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From the Los Angeles Times

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Supervisors criticize L.A. Times child death story -- but their numbers are in dispute

Los Angeles County Supervisors Michael D. Antonovich and Mark Ridley-Thomas criticized a story in The Times on Tuesday that reported that an increasing number of children were dying of abuse or neglect after being referred to the Department of Children and Family Services.

“According to figures from the Interagency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect, the number of children dying from abuse and neglect has dropped from 72 in 1989 to 43 in 2009,” the supervisors said in a joint motion read by Antonovich at their board meeting.

Deanne Tilton-Durfee, executive director of the interagency council, said the supervisors had misrepresented her organization's figures.

The true number of deaths reported by her agency for 1989 was 42, she said, not 72, so the council's figures do not show a decrease in deaths. Moreover, that number was a tally of all child abuse homicides throughout the county whether the children had a history of involvement with the county's child welfare system or not, and covered a period of the past 20 years.

The Times story concerned a rise over the last three years in the number of children dying of mistreatment or abuse who had a history of being under the department's scrutiny.

At Antonovich and Ridley-Thomas' request, the board asked County Chief Executive William T Fujioka and Department of Children and Family Services Director Trish Ploehn to report back in two weeks on the county's participation in an experimental federal and state program that Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and others have said may be influencing the rate of fatalities.

Under the program, known as the Title IV-E Waiver, Los Angeles County agreed to accept a fixed sum for foster care. If costs exceed that amount, the county must pay the difference. If the county spends less than the federal allotment, the county can use the leftover funds to pay for other programs designed to reduce child abuse and neglect. The program has helped extend a steep decline in the use of foster care.

The number of foster children has dropped from 52,000 in 1997 to 18,800 this year. During this period, the department has focused on keeping children with their parents by giving the adults drug treatment, parental training and other services. Some key indicators of abuse have increased since the waiver's implementation, however.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/10/supervisors-criticize-times-child-death-story-but-their-numbers-are-in-dispute.html

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OPINION

The feds say no way

California can pass Prop. 19 and legalize marijuana, but the U.S. government won't go along.

October 20, 2010

If California voters were still under the illusion that Proposition 19 would legalize marijuana, U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. sought to disabuse them of the notion last week. "We will vigorously enforce the [federal Controlled Substances Act] against those individuals and organizations that possess, manufacture or distribute marijuana for recreational use, even if such activities are permitted under state law," Holder wrote in a letter to nine former heads of the Drug Enforcement Administration who had lobbied the Obama administration to forcefully oppose California's overreaching ballot initiative.

Proposition 19 would allow people 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of marijuana and would authorize cultivation of cannabis plants on up to 25 square feet of land. But only under state law; under federal law, smoking a joint would still be a crime. It isn't news that federal officials oppose Proposition 19 — President Obama himself has said he's against legalizing marijuana — but supporters of the Nov. 2 ballot measure appear to have hoped the administration would be as tolerant toward recreational users as it has been toward medicinal marijuana users. That's not going to happen.

If the proposition is approved, the result would be a legal morass. DEA raids would nab Californians who think they're complying with the law, only to face federal penalties. Fear of such raids would deter legitimate distributors from getting into the business, worsening the gray-market lawlessness that already pervades California's medical marijuana industry. Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca has vowed to continue arresting people who grow marijuana, but such arrests would be certain to result in litigation. Courts also could be clogged with lawsuits over the measure's impact on the workplace if it becomes illegal for employers to conduct drug tests or to discipline workers who get stoned on the job.

We can understand the frustration that led to the drafting of Proposition 19. It is absurd that the federal government lists marijuana as a Schedule I drug, meaning that it has no medical uses and is considered as dangerous as heroin or LSD, when it may have therapeutic benefits and is less addictive and harmful than alcohol or tobacco. Yet, as we've said in our ballot endorsements. Proposition 19 is not the answer. Besides the legal problems, it would create regulatory chaos as each of California's 478 cities and 58 counties comes up with its own rules on growing, possessing, distributing and taxing the drug.

Marijuana users in California already face negligible penalties; last month, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill downgrading possession of less than an ounce from a misdemeanor to an infraction. There's no need for a battle with Washington that the state is unlikely to win.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-marijuana-20101020,0,4304897,print.story

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From the New York Times

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Canadian Commander Videotaped Murders

OTTAWA — In a revelation shocking even in a case already rife with details of aberrant sexuality and twisted psychology, prosecutors on Tuesday described how Col. David Russell Williams, the former commander unmasked as a thief and killer, videotaped his extended, brutal assaults on the two women he murdered — and how he sent a condolence letter to the family of one.

For a second day, prosecutors, partly to limit any chance of parole, presented a detailed and often disturbing account of the crimes drawn from Colonel Williams's own meticulous records of his two-year rampage, which began with home break-ins to steal girls' and women's underwear for his sexual arousal, and culminated in the murders.

On Monday, Colonel Williams, the former commander of Canada's busiest air force base, in Trenton, Ontario, pleaded guilty to the murders, two other sexual assaults and 82 break-ins.

As was the case with his robberies, prosecutors said Colonel Williams used a digital camera to carefully document the two murders. But they said he also videotaped the killings, along with the multiple rapes and beatings he inflicted on the two women for hours beforehand. During one killing, the court heard, he brought extra lamps into a room to improve its lighting.

