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From the Los Angeles Times

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Whooping cough cases continue to rise in L.A. County

The number of whooping cough cases reported in Los Angeles County has continued to increase in recent weeks, county public health officials said Friday.

There were 429 cases of whooping cough, or pertussis, reported in October, more than any month this year and more than a quarter of the total of 1,600 cases reported this year, according to the county Department of Public Health.

"This is an epidemic that is reaching numbers we've never seen before in Los Angeles County," said Dr. Jonathan E. Fielding, the county's director of public health.

"This disease can be prevented with a vaccine, and I urge everyone who is eligible to take advantage of this protection for themselves and their loved ones. If you have not already done so, make it a priority this weekend to get vaccinated," Fielding said.

Last year, there were 156 "probable" or "confirmed" cases of whooping cough countywide. In 2008, there were only 80 such cases.

The death toll also has been higher this year: four Los Angeles County infants died of whooping cough, while in past years the county has seen only a single death or none.

Pertussis is often spread by coughing. Typical symptoms in young children include intense coughing accompanied by a whooping sound, and post-cough vomiting. Some infected infants do not show typical symptoms, but can still suffer life-threatening complications such as pneumonia and seizures.

Whooping cough is "especially dangerous for infants under 6 months of age who are not old enough to have received the number of vaccine doses needed to be fully protected," Fielding said.

"Now is an especially important time to get vaccinated," he said. "Vaccinations do not give you instant immunity, and take time to develop full protection. By taking action now, you can ensure that you are protected for the holiday gatherings."

Children should receive three primary vaccinations containing the pertussis vaccine and two boosters by age 4 to 6, followed by a booster vaccine during their preteen years, which protects against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis.

The California Department of Public Health recently expanded its vaccination recommendations amid rising numbers of pertussis cases statewide, and now recommends the booster vaccine for anyone age 7 to 9 who did not complete the pertussis vaccination series and all others age 11 and older, especially women of childbearing age and seniors.

"Infants are most likely to be infected by parents, grandparents, older siblings, daycare workers and other caregivers who have whooping cough but often don't know that this disease is the reason for their symptoms," Fielding said.

"People suffering from a cough illness who have contact with infants should seek medical care immediately. Anyone who lives with or has frequent contact with an infant should ensure that their vaccinations are up to date."

Those without a healthcare provider or insurance can contact 211 or the county health department for referrals to providers and sites offering free or discounted whooping cough vaccines.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/11/los-angeles-whooping-cough.html#more

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EDITORIAL

A welcome look at a 'hostess club'

After a vice raid resulted in the arrest of 81 women at Club 907, it appeared that the women may not have been perpetrators, but the victims of a crime. Further investigations into possibly illegal working conditions at the L.A. business are warranted.

November 13, 2010

Southern California is a hub for human trafficking, indentured servitude and other criminal ventures involving forced employment and sexual coercion. Illegal immigrants are a particularly vulnerable population, and victims, fearing deportation, often endure patently illegal work conditions.

A recent raid at a downtown Los Angeles "hostess club" may offer a glimpse into some of these operations, police say. Last week three dozen officers showed up at Club 907 with a warrant to scrutinize the venue's records — and to swab the seats for semen samples. Eighty-one women were arrested, mostly illegal immigrants who were charged with using counterfeit identities. Seven men also were arrested, including the manager, who was charged with conspiracy to commit prostitution, police said. On the surface, it looks like a standard-issue vice raid. But details of the working conditions at Club 907 suggest that the women may not be the perpetrators, but the victims of a crime.

Patrons of Club 907 pay $30 an hour to talk, dance and drink nonalcoholic beverages with the 160 women who work there. Hostess clubs are legal, but are not permitted to offer adult entertainment such as nudity or stripping, so when officers witnessed sexual activity during a routine inspection in July, Los Angeles police began an investigation.

Immigration advocates from the Coalition for Humane Immigration Reform, who have interviewed many of the women, said that each dancer is required to earn $600 a week for the club, which means being selected by men to socialize for at least 20 hours. Women who meet that quota are paid at a rate of 19 cents a minute plus a $50 bonus each week. Those who don't meet the quota see their wages drop to 16 cents a minute and receive no paycheck at all until they make up the shortfall. If a customer leaves without paying, the dancer is in debt to the club. These allegations, if true, are violations of California labor law and smack of indentured servitude.

It is to the Police Department's credit that trafficking and exploitation concerns have been at the heart of the case; there was a time when the dancers could have been indiscriminately arrested on charges of lewd behavior or prostitution. Now, state labor officials and federal immigration authorities say they have turned their attention to the club — appropriately — and police say that more charges are likely.

Immigration advocates fear that some of the women will be deported. But such steps shouldn't be considered until a full investigation of the club is completed. Some of the women may be eligible for a program under which illegal immigrants who are victims of crimes and who cooperate with law enforcement are eligible for special visas.

The goal is to ensure that the right people are punished. That requires time and investigation and an open-minded consideration of the facts.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-raid-20101113,0,3835740,print.story

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From the New York Times

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Defying Trend, Canada Lures More Migrants

WINNIPEG, Manitoba — As waves of immigrants from the developing world remade Canada a decade ago, the famously friendly people of Manitoba could not contain their pique.

What irked them was not the Babel of tongues, the billions spent on health care and social services, or the explosion of ethnic identities. The rub was the newcomers' preference for “M.T.V.” — Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver — over the humble prairie province north of North Dakota, which coveted workers and population growth.

Demanding “our fair share,” Manitobans did something hard to imagine in American politics, where concern over illegal immigrants dominates public debate and states seek more power to keep them out. In Canada, which has little illegal immigration, Manitoba won new power to bring foreigners in, handpicking ethnic and occupational groups judged most likely to stay.

This experiment in designer immigration has made Winnipeg a hub of parka-clad diversity — a blue-collar town that gripes about the cold in Punjabi and Tagalog — and has defied the anti-immigrant backlash seen in much of the world.

Rancorous debates over immigration have erupted from Australia to Sweden, but there is no such thing in Canada as an anti-immigrant politician. Few nations take more immigrants per capita, and perhaps none with less fuss.

Is it the selectivity Canada shows? The services it provides? Even the Mad Cowz, a violent youth gang of African refugees, did nothing to curb local appetites for foreign workers.

“When I took this portfolio, I expected some of the backlash that's occurred in other parts of the world,” said Jennifer Howard, Manitoba's minister of immigration. “But I have yet to have people come up to me and say, ‘I want fewer immigrants.' I hear, ‘How can we bring in more?' ”

This steak-and-potatoes town now offers stocks of palm oil and pounded yams, four Filipino newspapers, a large Hindu Diwali festival, and a mandatory course on Canadian life from the grand to the granular. About 600 newcomers a month learn that the Canadian charter ensures “the right to life, liberty and security” and that employers like cover letters in Times New Roman font. (A gentle note to Filipinos: résumés with photographs, popular in Manila, are frowned on in Manitoba.)

