements that allow improved information sharing at the state and local law enforcement level based on positive identification of incarcerated criminal aliens," said Daniel D. Roberts, assistant director of the FBI's CJIS Division. "Additionally, ICE and the FBI are working together to take advantage of the strong relationships already forged between the FBI and state and local law enforcement necessary to assist ICE in achieving its goals."

For more information, visit www.ice.gov/secure_communities .

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/1007/100727helena.htm

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