Prosecutors only described the videotapes to the court, in Belleville, Ontario. They had displayed the photos from the break-ins — showing Colonel Williams wearing the stolen underwear while masturbating or aroused — on large monitors.

The first murder victim was Cpl. Marie-France Comeau, an air force flight attendant from Colonel Williams's base. After hours of repeatedly being raped and beaten in the head with a large flashlight, prosecutors said, she begged for her life, pleading, “Have a heart — please.”

She suffocated after Colonel Williams covered her mouth and nose with duct tape.

After Corporal Comeau's body was discovered, Colonel Williams sent her father a letter of condolence in his capacity as base commander.

The court heard that Jessica Lloyd, a school bus line administrator, complied with numerous degrading demands from Colonel Williams apparently in an attempt to avoid being killed.

When it became increasingly clear to her that she would not survive the attack, Ms. Lloyd made one request, the prosecutors said. “If I die,” she begged Colonel Williams, “will you make sure to let my mom know that I love her?”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/world/americas/20canada.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print

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U.S. Military Moves to Accept Gay Recruits

The United States military, for the first time, is allowing its recruiters to accept openly gay and lesbian applicants.

The historic move follows a series of decisions by a federal judge in California, Virginia A. Phillips , who ruled last month that the “don't ask, don't tell” law violates the equal protection and First Amendment rights of service members. On Oct. 12, she ordered the military to stop enforcing the law .

President Obama has said that the “ don't ask, don't tell ” policy “will end on my watch.” But the Department of Justice, following its tradition of defending laws passed by Congress, has fought efforts by the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay organization, to overturn the policy.

Judge Phillips on Tuesday denied requests by the government to maintain the status quo during the appeals process.

The Pentagon has stated its intent to file an appeal in case of such a ruling. But meanwhile, it has started complying with Judge Phillips's instructions while the dispute over her orders plays out.

New instructions were e-mailed to recruiters on Friday for handling situations in which applicants volunteer their sexual orientation. Recruiters do not ask about sexual orientation and have not since the “don't ask, don't tell” law went into effect in the 1990s.

Recruiters were also told that they must inform the applicants that the moratorium on “don't ask, don't tell” could be reversed.

R. Clarke Cooper, the executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, applauded the Pentagon decision as “a huge deal.”

Mr. Cooper noted, however, that under the new rules, a service member who announces his or her sexual orientation “does run the risk of discharge if the ruling is overturned — if there is a successful appeal by the Department of Justice.”

“They do need to be aware of that possibility,” he said.

Mr. Cooper, a member of the Army Reserve, said that he was taking part in training last week at Fort Huachuca in Arizona when the injunction was issued, and that he was surprised by the lack of visible opposition or outcry.

He likened it to a “giant shoulder shrug of ‘so what?' ”

Most of the people he was with, he added, were younger members of the service, and “a few people actually thought repeal had already occurred.”

Cynthia Smith, a Pentagon spokeswoman, would not address a question about whether a recruit who volunteered that he was gay during the current suspension of the law might face expulsion from the military if the decision were appealed.

She called that situation hypothetical and said only that recruiters had been reminded that “they need to set expectations by informing the applicant that a reversal for the ‘don't ask, don't tell' law may occur.”

An opponent of service by openly gay men and lesbians dismissed the Pentagon shift as “a political ploy.”

Elaine Donnelly, the founder of the Center for Military Readiness, a conservative organization that opposes gay service in the military, said Congress, under the Constitution, has the authority to draft rules for the military.

The Department of Justice, she added, acted properly by filing its request for a stay.

“There was no need to introduce this additional element of disconnect with the law and precedent and policy,” Ms. Donnelly said. “The military doesn't need this — but this is what the Department of Defense did, and frankly, I find it inexplicable.”

Military recruiters around the country were adjusting to the change in policy on Tuesday.

Dan Choi, who was discharged from the Army under “don't ask, don't tell,” tried to re-enlist at the Armed Forces Recruiting Station in Times Square. Photographers and reporters crowded around the door, and they, in turn, were ringed by tourists and bystanders.

Mr. Choi emerged from the recruiting station and said, “They're processing me.”

He added that the recruiters had not been rattled by his request, and he poked fun at the oft-repeated argument that repealing “don't ask, don't tell” would affect unit cohesion in the military. “They didn't disintegrate in there,” he said. “Their unit cohesion is doing just fine.”

Another former service member was not as successful in his attempt. Will Rodriguez-Kennedy, who is the president of the Log Cabin Republicans' San Diego chapter, showed up at a recruiting station in El Cajon, Calif., on Tuesday afternoon to see if he could rejoin the Marines after being honorably discharged two years ago.

The visit was brief. The Marines, the recruiter told him, had very few slots for prior-service Marines to return to duty, and the current quota was filled.

“I have to wait now until December or January” to find out if more spaces open up, he said.

“I have no idea what to do now other than wait,” said Mr. Rodriguez-Kennedy, 23. He then went back to San Diego Mesa College, where he is a sophomore, to take a Japanese exam.

Omar Lopez, who served four and a half years in the Navy and was honorably discharged in 2006 under “don't ask, don't tell,” tried to re-enlist the day after Judge Phillips issued her injunction. He was rejected by recruiters who said they had received no instructions about the injunction, or about accepting gay recruits.