“From the moment we touched down at the airport, it was love all the way,” said Olusegun Daodu, 34, a procurement professional who recently arrived from Nigeria to join relatives and marveled at the medical card that offers free care. “If we have any reason to go to the hospital now, we just walk in.”

“The license plates say ‘Friendly Manitoba,' ” said his wife, Hannah.

“It's true — really, really true,” Mr. Daodu said. “I had to ask my aunt, ‘Do they ever get angry here?' ”

Canada has long sought immigrants to populate the world's second largest land mass, but two developments in the 1960s shaped the modern age. One created a point system that favors the highly skilled. The other abolished provisions that screened out nonwhites. Millions of minorities followed, with Chinese, Indians and Filipinos in the lead.

Relative to its population, Canada takes more than twice as many legal immigrants as the United States. Why no hullabaloo?

With one-ninth of the United States' population, Canada is keener for growth, and the point system helps persuade the public it is getting the newcomers it needs. The children of immigrants typically do well. The economic downturn has been mild. Plus the absence of large-scale illegal immigration removes a dominant source of the conflict in the United States.

“The big difference between Canada and the U.S is that we don't border Mexico,” said Naomi Alboim, a former immigration official who teaches at Queens University in Ontario.

French and English from the start, Canada also has a more accommodating political culture — one that accepts more pluribus and demands less unum. That American complaint — “Why do I have to press 1 for English?” — baffles a country with a minister of multiculturalism.

Another force is in play: immigrant voting strength. About 20 percent of Canadians are foreign born (compared with 12.5 percent in the United States), and they are quicker to acquire citizenship and voting rights. “It's political suicide to be against immigration,” said Leslie Seidle of the Institute for Research on Public Policy, a Montreal group.

Some stirrings of discontent can be found. The rapid growth of the “M.T.V.” cities has fueled complaints about congestion and housing costs. A foiled 2006 terrorist plot brought modest concern about radical Islam. And critics of the refugee system say it rewards false claims of persecution, leaving the country with an unlocked back door.

“There's considerably more concern among our people than is reflected in our policies,” said Martin Collacott, who helped create the Center for Immigration Policy Reform, a new group that advocates less immigration.

Mr. Collacott argues high levels of immigration have run up the cost of the safety net, slowed economic growth and strained civic cohesion, but he agrees the issue has little force in politics. “There's literally no one in Parliament willing to take up the cudgel,” he said.

The Manitoba program, started in 1998 at employers' behest, has grown rapidly under both liberal and conservative governments. While the federal system favors those with college degrees, Manitoba takes the semi-skilled, like truck drivers, and focuses on people with local relatives in the hopes that they will stay. The newcomers can bring spouses and children and get a path to citizenship.

Most are required to bring savings, typically about $10,000, to finance the transition without government aid. While the province nominates people, the federal government does background checks and has the final say. Unlike many migrant streams, the new Manitobans have backgrounds that are strikingly middle class.

“Back home was good — not bad,” said Nishkam Virdi, 32, who makes $17 an hour at the Palliser furniture plant after moving from India, where his family owned a machine shop.

He said he was drawn less by wages than by the lure of health care and solid utilities. “The living standard is higher — the lighting, the water, the energy,” he said.

The program has attracted about 50,000 people over the last decade, and surveys show a majority stayed. Ms. Howard, the immigration minister, credits job placement and language programs, but many migrants cite the informal welcomes.

“Because we are from the third world, I thought they might think they are superior,” said Anne Simpao, a Filipino nurse in tiny St. Claude, who was approached by a stranger and offered dishes and a television set. “They call it friendly Manitoba, and it's really true.”

One complaint throughout Canada is the difficulty many immigrants have in transferring professional credentials. Heredina Maranan, 45, a certified public accountant in Manila, has been stuck in a Manitoba factory job for a decade. She did not disguise her disappointment when relatives sought to follow her. “I did not encourage them,” she said. “I think I deserved better.”

They came anyway — two families totaling 14 people, drawn not just by jobs but the promise of good schools.

“Of course I wanted to come here,” said her nephew, Lordie Osena. “In the Philippines there are 60 children in one room.”

Every province except Quebec now runs a provincial program, each with different criteria, diluting the force of the federal point system. The Manitoba program has grown so rapidly, federal officials have imposed a numerical cap.

Arthur Mauro, a Winnipeg business leader, hails the Manitoba program but sees limited lessons for a country as demographically different as the United States. “There are very few states in the U.S. that say, ‘We need people,' ” he said.

But Arthur DeFehr, chief executive officer of Palliser furniture, does see a lesson: choose migrants who fill local needs and give them a legal path.

With 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States, he sees another opportunity for Manitoba. “I'm sure many of those people would make perfectly wonderful citizens of Canada,” he said. “I think we should go and get them.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/13/world/americas/13immig.html?_r=1&ref=world&pagewanted=print

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Pledge to Give Away Fortunes Stirs Debate

WITHOUT a doubt, the biggest event in philanthropy this year was the Giving Pledge, a commitment by 40 of the wealthiest Americans to give away at least half of their fortunes, about $600 billion.

The goals of the pledge, which was organized by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren E. Buffett, were to stimulate discussion about philanthropy among the ultrawealthy and unleash a wave of me-tooism among others that would bring about “the Second Great Wave of Philanthropy,” in the words of Sean Stannard-Stockton, a blogger and philanthropic consultant.

Now, about three months later, the pledge has not yet visibly inspired new major gifts or attracted additional signatures — Mr. Buffett said he expected more soon — but has surely created discussion and debate, about the wealthy, their giving and what it says about our society.

Indeed, the Giving Pledge and the attention it has attracted come at a time of economic weakness, high unemployment, raging political debates about whether to extend tax cuts or allow them to expire, the seemingly uncontrollable cost of health care — and the increasing income gap between the signatories and a vast majority of Americans.

“It can look like it's totally a P.R. thing, like they are royalty,” said Ellen Remmer, chief executive of the Philanthropic Initiative, explaining why there has been a mixed reaction to the pledge. “You have to remember, the reason we've had this golden age of philanthropy is because we've had this incredible concentration of wealth, and the pledge is a reminder of that.”

Pledge founders and signers and their supporters marvel that anyone would find fault with it. “I hardly know what to say,” Mr. Buffett said by telephone. “Philanthropy is a tradition in America.” Americans give away about $300 billion a year, he said, or the equivalent of 2 percent of gross domestic product. “It doesn't seem to have done any harm in the country so far.”