Dan Woods, the lawyer for the Log Cabin Republicans, sent a letter to the Department of Justice warning that rejecting Mr. Lopez and other openly gay recruits meant that “the Defense Department would appear to be in violation of the court's injunction and subject to citation for contempt” of court.

Mr. Lopez, a college student in Austin, Tex., said he is not a member of the Log Cabin Republicans, and in fact is “mostly Democrat.”

He said he was gratified to hear that his experience might have nudged policies forward. “I'm really glad that it had that impact,” he added, and vowed to try again. He said he was not concerned that returning to the military at this point might put him under special scrutiny.

“I think I wouldn't go back as a gay man,” he explained. “I would go back as a soldier.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/us/politics/20military.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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A Triple Murder in Connecticut, in a Defendant's Handwritten Words

NEW HAVEN — He was not in the courtroom, but on Tuesday he got to tell his tangled story — in a way — of the triple murder in Cheshire, Conn. He is the other defendant, the imprisoned Joshua Komisarjevsky, who is charged along with the convicted man, Steven J. Hayes, but has yet to be tried.

Still, as Mr. Hayes fights to avoid a death sentence after his conviction on Oct. 5, his lawyers gave Mr. Komisarjevsky a kind of platform in the courtroom by having parts of his prison writings read aloud by a court clerk. For nearly three hours the hushed courtroom heard Mr. Komisarjevsky's version of his life and his crimes.

He wrote that “my dark shadow was let loose” on the summer night when he and Mr. Hayes slipped into the Petit family's house in Cheshire and he beat the sleeping father with a baseball bat. The bat struck Dr. William A. Petit Jr. squarely, he wrote, and blood was spattered across white tiles.

Self-serving, suicidal and grandiose, Mr. Komisarjevsky described the nightmarish hours on July 23, 2007, that included sexual assaults. “The Petit family,” he wrote, “passed through their fear into the calm waters of abject terror.”

Mr. Hayes's lawyers had the prison writings read not with any claim that they were accurate; they wanted the jurors to be repelled by the person who carefully recorded his justifications, mostly in black and white school composition books. They even added a reading of a sentencing transcript from 2002, when Mr. Komisarjevsky was convicted of a series of burglaries and a judge called him “a calculated cold-blooded predator.”

Mr. Hayes's lawyers are portraying their client as a klutzy but harmless criminal pushed by Mr. Komisarjevsky into the deviance of the Cheshire crime, which ended with the deaths of a mother and her two daughters.

The prosecutors fought to bar the reading, saying that the writings were distorted. Mr. Komisarjevsky boasted incredibly, they noted; he wrote that his long career as a burglar had included not only entering homes through doors and windows but also by snorkeling through drain pipes.

“Reading these is kind of ‘The World According to Josh,' ” the chief prosecutor, Michael Dearington, said. But Judge Jon C. Blue of State Superior Court allowed the readings.

The information was brutal at times. “I am no angel,” Mr. Komisarjevsky wrote, “I never claimed to be. The scars on my soul have forever defined me.” He suggested that he had never healed from being raped as a child. He claimed that he had not raped the Petits' younger child, Michaela, who was 11, but acknowledged that he had sexually assaulted her “by the legal definition.”

He said that during the Cheshire crime, when he was 26, he felt the power of having control over the family. “They were experiencing what I experience every day,” he wrote.

He praised the bravery of Michaela, her 17-year-old sister, Hayley, who he said tried to escape, and Jennifer Hawke-Petit, their mother. But he claimed that Dr. Petit, who survived, had been a coward.

After court Dr. Petit said the legal system revictimized crime victims. “I really don't want to dignify the ravings of a sociopath who appears to be a pathological liar as well,” he said.

The courtroom scene had been gripping in its own legalistic way. Dr. Petit and his relatives sat in two rows on the right. Mr. Hayes and his lawyers sat at the defense table on the left. In the jury box, the jurors held large binders with copies of the prison writings.

The court clerk, Edjah Jean-Louis, standing at her desk, read terrible passages quickly in a neutral tone that nearly, but not completely, took the sting out of the words.

Mr. Komisarjevsky's writing sounded like some overwrought docudrama about notorious killers. He used words like darkness, demons and depravity. He said the attack on Dr. Petit set off his aggressions “like a ticking time bomb.” He pontificated: “Life is warfare. You fight or you die.”

He said he accepted his “role of persona non grata” and wrote of being damned. He said he had been trying to kill himself and Mr. Hayes when, rather than surrender, he had floored the gas in the car they stole from the Petits and crashed it into a roadblock.

But he also blamed society for his life and Mr. Hayes for accelerating the crime from one of terror to one of murder by strangling Ms. Hawke-Petit. “He brought both of us to a whole different level,” Mr. Komisarjevsky wrote.

Mr. Hayes has claimed that he raped and then killed Ms. Hawke-Petit at Mr. Komisarjevsky's direction and that it was Mr. Komisarjevsky's sexual assault of Michaela that had changed the character of the crime.

The sections of the prison journal and a portion of a letter by Mr. Komisarjevsky were apparently written for Brian McDonald, a writer who included some of the information in a book on the crime, a State Police detective, Rafael Medina, testified. He added that it appeared Mr. McDonald had deposited $300 into Mr. Komisarjevsky's prison commissary account.

Asked about the assertion on Tuesday, Mr. McDonald said by e-mail, “I didn't pay for information.” He added that the details given in court of his dealings with Mr. Komisarjevsky were “not the whole story.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/nyregion/20cheshire.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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Mysterious Gunfire Shatters Windows at Pentagon, but No One Is Hurt

WASHINGTON — Shots were fired at the Pentagon early Tuesday, a spokesman said, causing minor damage to the building but no injuries.

A security guard heard what sounded like five gunshots shortly before 5 a.m., according to Chris Layman, a spokesman for the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, which guards the building. The shots damaged the outside of a south wall of the Pentagon, with shell fragments embedded in two windows, Mr. Layman said. The impact shattered the windows.

Investigators were trying to determine whether there was a connection between the Pentagon shooting and an incident in which shots were fired at the National Museum of the Marine Corps over the weekend.

Steven Calvery, the director of the agency, said at a news conference that officials considered the Pentagon shooting “a random event.”

The agency closed all access to the building for nearly an hour and conducted sweeps of the area with Arlington County police officers, though nothing related to the shooting was found, Mr. Layman said. Interstate 395 was also temporarily closed.

“For safety measures, we didn't want anyone leaving or coming into the building,” Mr. Layman said.

He said investigators were still trying to determine what type of gun was used in the shooting.

Bullet holes were discovered Monday in a wall of the Marine Corps museum in Triangle, Va. According to a police spokesman in Prince William County, where the museum is located, the shots were fired late at night on Sunday, when no one was inside. Several bullet holes could be seen in the glass, and damage was estimated at $20,000.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/us/20shooting.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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OPINION

Is Pure Altruism Possible?

The Stone is a forum for contemporary philosophers on issues both timely and timeless.

Who could doubt the existence of altruism?

True, news stories of malice and greed abound. But all around us we see evidence of human beings sacrificing themselves and doing good for others. Remember Wesley Autrey? On Jan. 2, 2007, Mr. Autrey jumped down onto the tracks of a New York City subway platform as a train was approaching to save a man who had suffered a seizure and fallen. A few months later the Virginia Tech professor Liviu Librescu blocked the door to his classroom so his students could escape the bullets of Seung-Hui Cho, who was on a rampage that would leave 32 students and faculty members dead. In so doing, Mr. Librescu gave his life.

Still, doubting altruism is easy, even when it seems at first glance to be apparent. It's undeniable that people sometimes act in a way that benefits others, but it may seem that they always get something in return — at the very least, the satisfaction of having their desire to help fulfilled. Students in introductory philosophy courses torture their professors with this reasoning. And its logic can seem inexorable.

Contemporary discussions of altruism quickly turn to evolutionary explanations. Reciprocal altruism and kin selection are the two main theories. According to reciprocal altruism, evolution favors organisms that sacrifice their good for others in order to gain a favor in return. Kin selection -- the famous “selfish gene” theory popularized by Richard Dawkins -- says that an individual who behaves altruistically towards others who share its genes will tend to reproduce those genes. Organisms may be altruistic; genes are selfish. The feeling that loving your children more than yourself is hard-wired lends plausibility to the theory of kin selection.

These evolutionary theories explain a puzzle: how organisms that sacrifice their own “reproductive fitness” — their ability to survive and reproduce — could possibly have evolved. But neither theory fully accounts for our ordinary understanding of altruism.

The defect of reciprocal altruism is clear. If a person acts to benefit another in the expectation that the favor will be returned, the natural response is: “That's not altruism!”  Pure altruism, we think, requires a person to sacrifice for another without consideration of personal gain. Doing good for another person because something's in it for the do-er is the very opposite of what we have in mind. Kin selection does better by allowing that organisms may genuinely sacrifice their interests for another, but it fails to explain why they sometimes do so for those with whom they share no genes, as Professor Librescu and Mr. Autrey did.

When we ask whether human beings are altruistic, we want to know about their motives or intentions. Biological altruism explains how unselfish behavior might have evolved but, as Frans de Waal suggested in his column in The Stone on Sunday, it implies nothing about the motives or intentions of the agent: after all, birds and bats and bees can act altruistically. This fact helps to explain why, despite these evolutionary theories, the view that people never intentionally act to benefit others except to obtain some good for themselves still possesses a powerful lure over our thinking.

The lure of this view — egoism — has two sources, one psychological, the other logical. Consider first the psychological. One reason people deny that altruism exists is that, looking inward, they doubt the purity of their own motives. We know that even when we appear to act unselfishly, other reasons for our behavior often rear their heads: the prospect of a future favor, the boost to reputation, or simply the good feeling that comes from appearing to act unselfishly. As Kant and Freud observed, people's true motives may be hidden, even (or perhaps especially) from themselves. Even if we think we're acting solely to further another person's good, that might not be the real reason. (There might be no single “real reason” — actions can have multiple motives.)

So the psychological lure of egoism as a theory of human action is partly explained by a certain humility or skepticism people have about their own or others' motives. There's also a less flattering reason: denying the possibility of pure altruism provides a convenient excuse for selfish behavior. If “everybody is like that” — if everybody must be like that — we need not feel guilty about our own self-interested behavior or try to change it.