Mr. Gates said the pledge and the discussions about it would improve the practice of philanthropy. “We will never be able to measure how much the group gets people to do more giving or do it in a better way,” he wrote via e-mail. “However, I think the impact is likely to be quite positive.”

In fact, Mr. Gates said, the pledge is a tool for addressing income disparity because it is a mechanism for the redistribution of wealth.

Mr. Stannard-Stockton said he was baffled by the criticism of the pledge. “Even if only one additional person took it up, at the levels of net worth we're talking about, that could be 450 million more dollars that would be out there doing something good,” he said.

Pablo Eisenberg, a senior fellow at the Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership at Georgetown University — and normally an acerbic critic of big-league philanthropy — also said the pledge was likely to inspire more giving.

“What concerns me is that no one has said what the pledge is going to do, who it will serve and how it will be accountable,” Mr. Eisenberg said.

A big portion of the money pledged will probably flow into foundation endowments rather than being donated immediately to areas like education and social services. “Basically, it will increase the number of mega-foundations, and I worry that will hurt our democracy because of the influence these institutions will exert,” he said.

The pledge has already played into the emerging debate about the influence that wealth has in the country today and the fears that philanthropy is being used to bend public policy, whether it is the Koch brothers' support of conservative causes, the financier George Soros 's donations to Democratic causes or the Gates Foundation's grants to promote charter schools.

“There's something in the American DNA that is suspicious of enormous concentrations of wealth, even when directed toward the public good,” said William A. Schambra, director of the Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal at the Hudson Institute. “True, we are proud of our charitable impulse in the broadest sense, but we think of that in terms of writing a check to the local Red Cross or Boys and Girls Club, not billionaires doling out millions and perhaps influencing the political agenda.”

Even Charles Munger, Mr. Buffett's longtime business associate, has expressed discomfort with the pledge and its implications. “You get a bunch of very intelligent people sitting around trying to do good, I immediately get kind of suspicious and squirm in my seat,” he told an audience at the University of Michigan .

Perhaps the most prominent wealthy critic of the pledge is Peter Kramer, a German shipping magnate and philanthropist who supports a Unicef program that, among other things, builds schools in Africa.

Because the United States relies more heavily on philanthropy to support social services that in Europe are generally provided by the government, wealthy philanthropists have a greater impact on public policy, he said.

“These guys have so much power through their wealth that they, instead of the government elected by the people, can decide what's good and what should be promoted and subsidized,” Mr. Kramer said. “That can be dangerous.”

Mr. Gates has long countered such concerns by noting that the $35 billion or so in assets of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, perhaps the largest in the world, is small compared with various government budgets, as is “philanthropy as a whole, including religious giving.”

Mr. Schambra, however, said the Gates Foundation had successfully leveraged government money for policies it preferred.

One of its first education programs involved support for school districts that agreed to establish small high schools, usually by breaking up larger ones, in the belief that smaller schools would foster closer and more beneficial relationships between teachers and students and thus reduce dropout rates.

Many districts around the country bought into that vision, attracted by the dollars the foundation would provide. Then, in late 2008, Mr. Gates walked away from the program, having concluded that many of the newly smaller schools “did not improve students' achievement in any significant way.”

Discussion of and debate over the superwealthy and their philanthropy are not new. The industrial tycoons who spawned the first great wave of philanthropy, men like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller and Andrew W. Mellon, became known as much for their charitable giving as for their business success. Carnegie's book “The Gospel of Wealth,” published in 1889, inspired others to philanthropy.

As with the multimillionaire philanthropists of today, their giving called attention to the income disparities of the day and the laws that permitted such power to accrue — and they drew criticism from many.

Bernard Marcus, the co-founder of Home Depot and a pledge signatory, said he saw no grounds for the current criticism. “All this money is going for charity to help people — what kind of numbskull would find something wrong with that?” he asked in a telephone interview. “Would they rather we bought yachts and built mansions?”

Mr. Marcus and his wife, Billi, are making gifts to help Atlanta, their hometown, develop as a medical center that will rival Houston and New York. The Marcuses have donated heavily to bring biotechnology, particularly nanotechnology, to Atlanta, and their gifts have helped generate jobs and innovative research.

“I'm very politically active,” he added, “but that has nothing to do with my charity.”

Many signatories have already committed their wealth to specific projects. Over the last 15 years, for instance, Lorry I. Lokey, the founder of Business Wire, has committed more than $500 million, a majority of his fortune, to educational institutions including the elementary school he attended, Alameda School in Portland, Ore., and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa.

He has even bequeathed his three homes — his only luxuries, he said — to his foundation. Giving like Mr. Lokey's or the Marcuses' is what most people think of when they think of philanthropy.

But such perceptions seem naïve after a bitter political campaign season that exposed the influence of major philanthropists dispensing donations to tax-exempt groups that engaged in aggressive campaigns for and against various candidates.

One of the pledge signers, Kenneth Langone, an investor who amassed a fortune backing Home Depot, attended a secretive meeting of billionaires in Aspen, Colo., in June, where participants committed to support political action that promoted conservative causes, like rolling back environmental and health care legislation, according to an invitation to another such gathering scheduled for January.

It was sent by the billionaire Charles Koch, who together with his brother, David, convened the Aspen meeting.

The letter suggested that donations to college and universities could also be used to advance a conservative agenda, “fashioning the message and building the education channels” to help combat “ climate change alarmism,” “socialized health care” and other evils the Kochs see in current public policy.

Nothing in the Giving Pledge would prevent Mr. Langone from donating his money in such a way. Mr. Langone declined to be interviewed.

Mr. Buffett said he did not regard donations of the kind the Kochs advocate as philanthropy. Yet donations to college and universities are the epitome of philanthropic gifts.

Alfred E. Mann, the founder of the MannKind Corporation and a pledge signer, said he thought concerns about philanthropists having undue influence on policy were overblown. “I hope we do,” Mr. Mann said, adding, “Congress passes laws that often don't make any sense and create disincentives for improving our country.” He cited the health care bill passed earlier this year as an example.

Mr. Mann said he had worried about whether the pledge would draw attention to income disparity, observing: “The differential between the wealthy and the poor is too great. I think the country has gotten too materialistic, and compensation in areas like entertainment and athletics and in corporations have been outrageous.”

Marc Benioff, the billionaire founder of SalesForce.com, was not asked to sign the pledge. He has made a $100 million gift to the Children's Hospital at the University of California, San Francisco, the capstone of 20 years of gifts to support causes as wide-ranging as a monastery in Bhutan and Room to Read, a nonprofit devoted to literacy.