The logical lure of egoism is different: the view seems impossible to disprove. No matter how altruistic a person appears to be, it's possible to conceive of her motive in egoistic terms. On this way of looking at it, the guilt Mr. Autrey would have suffered had he ignored the man on the tracks made risking his life worth the gamble. The doctor who gives up a comfortable life to care for AIDS patients in a remote place does what she wants to do, and therefore gets satisfaction from what only appears to be self-sacrifice. So, it seems, altruism is simply self-interest of a subtle kind.

The impossibility of disproving egoism may sound like a virtue of the theory, but, as philosophers of science know, it's really a fatal drawback. A theory that purports to tell us something about the world, as egoism does, should be falsifiable. Not false, of course, but capable of being tested and thus proved false. If every state of affairs is compatible with egoism, then egoism doesn't tell us anything distinctive about how things are.

A related reason for the lure of egoism, noted by Bishop Joseph Butler in the 18th century, concerns ambiguity in the concepts of desire and the satisfaction of desire. If people possess altruistic motives, then they sometimes act to benefit others without the prospect of gain to themselves. In other words, they desire the good of others for its own sake, not simply as a means to their own satisfaction. It's obvious that Professor Librescu desired that his students not die, and acted accordingly to save their lives. He succeeded, so his desire was satisfied. But he was not satisfied — since he died in the attempt to save the students. From the fact that a person's desire is satisfied we can draw no conclusions about effects on his mental state or well-being.

Still, when our desires are satisfied we normally experience satisfaction; we feel good when we do good. But that doesn't mean we do good only in order to get that “warm glow” — that our true incentives are self-interested (as economists tend to claim). Indeed, as de Waal argues, if we didn't desire the good of others for its own sake, then attaining it wouldn't produce the warm glow.

Common sense tells us that some people are more altruistic than others. Egoism's claim that these differences are illusory — that deep down, everybody acts only to further their own interests — contradicts our observations and deep-seated human practices of moral evaluation.

At the same time, we may notice that generous people don't necessarily suffer more or flourish less than those who are more self-interested. Altruists may be more content or fulfilled than selfish people. Nice guys don't always finish last.

But nor do they always finish first. The point is rather that the kind of altruism we ought to encourage, and probably the only kind with staying power, is satisfying to those who practice it. Studies of rescuers show that they don't believe their behavior is extraordinary; they feel they must do what they do, because it's just part of who they are. The same holds for more common, less newsworthy acts — working in soup kitchens, taking pets to people in nursing homes, helping strangers find their way, being neighborly. People who act in these ways believe that they ought to help others, but they also want to help, because doing so affirms who they are and want to be and the kind of world they want to exist. As Prof. Neera Badhwar has argued, their identity is tied up with their values, thus tying self-interest and altruism together. The correlation between doing good and feeling good is not inevitable— inevitability lands us again with that empty, unfalsifiable egoism — but it is more than incidental.

Altruism is possible and altruism is real, although in healthy people it intertwines subtly with the well-being of the agent who does good. And this is crucial for seeing how to increase the amount of altruism in the world. Aristotle had it right in his “Nicomachean Ethics”: we have to raise people from their “very youth” and educate them “so as both to delight in and to be pained by the things that we ought.”

Judith Lichtenberg is professor of philosophy at Georgetown University. She is at work on a book on the idea of charity.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/is-pure-altruism-possible/?pagemode=print

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EDITORIAL

Their Debt Is Paid

More than five million Americans could be barred from voting in November because of unjust and archaic state laws that disenfranchise former offenders, even when they have gone on to live crime-free lives.

Many states are finally revisiting these laws. According to an encouraging new study by the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit research and advocacy group, reforms carried out during the last decade in nearly two dozen states have led to 800,000 people getting back their voting rights. More needs to be done.

State lawmakers and civil rights groups began to pay attention in the late 1990s when studies showed that millions of convicted felons — a disproportionate of them racial minorities — had been deprived of the vote, often for life. Some states also denied voting rights to people on probation or, even more incredibly, because they had been unable to pay outstanding fines.

The restoration movement gathered momentum after the 2000 election debacle in Florida, where thousands of people mistakenly listed as felons were purged from the rolls or turned away at the polls. Since then, several states — including Maryland, Delaware, Nebraska and New Mexico — repealed or amended lifetime voting bans for convicted felons. Others — including Florida, New York and Alabama — streamlined the process that ex-offenders most go through to get back their rights.

Democracy is strengthened when as many citizens as possible have the right to vote. Fully integrating ex-offenders back into society is also the best way to encourage their lasting rehabilitation. It is past time for all states to restore individual voting rights automatically to ex-offenders who have served their time.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/opinion/20wed4.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

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From the Chicago Sun Times

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Weis: Police shift overdue

Will 'reallocate' cops to high-crime areas, calls status quo 'inexcusable'

October 20, 2010

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter

Without using the dreaded term "beat realignment," Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis said Tuesday he would "reallocate" police resources by the end of this year from lower crime districts to those that need more officers.

Testifying at City Council budget hearings, Weis vowed to finally deliver on a promise made and broken by at least four of his predecessors.

That will have to wait until "Phase 2"-- after ward boundaries are redrawn, the superintendent said.