The pledge, he said, was a good idea “very poorly executed.” He added: “Philanthropy should be about impact. I noticed a lot of the pledges were to multigenerational trusts and not to immediate philanthropic work. That's not going to help anyone.”

Despite those comments, Mr. Benioff disagreed with other criticism of the pledge. “What we should be talking about here is a generation of entrepreneurs who built businesses that created jobs, sparked economic growth and created solutions for complex problems,” he said. “Now they're giving away their wealth — why are we being critical of that?”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/11/giving/11PLEDGE.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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EDITORIAL

Out in the Cold

In another example of how budgetary pressures can lead to very bad public policy, the City Council of the District of Columbia is considering turning away homeless people from winter shelters if they cannot show ties to the district through proof of a recent legal address or receipt of public assistance. That would put the lives of many vulnerable people at risk, and it won't save a dime.

In the mid-1980s, Washington was the first American city to adopt a right to shelter. The local government repealed that soon after, but for almost 20 years the district has developed a plan for protecting the homeless in “hypothermia season.” By statute, it has a duty during the coldest nights to house the homeless wherever they are from.

According to the district's chief financial officer, the plan would not relieve any budget pressures. The waiting line for space in shelters is always so long that if a family from elsewhere wouldn't qualify, a family in the district would take its place. But the sponsor of the idea, Councilman Tommy Wells, who leads the human services committee, is wrestling with a $175 million shortfall in the human services budget and is eager to show that he can make tough choices. Tough and inhumane.

Mr. Wells should instead be looking for any help he can find to expand the shelter system — dunning Congress, charitable foundations, local philanthropists. Waiting until someone freezes to death will be too late.

Poverty, hunger and homelessness know no borders. The Supreme Court underscored this truth 41 years ago when it said states can't adopt policies to restrict the freedom of the poor to travel from one to another, whether pursuing their destiny or survival. If the nation's capital won't honor the spirit of the law — and its own statute and long history — all Americans will be shamed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/13/opinion/13sat4.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

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From the Chicago Sun Times

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Layoffs hit suburban cops

'I'VE NEVER SEEN THIS' | Layoffs rise as more communities react to budget shortfalls

November 13, 2010

by FRANK MAIN AND DAN ROZEK

William Caponigro has joined the growing ranks of laid-off suburban police officers as his department became one of the latest to cut public safety to the bone to cope with the recession.

Caponigro, a Prospect Heights cop and former Chicago Housing Authority officer, is one of six members of the 21-officer force cut loose last weekend for budgetary reasons. His chief, Bruce Morris, resigned shortly before the layoffs were final.

"They cut deeper than they had to," the 44-year-old Caponigro said, claiming the firings were done out of spite because the police union had fought against furloughs and won.

But city attorney Michael Zimmermann said officials in the northwest suburb were left with little choice: "The financial crisis in Prospect Heights is not a figment of the city's imagination."

It's a drama being played out across the Chicago area -- from west suburban Naperville to southwest suburban Worth -- as municipalities struggle with recession-ravaged budgets. At least 15 police departments in the region have downsized through layoffs in recent years.

"We are concerned about our officers and their safety -- as well as the public. In a lot of these places, there have been complaints about delays in officers responding," said Tamara Cummings, an attorney for the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police Labor Council, which represents cops in about 460 agencies across the state.

Patrick O'Connor, president of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, said at least 300 cops have been laid off statewide -- and that's the tip of the iceberg because many departments have eliminated positions and haven't filled vacancies.

"A community that historically had five cars on the street will have four or three cars," said O'Connor, chief of the Moraine Valley Community College Police Department and a former chief in several suburbs. "You will see a rise in response times for non-emergency calls. And departments helping each other out."

O'Connor said suburbs have cut services in other areas and now they've moved to public safety, once considered a "sacred cow."

"I've never seen this in my life," he said.

The layoffs also have put a burden on larger agencies such as the Cook County Sheriff's Department. The sheriff took over policing for financially ravaged Ford Heights two years ago and has been approached recently by Sauk Village and other suburbs interested in entering into contracts with the sheriff to patrol their streets, too.

The Sheriff's Department, which is under a mandate to slash its budget at least 10 percent next year, is already stretched thin as it lends its evidence technicians and other specialized units to suburbs like Cicero when they request the help, said Steve Patterson, a spokesman for Sheriff Tom Dart.

There are 128 municipalities in suburban Cook County, and the sheriff's office does the detective work for about half, Patterson added. In the past, most of those departments did their own investigations, he said.

"It's a concern," Patterson said. "We have weekly meetings about this."

Chicago hasn't resorted to laying off cops, but there's a manpower shortage in the city, too. To ease the problem, Chicago is offering a police exam for the first time in four years.

Still, other cities like Calumet City have started hiring back laid-off officers as the economy slowly picks up steam. And Schaumburg is giving hiring preference to officers laid off by other departments for financial reasons.

But in Naperville, a picket line is planned Tuesday outside the City Council meeting as a protest of the recent layoffs of six cops in the city of 144,000, Cummings said.

Cummings said her union has filed an unfair labor practice charge against Naperville. Layoffs weren't discussed during 18 months of negotiations between the union and Naperville over wages and health insurance, Cummings said. The layoffs were announced about a week after those issues were settled, she said.

"They have $20 million in the general fund," she said. "They're not broke. They always preach that public safety is of utmost importance. Now for them to lay off officers is appalling to me."

But Naperville City Manager Doug Krieger said the city faces a projected $5 million budget deficit next year.

"Naperville -- even though we're an affluent community -- is not immune to the economic woes everyone is experiencing," Krieger said. "We had to look at all departments to make sacrifices."

Officials don't want to use the $20 million general-fund balance for a "one-time fix," Krieger said.

"Next year, you're looking at the same problem again," he said, adding that the city is still safe -- even with the police cuts.

In Prospect Heights, another union, the Metropolitan Alliance of Police, plans to challenge the recent firings there.

"They don't have enough people left to man the streets," said laid-off Prospect Heights Police Officer Todd Godair, who is looking for police work along with his former colleague, Caponigro.

With less than 20 years as a police officer, Caponigro said he doesn't have a pension and wants another law-enforcement job "because that's what I am -- a cop."

His wife, a schoolteacher, isn't working this year so she can care for their children. The family has to hang on until next fall when she can return to work.

"It'll be tough," he said. "Thank God she's got a job."

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/2890368,CST-NWS-layoffs13.article

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More security at WIU after 6 bomb threats

MACOMB | Incidents led to evacuations; $10K reward offered

November 13, 2010

MACOMB, Ill. -- Western Illinois University is beefing up security in its dorms following half a dozen bomb threats in recent weeks.

School officials said Friday they've hired extra police officers and have Illinois State Police patrolling campus. In addition, police will be assigned to dorms 24 hours a day.

WIUM Radio in Macomb reported that the sixth bomb threat was found on a note in the Higgins Hall dormitory late Thursday. Police swept the building, and students were allowed back in shortly after midnight.

The threats began Oct. 25. Police arrested an 18-year-old Chicagoan after the first threat. He is awaiting trial.

The school is offering up to $10,000 for information that leads to an arrest.

Earlier this week, WIU officials said while they cannot elaborate much about the threats while the situation is being investigated, a subpoena has been issued "in relation to the investigation."

In a statement posted on the university website, the school administration says it "would be a great disservice to our students if the University was shut down due to these threats, which we do not believe are valid. Closing the institution plays into the hands of the individual(s) responsible for these threats."

In a letter to students and parents, WIU president Al Goldfarb and Garry Johnson, vice president for student services, wrote: "During each of the threats, the residence halls were immediately evacuated and thorough searches were conducted before allowing students to return to the hall."

They added, "The person responsible for these horrible hoaxes deserves to be punished to the fullest extent of the law, and they will face expulsion from the University."

Despite the use of the word "hoax," Johnson told reporters that "every call we take is taken seriously" and that students should, too.

"Our number one priority is to keep the students safe," said Johnson.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/2890122,CST-NWS-wiu13.article

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From the Washington Examiner

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'America's Most Wanted' investigates children sold as sex slaves in Cambodia

NEW YORK — John Walsh has been hunting "America's Most Wanted" fugitives since 1988. On Saturday he goes undercover in Southeast Asia to investigate the sex trafficking of Cambodian children.

Accompanied by British police officer Jim Gamble, Walsh says he was shocked by what he saw.

He and Gamble went into a bar where there were 50 to 60 girls, Walsh said.

"Within two minutes a madam came up to us and said, 'What are you looking for?' and Jim said, 'We're looking for young girls.' She brought over three or four girls that were (about) 12 or 13 years old — very, very young."

Gamble told her they wanted younger girls, Walsh said. He said the woman replied, " 'What do you want? We have 6- and 7-year-old boys and girls. I can arrange that off premises.' It was disgusting and heartbreaking."

Walsh said Western pedophiles, from the United States, United Kingdom and Germany travel east to Cambodia as international sex tourists, looking to have sex with children.

He says the show choose Cambodia because it's cheap to buy a sex slave there.

"I saw many Western men that had come there not to go to the Buddhist temples, not to come there to look at the beaches, not to do anything at all but to molest and have sex with children. It's wrong, it's illegal and it has to change," he said.

Walsh said the episode will be a "tough show to watch" but said it's important to expose the reality that children are sexually assaulted by predators — many of whom are from the United States.

So far, the show has captured 1,135 criminals in its 24 seasons.

"America's Most Wanted" airs Saturdays at 9pm ET/PT on Fox.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/lifestyle/americas-most-wanted-exposes-children-sold-as-sex-slaves-in-cambodia-107583923.html

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Calif. man who says he was molested hopes to turn beating case against priest

SAN JOSE, CALIF. — Will Lynch is looking for justice in an unusual way. Charged with savagely beating the priest he says molested him as a child, he plans to try to use his trial to publicly shame the Rev. Jerold Lindner in court and call attention to clergy abuse.

Law experts say he faces an uphill battle. But priest abuse victims are cheering him on and offering to donate to his defense fund. Several dozen supporters marched and waved signs Friday outside the Northern California courthouse where he was arraigned on an assault charge.

"Somebody needs to be a face for this abuse and I'm prepared to put myself on the line," Lynch told The Associated Press in the first interview since his arrest last month. "There's nothing they can take from me that they haven't already taken."

Lynch is accused of luring Lindner to the lobby of a retirement home in May and beating him bloody in front of horrified witnesses.

The 43-year-old has said he will plead not guilty, but he did not enter a plea during a brief hearing Friday before Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Jerome S. Nadler. Another hearing is set for next month.

Outside court, supporters marched in a circle and waved signs that read "Help Free Willy" and showed a childhood portrait of Lynch next to a photo of the priest.

Lynch accuses the 65-year-old Jesuit priest of sexually abusing him and his younger brother in 1975 during weekend camping trips in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The boys, 7 and 4 at the time, were raped and forced to have oral sex with each other while Lindner watched, Lynch said.

Lindner has repeatedly denied abusing anyone and has never been criminally charged. He hung up Wednesday when the AP called him for comment.

In a deposition in the late 1990s, Lindner said he didn't recall Lynch or his brother, though the siblings received $625,000 in a 1998 confidential settlement with the Jesuits for alleged abuse by the priest.

Lynch says memories of the priest have tormented him for years, and he struggled through alcohol abuse, depression, nightmares and divorce. He tried to commit suicide twice and told the Los Angeles Times in 2002 that he often thought about confronting Lindner.

Authorities say Lynch acted on that fantasy when he attacked the priest on May 10 after the cleric failed to recognize him at the Jesuits' Sacred Heart retirement home in Los Gatos. Lindner has recovered from the attack.

Lynch refused to discuss the beating in the AP interview last week. However, he said he hopes to use his case to bring attention to Lindner's alleged abuse, as well as to heighten awareness of clergy sex abuse and encourage other victims to come forward.

"He took my faith, he took my innocence, he took my sense of self," Lynch said of Lindner. "He raped me, he tortured me, he violated me in every single way, and he completely changed who I was supposed to be forever."

"I think there's an opportunity here with this media attention that I can possibly ... help people seek justice," Lynch said.

Investigators say they have strong evidence that Lynch carried out the beating. However, defense attorney Pat Harris has countered by suggesting that the priest had many victims and enemies and that any number of people could have attacked him. At least 10 people have accused Lindner of molestation, including family members.

Harris says that could allow the defense to bring the priest's other accusers as witnesses in a trial that would portray Lynch as a sympathetic victim.

Experts say that is unlikely.

"I can understand why he might believe that this might be a good method of shedding light on what happened years ago, but it's unlikely that at trial the evidence of the alleged abuse would be admitted," said Rebecca Lonergan, a former federal and state prosecutor who now teaches law at the University of Southern California's Gould School of Law.

"The law does not allow you to go and assault somebody who did something to you 35 years ago."

Prosecutor Vicki Gemetti with the Santa Clara County district attorney's office declined to comment on the case.

The Rev. John McGarry, provincial for the Jesuits of the California Province, said the abuse allegations against Lindner had already been aired publicly.

"The allegations against Rev. Lindner are well-documented and the issue the judge is dealing with now is the assault that took place on our property," McGarry said.