But two years into a hiring slowdown that has left the Chicago Police Department more than 2,300 officers a day short of authorized strength, Weis is prepared to take decisive action.

"We anticipate in the very near future of having a resource re-allocation that will better balance the workload of our officers throughout the entire city. We will re-allocate our resources to address where the crimes actually are," Weis said.

"I know I've talked about this for two years. We will deliver it in 2010. . . . We can't go three decades without adjusting resources again. That's inexcusable. . . . We're not talking about changing districts or beats right now. This is . . . a resource realignment to make sure we put those officers where they need to be based upon . . . a formula we would be able to adjust on a regular basis should crime shift, should communities change."

Weis did not say which police districts stand to lose officers and which districts stand to gain. He would only say that some districts "have an additional number of police officers above and beyond what analysis has proven they actually need. So we can move some of those officers to a district where analysis has shown they need some more."

Police Committee Chairman Anthony Beale (9th) applauded Weis for confronting an issue that his predecessors took pains to avoid.

"I've been fighting for resource reallocation, beat realignment . . . for 12 years now. And you are the first superintendent who has really taken the bull by the horns and said, 'This is the right thing to do to make the entire city safe -- not just certain communities,' " Beale said.

Northwest and Southwest Side aldermen are preparing to do battle to preserve what they have.

Ald. Tom Allen (38th) said Weis has "already drained police resources" in his ward by pulling gang and organized crime units out of police districts.

"The 16th District [Jefferson Park] has had a 400 percent increase in homicides this year. If he likes to use statistics, he should digest that statistic," Allen said.

"If he takes more resources out of Jefferson Park and Albany Park, he's doing a disservice to the people who pay a lot of taxes and expect police protection. You can't continue to buffalo the media and everyone else by telling them we don't have crime in our neighborhoods."

Retiring Ald. Ginger Rugai (19th), who represents the Far Southwest Side neighborhoods of Beverly, Morgan Park and Mount Greenwood, said she, too, is concerned.

"I'll fight to keep what we have, if not more people. . . . It's important for the entire city that everyone have the protection they need," Rugai said.

After a string of snatch-and-grab crimes involving iPods and cell phones in the downtown area, Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) warned Weis to maintain police resources in the Central Business District.

"God help the city if public perception is that this is not a safe place," Reilly said. "We need to make sure our major retail corridors have high-visibility police in key locations so people feel safe spending their money here and spending their weekends visiting Chicago."

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/2818242,CST-NWS-cops20.article

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Push to deny citizenship to illegals' kids

October 20, 2010

PHOENIX -- Lawmakers in at least 14 states announced Tuesday they are working on legislation to deny U.S. citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants, although they weren't specific about how they plan to do it.

Arizona Sen. Russell Pearce said he and the lawmakers have a working draft of their model legislation and have consulted constitutional scholars to change the 14th Amendment and deny automatic citizenship.

"This is a battle of epic proportions," Pearce said Tuesday. "We've allowed the hijacking of the 14th Amendment."

Indiana is one of the states involved. Illinois is not.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/2817950,CST-NWS-immig20.article

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From the Department of Justice

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Man Sentenced to 24 Years in Prison for Attempting to Use a Weapon of Mass Destruction to Bomb Skyscraper in Downtown Dallas

WASHINGTON — Hosam Maher Husein Smadi was sentenced today by U.S. District Court Judge Barbara M. G. Lynn to 24 years in prison for his attempted bombing of a downtown Dallas skyscraper in September 2009, announced David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division; U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas; and Robert E. Casey Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Dallas Field Division. Smadi, 20, pleaded guilty on May 26, 2010, to one count of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.

"The court's sentence of Mr. Smadi sends a clear message that there is a serious price to be paid by those who may be willing to carry out acts of violence in this country to further the terrorist cause.  I applaud the many agents, analysts and prosecutors responsible for this successful investigation and prosecution," said Assistant Attorney General Kris.

"I commend the FBI, the lawyers and support staff in the U.S. Attorney's Office, and the Counterterrorism Section at the Department of Justice for their excellent work in investigating and prosecuting this case.  The security of the American people is the highest priority of the Department of Justice.  Through the professionalism and hard work of many individuals, they were able to locate, identify and neutralize the threat presented by this individual.  This case is an illustration of the diligence and hard work that is performed every day by men and women dedicated to the safety and security of this country," said U.S. Attorney Jacks.

"Today's sentencing reflects our commitment to protect the community through the FBI's counterterrorism strategy to detect, penetrate and disrupt acts of terrorism in the United States and to identify and fully investigate those individuals who choose to disregard the laws of this country and threaten the country's security to advance a violent extremist ideology.  Much effort and many resources, from not only the FBI but other law enforcement agencies, were expended in investigating, tracking and ultimately arresting Hosam Maher Husein Smadi while at all times ensuring the public's safety," said Special Agent In Charge Robert E. Casey Jr.

According to documents filed, on Sept. 24, 2009, Smadi knowingly took possession of a truck that contained a weapon of mass destruction, specifically a destructive device or bomb. The truck with the bomb inside was a vehicle borne improvised explosive device. Smadi believed that this was an active weapon of mass destruction, and while it was inert when Smadi took possession of it, it was a readily-convertible weapon of mass destruction.