In a federal lawsuit alleging negligence and vicarious liability by the Vatican, Lynch said that in May 1975 Lindner raped and tortured the brothers and forced them to have oral sex with each other while he watched during a camping trip at Portola Redwoods State Park. The suit was filed Oct. 27, two days before Lynch turned himself into the authorities for the alleged beating.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office investigated Lindner eight years ago for allegedly molesting his brother's children years before. But those allegations fell outside the statute of limitations, said William Hodgman, a deputy district attorney, and the probe was dropped when other possible victims refused to cooperate.

Lindner's younger sister and several nieces and nephews have accused Lindner of abuse, as have several women whose families were friendly with him when they were children. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles also settled two cases involving Lindner in its record-breaking $660 million payout in 2007.

Harris said he believes jurors will hear some of the sex allegations at Lynch's trial.

"I will tell you 100 percent we will get in the story of what happened to Will and his brother and I also believe we'll get in the evidence of abuse of others," Harris said.

In the meantime, Harris said he has received hundreds of inquiries from clergy sex abuse victims who want to contribute to a legal defense fund, and he is working on setting up a fund and establishing a website for Lynch's case.

Lynch's mother, Peggy Lynch, was one of those gathered to support her son.

"I certainly hope our son is not punished too strongly for this. We hope this is speaking to the church, because this man ruined the lives of not just the victims, but the families," she said, choking up. "I hope everyone sees these signs and takes them to heart."

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/ap/ap-exclusive-suspect-turns-case-against-priest-107653833.html

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Police detain minor accused of working for cartel as gunmen in Mexico's drug war get younger

MEXICO CITY — Mexican police on Friday detained a minor accused of working as a gunman for a drug cartel after shocking videos and photos surfaced online of fresh-faced boys mugging for the camera with guns and corpses.

One video, briefly posted on YouTube, showed a youth, apparently in his teens, confessing to working for a branch of the Beltran Leyva cartel. While the authenticity of the video could not be determined, cartels in Mexico frequently post such interrogation videos to expose their rivals' crimes.

The youth tells an unseen questioner that his gang was paid $3,000 per killing.

"When we don't find the rivals, we kill innocent people, maybe a construction worker or a taxi driver," the youth is heard saying.

Pedro Luis Benitez, the attorney general of central Morelos state, told a local radio station Friday that police had detained a minor who allegedly worked as a gunman for a drug cartel and were looking for another. He did not say whether the minor who was detained or the one being sought had appeared online.

While Benitez did not give the age of the suspects, he implied they were young enough to be playing with toy guns.

"It is easy for them (criminals) to give them a firearm, making it appear as it if were a plastic weapon and that it is a game, when in fact it is not," Benitez said.

Local media reported police were seeking a 12-year-old killer nicknamed "El Ponchis," but there was no confirmation of that from prosecutors.

President Felipe Calderon, who launched the offensive against cartels in 2006, acknowledged several months ago that "in the most violent areas of the country, there is an unending recruitment of young people without hope, without opportunities."

Suspects under 18 are prosecuted in a separate legal system for youthful offenders for most crime in Mexico. But there are growing calls for both that and the nation's overcrowded adult prison system to be revamped.

Mexico has more than doubled the number of people in federal prisons in the last two years as part of the country's crackdown on drug cartels, the country's top cop said Friday. While the federal prison system had about 4,500 inmates in 2008, there are now 11,000.

"Where more disorder exists, there will be more violence," said Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna. "The penitentiaries can be places where not only do people complete their punishments, but where future delinquent conduct is prevented."

He cited one prison in particular, Islas Marias, which has seen its inmate population quadruple since 2006. Located off the coast of Sinaloa state, the prison now houses 3,946 inmates, up from 915.

"We are trying to abate the deficit of space and modernize our prison system," he said.

In the case of Islas Marias, the government expanded so it can now house more than 5,000 inmates, but more needs to be done, especially as cartel violence continues, Garcia Luna said.

In recent years the government has detained thousands of suspected drug traffickers. In addition to the eight federal prisons, the country has 92 state and 333 municipal jails. The most dangerous nonfederal criminals are housed in the federal prisons.

More than 28,000 Mexicans have been killed since late 2006 in drug-related violence, and 2010 is on track to be the bloodiest so far.

In Acapulco on Friday, three men were shot to death in separate incidents, including one found dead on Costera Miguel Aleman, the main boulevard of the tourist zone. In all three cases, police in the Guerrero state had no motive for the killings or suspects.

In Morelia, the state capital of Michoacan, two billboards put up by the federal Attorney General's Office offering rewards for information about members of La Familia cartel were found torched.

The burning came a day after a letter surfaced purportedly signed by "La Familia Michoacana." It claimed the cartel wants to protect Michoacan and its residents and says the group will disband if federal police promise to act honestly and fight to the death to defend the state. There was no way to know whether the letter was legitimate.

Federal officials say the cartel is responsible for the state's bloodshed — including the deaths of 18 officers last year. Last week, in response to the arrest of two alleged cartel members, the gang set trucks on fire to block entries to Morelia and sprayed a shopping mall with automatic-weapons fire, according to the state attorney general's office.

Meanwhile, the Mexican government plans to auction luxury jewelry and cars, planes and helicopters seized from drug traffickers and use the money to help pay for its campaign against organized crime.

The items to be auctioned next Thursday and Friday include a Rolex watch made of 18-karat white gold and encrusted with 60 white diamonds and a gold ring with a 12.25-carat diamond that will start bidding at $114,000.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/world/police-detain-minor-accused-of-working-for-cartel-as-gunmen-in-mexicos-drug-war-get-younger-107712028.html

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From the Department of Justice

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Three Men Charged in Albuquerque, N.M., with Federal Hate Crimes Related to Assault of Disabled Navajo Man

WASHINGTON - A federal grand jury indicted three men in Albuquerque, N.M., on federal hate crime charges related to a racially-motivated assault of a 22-year-old man of Navajo descent who has a significant cognitive impairment.

Paul Beebe, 27, William Hatch, 29, and Jesse Sanford, 25, all of Farmington, N.M., have been charged with one count of conspiracy and one count of violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act that was enacted in October 2009. More specifically, the indictment alleges that the defendants branded the victim by heating a wire hanger on a stove and burning the victim's flesh, causing a permanent swastika-shaped scar on his arm. It is alleged that as part of the plan and purpose of their conspiracy, the defendants further defaced the victim's body with white supremacist and anti-Native American symbols, including shaving a swastika in the back of the victim's head and using marker to write the words "KKK" and "White Power" within the lines of the swastika. The indictment also alleges that the defendants took advantage of the victim's developmental disability to induce him to make a cell phone video in which he purportedly consents to the branding.