Also according to documents filed, Smadi knowingly drove the truck containing the bomb to Fountain Place, a 60-story public office building located at 1445 Ross Avenue in Dallas, and parked it in the public parking garage under the building. After parking the truck, Smadi activated a timer connected to the device, locked the truck and walked away. Smadi walked out of the parking garage, crossed the street and got into a car with an undercover law enforcement agent. They drove a safe distance away and prepared to watch the explosion. Smadi, who believed the bomb would explode and cause extensive damage, used a cell phone to remotely activate the device.

 The case was investigated by the FBI in conjunction with members of the FBI-sponsored North Texas Joint Terrorism Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dayle Elieson and Deputy Criminal Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Jerri Sims prosecuted the case.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/October/10-nsd-1170.html

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From ICE

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WCO, INTERPOL and UNODC collaborate on illicit use of precursor chemicals

BRUSSELS - Eighty-six countries joined representatives of the World Customs Organization (WCO), the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to discuss an unprecedented international effort to counter the illicit diversion and trafficking of precursor chemicals that may be used by terrorists and other criminal organizations to manufacture explosive devices.

The seminar which took place at WCO headquarters focused on increased cooperation among Customs and police agencies, the sharing of information and best practices, and collaboration on investigations. Stronger customs/police partnerships on the ground bolstered by the support of key anti-crime stakeholders will improve the ability of frontline officials to identify, target and seize illegal shipments at land, sea and air border crossings including container facilities.

Chemicals that can be used to manufacture improvised explosive devices (IED) include ammonium nitrate, used in the 1995 bombing of a U.S. Federal Building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 and injured over 650, and hydrogen peroxide, used in the 2005 bombing of London's public transportation system that killed 52 and injured over 700.

According to the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center's 2009 Report on Terrorism, there were approximately 11,000 terrorist attacks in 83 countries, resulting in over 58,000 victims, including nearly 15,000 fatalities. IEDs were responsible for injuring almost 23,000 people in 2009 and can be employed in multiple ways; a bomb placed inside a maritime container, a car ladened with bombs, and even a suicide bomber strapped with explosives.

"Terrorists and criminal organizations are taking chemicals that are legal commodities and using them to create devastating explosive devices," said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton. "This is not just happening to servicemen, this is not just happening to Americans, it is happening to innocent people all over the world. ICE is proud to have proposed this unprecedented effort to the WCO, INTERPOL and the UNODC. By acting together, the world community is sending a resounding message that we deny terrorists and criminals the materials they use to make bombs that kill innocent people."

"Cross-border trade has to be safe and secure from threats that may hinder or damage the global trading system and innocent citizens should be protected from threats that may risk or imperil their lives," said WCO Secretary General, Kunio Mikuriya. "The Customs community stands behind this significant effort to ensure that precursor chemicals are not traded illegally and that they do not fall into the hands of those who have no moral regard for the consequences of their trade or actions," the Secretary General added.

The Special Representative of INTERPOL to the European Union, Mr Pierre Reuland, said that multi-agency collaboration between INTERPOL, WCO and UNODC was vital. He said, this very effective cooperation in a spirit of complementarity and trust has led to considerable results in the fight against organized crime and terrorism in common projects and operations and INTERPOL will continue to strongly support these international efforts with our global network of 188 member states.

"Relevant experiences have been gained in building up international systems of control over precursor chemicals used in illicit drug manufacture, in particular by monitoring individual shipments in international trade in these substances, as facilitated by the International Narcotics Control Board, and through regional operations with the UNODC serving as a platform, such as Operation TARCET, targeting the trafficking of chemicals to Afghanistan through neighbouring countries," said Akira Fujina, Special Advisor to UNODC's Executive Director. "Relevant mechanisms thus established and experiences are available for possible application to detecting diversion of explosive precursors. Tools are also available, including the UNODC-WCO Container Control Programme, a capacity building assistance activity, which provides an effective platform for specialized training. The UNODC fully supports this initiative within its areas of competence", Fujina concluded.

Taking chemicals that are legal commodities and using them to create devastating explosive devices is a threat to all nations but with the cooperation of countries from around the world, this global effort will ultimately safe countless lives.

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1010/101018brussels.htm

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ICE arrests 20 criminals in international INTERPOL operation

WASHINGTON - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton and INTERPOL Washington Director Timothy A. Williams announced that the first-ever joint operation, called "Operation FAR AWAY," has been very successful, resulting in a total of 20 arrests of international fugitives in the United States.

"Operation FAR AWAY" is an intelligence-driven operation designed to target, locate and arrest criminal aliens believed to be in hiding in the United States and in other Western Hemisphere countries.  It began Sept. 1 and will extend until Oct. 31, 2010, due to the high number of arrests.  The INTERPOL member countries participating in the operation include: Canada, Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico, Costa Rica, Bahamas, Netherland Antilles, Brazil, Guatemala, Peru, Colombia, Barbados, Bolivia, Ecuador and the United States.

Of the 20 arrests made in the United States, eight of them were for homicide crimes; two were for crimes against children; three were for robbery; and seven were for other crimes, including human smuggling. Arrests in the United States were made by the ICE Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).

"This operation has been so successful, with the help of our INTERPOL partners, that we have decided to extend it," said Jim Chaparro, ICE Executive Associate Director of ERO. "Operation FAR AWAY enhances public safety in the United States and with our partner nations."