This case is being investigated by the FBI's Albuquerque Division in cooperation with the Farmington Police Department and the San Juan County District Attorney's Office. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Roberto D. Ortega for the District of New Mexico and Special Litigation Counsel Gerard Hogan and Trial Attorney Fara Gold of the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division.

An indictment is merely an accusation, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/November/10-crt-1291.html

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From ICE

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ICE captures international fugitive residing in Central Florida wanted for rape of a 12-year-old child and extortion

OCALA, Fla. - Today, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents and officers arrested a Belgian man in Ocala who is wanted in his home country for child rape and extortion.

ICE, assisted by the Marion County Sheriff's Office, administratively arrested Andy Vertoont, 31, a native of Belgium, at his Ocala place of employment for being in violation of U.S. immigration law.

Vertoont remains in ICE custody pending his removal to Belgium, where he is wanted on an arrest warrant for the June 2009 rape of a 12 year-old-boy in Belgium. He had been arrested in Belgium and conditionally released prior to his trial. Shortly thereafter, he fled to the United States to avoid prosecution in Belgium.

He is further accused of extorting 12,000 Euros (approximately $17,000 in U.S. currency) from an individual in Belgium, where he allegedly threatened to physically harm the individual if he did not pay the money.

Vertoont was previously arrested, convicted and sentenced in Belgium in 2001 for raping two children, ages 11 and 12.

"Criminals who think that they can use the United States as a safe haven are sorely mistaken," said Susan McCormick, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Tampa, Fla. "ICE is committed to ensuring the integrity of our nation's immigration system. As such, it is one of our top priorities to locate foreign fugitives hiding in the United States and turn them over to our foreign law enforcement partners to face justice in their native countries."

ICE HSI special agents in Orlando initiated an investigation as a result of a request for assistance from the Belgian Federal Police and the ICE Attaché office in Brussels.

Vertoont last entered the United States on Oct. 1, 2009, on a visa waiver not to extend beyond 90 days and he remained in the United States beyond 90 days without authorization.

ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE . This hotline is staffed around the clock by investigators.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1011/101112ocala.htm

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8 leaders of violent Los Angeles-area gang indicted on state extortion charges

Multi-agency probe spearheaded by ICE and LAPD targeted Canoga Park Alabama gang

LOS ANGELES - Eight men believed to be leaders of the violent Canoga Park Alabama street gang based in the San Fernando Valley pleaded not guilty Friday to state conspiracy and extortion charges that, with the accompanying gang sentencing enhancement, could send them to prison for life.

The defendants are named in an 11-count state grand jury indictment unsealed Friday by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Patricia M. Schnegg. Six of the case targets were arrested Nov. 4 in an operation spearheaded by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). The remaining two defendants were already in custody on unrelated charges.

The indictment is the culmination of a nearly two-year multi-agency investigation focusing on the Canoga Park Alabama gang's suspected involvement with extortion. The indictment alleges that between Oct. 1, 2009, and Oct. 31 of this year, the defendants demanded and collected "taxes" from street narcotics dealers in return for allowing those dealers to operate on the gang's turf.

The indictment was returned Oct. 28 by the grand jury. Because the charged offenses were allegedly committed with the intention of benefiting a criminal street gang, prosecutors in the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office are seeking a "gang enhancement," making the defendants subject to a maximum penalty of life in prison if they are convicted. They are being held on $1 million bail each.

"I applaud this multi-agency effort at striking a strategic blow to one of the Valley's most ruthless gangs," District Attorney Steve Cooley said.

Those charged in the case are:

• Octavio "Sinner" Garcia, 30, of Canoga Park.;
• Joseph "Lil Man" Encinas, 28, of Canoga Park;
• Osvaldo "Babo" Sanchez, 22, of Canoga Park;
• Alejandro "Sicko" Flores, 23, of Canoga Park;
• Ramiro "Speedy" Mendoza, 37, of West Hills.;
• Jaime "Jimmy" Valenzuela, 29, of Canoga Park;
• Braulio "Necio" Garcia, 24, of Canoga Park; and
• Jairo Melendez, 31, of Canoga Park.

Last week's operation was the latest enforcement action in an investigation initiated by ICE HSI and the LAPD in February 2009. Prior to this month, investigators had made 45 other federal and state criminal arrests in the case, as well as 12 arrests on administrative immigration violations.

ICE's HSI's participation in the investigation is part of the agency's ongoing nationwide anti-gang initiative known as Operation Community Shield. Under Operation Community Shield, the agency is using its powerful immigration and customs authorities in a coordinated, national campaign against criminal street gangs across the country.

"Our collective enforcement efforts in this case have dealt a severe blow to one of the most dangerous street gangs here in the Los Angeles area," Claude Arnold, special agent in charge of ICE HSI in Los Angeles. "These arrests should be very welcome news for a community that has seen firsthand the blight of violence, hate and crime that gangs like this incite."

LAPD's Deputy Chief Kirk J. Albanese, commanding officer of operations with the Valley Bureau, said Canoga Park Alabama has been involved in violent crime in the San Fernando Valley for a many years. "As a result of their criminal activity, the community has lived in fear for far too long," he said.

Added Albanese, "The hate based criminal activities that have become a staple for this gang will never be tolerated. These arrests will mark the beginning of the end for this violent criminal street gang."

Deputy Albanese thanked Homeland Security Investigations for their strong efforts as the lead agency in this investigation. He also thanked the Federal Bureau of Investigation -Civil Rights Bureau, the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department and all of the agencies that participated in this multi-agency effort.

ICE HSI and the LAPD received substantial assistance in the case and with the Nov. 4 operation from the FBI, the California Department of Corrections Parole Division, the Los Angeles County Probation Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1011/111012losangeles.htm

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From the FBI

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Inside Cargo Theft 

A multi-billion-dollar problem of cargo theft and its national security implications.

November 12, 2010

You probably don't hear much about cargo theft on the news, but it poses a real and rising threat to our country' s economy and national security. During the past five years, the groups involved in this crime have become better organized and more violent…and the price tag associated with the thefts is increasing.

Defining the problem. Cargo is any commercial shipment moving via trucks, planes, rail cars, ships, etc., from point of origin to final destination. If merchandise is stolen at any point in between—highway, truck stop, storage facility, warehouse, terminal, wharf, etc.—then it's considered cargo theft.

Scope of the problem. Because cargo theft statistics have never, until recently, been a separate reportable category in the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) and because many companies don't report cargo crimes (to avoid bad publicity, higher insurance rates, damage to reputation, embarrassment, etc.), the exact dollar losses aren't known. Industry experts estimate all cargo thefts ring up as much as $30 billion in losses each year.