"I am very pleased with the outcome of the operation to date.  It is another fine example of what can be accomplished when agencies partner and share resources to further combat transnational crimes," stated Timothy A. Williams, INTERPOL Washington Director. "I look forward to continuing the high level of cooperation and collaboration with ICE ERO, and I extend my gratitude to the leadership at ICE ERO for providing appropriate resources to ensure this operation is a success."

Some examples of the fugitives that this operation has taken into custody:

• ICE ERO arrested in Miami a citizen of Honduras, in a joint operation with the FBI, the Hollywood, Fla., Police Department, and the Broward County Sheriff's Office Special Response Team, who was wanted by Honduran officials for the June 16 assassination of Roland Valenzuela, 44, a former Honduran minister of National Programs for Sustainable Development.
  
  
• A 32-year-old Salvadoran national who was arrested by ICE ERO in Glen Cove, N.Y., is wanted in El Salvador for various “Mara Salvatrucha†gang-related offenses; including extortion, decapitation and dismemberment. He is in ICE custody pending immigration proceedings.
  
  
• A previously deported 31-year-old Honduran national who was arrested by ICE ERO in Deer Point, Mich., and was wanted in Honduras on charges of alien smuggling. He was remanded to the custody of the United States Marshal Service pending trial for charges of re-entry after deportation.
  
  
• ICE ERO arrested a citizen of the Dominican Republic who was residing in Plantation, Fla., but was wanted in the Dominican Republic for murder. He is being detained at the Krome SPC in Miami pending removal proceedings.
  
  
• ICE ERO Miami removed a Honduran national who is wanted by Honduran authorities for storage of prohibited firearms and explosives.

Sign up to receive Human Trafficking email updates

Human Trafficking October 2010 ICE is the lead U.S. law enforcement agency in the fight against human smuggling and human trafficking. Human trafficking means recruiting, harboring, defrauding, coercing through the use of force or transporting a person for the purpose of involuntary servitude, debt bondage or slavery. Sex trafficking, one common and particularly disturbing form of trafficking, occurs when a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud or coercion, or when the person induced to perform such acts is less than 18 years old. In its worst manifestation, human trafficking is akin to modern-day slavery.

Victims pay to be illegally transported into the United States only to find themselves in the thrall of the traffickers, who may force them into prostitution, forced labor and other forms of servitude to repay their debt. The victims, surrounded by an unfamiliar culture and language, and often lacking identity documents, find themselves trapped, fearing for their lives and those of their families.

In the fight against human trafficking, ICE has developed a number of successful initiatives that focus on attacking the infrastructure that supports smuggling organizations, as well as the assets derived from these criminal activities. This might include seizing currency, property, weapons and vehicles—hitting the trafficking organizations where it hurts by targeting their assets. In addition, a key tool in the fight against trafficking is the issuance of Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act (CAFRA) notices to property owners whose properties have been identified as being used to facilitate the smuggling or harboring of aliens.

Public Awareness

ICE and DHS have launched efforts to raise public awareness of human trafficking, including the following:

• DHS Blue Campaign
  
  
• ICE In Plain Sight Campaign

Support for Victims

ICE recognizes that the severe consequences of human trafficking continue even after the perpetrators have been arrested and held accountable. ICE's Victim Assistance Program helps to coordinate services in support of human trafficking victims.

http://www.ice.gov/human-trafficking/

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From the DEA

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DEA Kicks Off Red Ribbon Campaign

Events to be held throughout the U.S. this month

OCT 19 -- (WASHINGTON) – DEA acting administrator Michele Leonhart was joined today by White House Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske to kick-off the National Red Ribbon Campaign at a ceremony in Arlington, Va.

The National Red Ribbon Campaign, which is the nation's largest drug prevention effort, began after drug traffickers in Mexico tortured and brutally murdered Special Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in March 1985. Officially, Red Ribbon Week will be celebrated nationally from October 23-31; however, several communities and school districts hold events throughout the month.

The Red Ribbon Campaign is dedicated to helping to preserve Special Agent Camarena's memory and further the cause for which he gave his life, the fight against the violence of drug crime and the misery of addiction. By gathering together in special events and wearing a Red Ribbon during the last week in October, Americans from all walks of life demonstrate their opposition to drugs.

“Red Ribbon week is a time to remember those who have given everything in the fight against dangerous drugs,” said Leonhart. “We wear the Red Ribbon in tribute to their courage, and to ensure that their sacrifice was not made in vain. We wear the Red Ribbon to symbolize our dedication to living healthy, drug-free lives. Join us, make a difference, and celebrate the choice to be drug free.”

Red Ribbon week started as a local effort in Camarena's hometown of Calexico, California when Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) and Camarena's high school friend, Henry Lozano, created Camarena Clubs to ensure fond memories of Kiki. The National Family Partnership (NFP) created a national campaign of observance, an eight-day event proclaimed by the U.S. Congress and chaired by then President and Mrs. Reagan.

Approximately 80 million people participate in Red Ribbon events every year.

For news about events scheduled in your areas, please check the web at www.dea.gov or contact your local DEA Office.

For any further information, contact the DEA Office of Public Affairs in Washington, DC at 202-307-7977 .

http://www.justice.gov/dea/pubs/pressrel/pr101910.html

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