Cargo theft has many victims, from employees (i.e., drivers, warehouse workers) who can be hurt during an armed hijacking or robbery....to retailers who lose merchandise…to consumers who pay as much as 20 percent more to make up for cargo theft…to state and local governments who lose sales tax revenue…and even to insurance companies, manufacturers, and shipping companies.

What's being stolen? Any product being shipped is potentially a target, but cigarettes, pharmaceuticals, and especially computer/electronic components are current high-value favorites being re-sold on the black market.

Law enforcement response. Since the FBI's jurisdiction doesn't kick in until an interstate nexus is achieved, many of the cargo thefts in the U.S. are investigated by local law enforcement. But even when we get involved, we focus on criminal enterprises engaged in systemic or violent criminal acts. And if a case has an international nexus (as many do), we work with our legal attachés overseas, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and our international partners.

We have also joined forces with state and local law enforcement agencies on seven cargo theft task forces in five cities that are key transportation hubs—Miami, El Paso, Chicago, New York, and Memphis.

One interesting fact about cargo crime: it's usually a “gateway” crime. In many instances, a cargo theft investigation will turn into a case involving organized crime, public corruption, health care fraud, insurance fraud, drug trafficking, money laundering, or possibly even terrorism. Criminal groups use the illegal proceeds they gain from stealing cargo to fund their criminal operations. And the fear is that terrorists could use their proceeds to launch attacks or fund training.

Industry assistance. Of course, law enforcement couldn't effectively investigate cargo theft without the assistance of our retail and transportation industry partners. They:

• Provide transportation help—i.e., trucking, shipping, and storing stolen goods for us;
  
  
• Provide merchandise, warehouse equipment, and trucks for use in our undercover operations; and
  
  
• Sometimes even have their own forensic labs to assist in the analysis of certain types of evidence.

And with the addition of the cargo theft category to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting System, once police are fully trained to identify and report such crimes, we should have a much better picture of the overall cargo theft problem and will be able to use our resources more strategically.

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2010/november/cargo_111210/cargo_111210

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Tennessee Man Sentenced for Illegally Accessing Former Governor Sarah Palin's E-Mail Account and Obstructing Justice

WASHINGTON—David C. Kernell, 23, today was sentenced to one year and one day in prison for intentionally accessing without authorization the e-mail account of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and obstructing justice, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney William C. Killian for the Eastern District of Tennessee. U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Phillips also imposed a three-year term of supervised released. In imposing the prison sentence, Judge Phillips recommended service at Midway Sanction Center, but noted that the Bureau of Prisons would decide where Kernell would serve his sentence.

On April 30, 2010, after a week-long trial, a jury found Kernell guilty of one count of misdemeanor unauthorized access to obtain information from a computer and one count of obstruction of justice. The jury found Kernell not guilty of wire fraud. The jury could not reach a verdict on the identity theft charge and the judge declared a mistrial as to that charge.

According to evidence presented at trial, on Sept. 16, 2008, Kernell, a resident of Knoxville, Tenn., obtained unauthorized access to former Gov. Palin's personal e-mail account by resetting the account password. Evidence showed that after answering a series of security questions that allowed him to reset the password and gain access to the e-mail account, Kernell read the contents of the account and made screenshots of the e-mail directory, e-mail content, and other personal information. Kernell posted screenshots of the e-mails and other personal information to a public website. Kernell also posted the new e-mail account password that he had created, thus providing access to the account by others.

Evidence at trial showed that Kernell became aware on Sept. 16, 2008, after the illegal entry into the e-mail account, of a possible FBI investigation. Evidence showed that Kernell began a series of deletions of records and documents with the intent to impede an anticipated FBI investigation.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Krotoski currently detailed to the Criminal Division's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Weddle of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee. CCIPS Trial Attorney Josh Goldfoot provided significant assistance. The case was investigated by the FBI's Knoxville field office.

http://knoxville.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel10/kx111210.htm

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From the DEA

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Heroin Mill Dismantled in Theater District: 28 Pounds of Drugs
worth $6.5 Million Seized

NOV 12 -- (Manhattan, NY) JOHN P. GILBRIDE, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's New York Field Division ("DEA"), BRIDGET G. BRENNAN, New York City Police Commissioner RAYMOND W. KELLY and New York State Police Acting Superintendent JOHN P. MELVILLE announced today the seizure of 13 kilograms of heroin worth approximately $6.5 million and the arrests of 4 individuals at an apartment building located at 417 W. 43 rd Street in Manhattan.

As a result of this investigation, the DEA's New York Drug Enforcement Task Force set up surveillance outside the apartment building over the past several days. Yesterday afternoon, investigators observed one individual worker exit the apartment building with a large plastic garbage bag and place it in a black BMW. The driver of the car attempted to speed off as investigators identified themselves and approached the car. His escape was blocked by traffic at the corner of 43 rd Street and 10 th Avenue and investigators were able to make the arrest. A garbage bag in the car contained refuse from heroin production, including damaged “glassine” envelopes and other packaging material.

Members of the DEA New York Drug Enforcement Task Force and Investigators from the Special Narcotics Prosecutor's Office proceeded inside the apartment building to secure the heroin mill. They interrupted three heroin mill workers who had been busily packing heroin into user-ready “glassine” envelopes in the ground-floor, duplex apartment. Two workers tried to escape, leaving behind at least 250,000 glassines, much of it wrapped into bundles shrouded in glossy magazine paper. Each glassine sells for at least ten dollars on the street.

Piles of loose heroin and assorted drug packaging paraphernalia sat on tables where the defendants had been working assembly line-style. Several coffee grinders used to cut the drug with a diluting substance rested on the floor nearby. Many of the glassines were already stamped with the brand names, including “King Kong”, “Jersey Boys” and “95 South”, a reference to the interstate highway easily accessible through the nearby Lincoln Tunnel.

One worker was arrested inside the apartment, while two slipped out a back door. Investigators found them huddled in a recessed doorway in a concrete courtyard. Pursuant to a search warrant, agents recovered 13 kilograms (28.6 pounds) of heroin and an undetermined amount of bundled cash. They also seized more than 50 additional stamps used to brand the heroin and thousands of empty glassine envelopes waiting to be filled. The drug ring occupied the newly renovated apartment two blocks from Times Square, which rents for $3,800 per month and is located, for approximately two weeks.

DEA Special Agent in Charge John P. Gilbride stated, “Heroin trafficking in the New York City area continues to rise and pose significant health and safety concerns for the public.  This heroin distribution mill in the heart of Manhattan, pushing out “Jersey Boys” and “Cats & Dogs” branded heroin, underscores the drug traffickers' determination to pump their poison onto the streets of New York City and beyond. This seizure has taken over six million dollars worth of heroin out of the drug traffickers' pipeline.”

Mr. Gilbride praised the outstanding investigative work of the DEA's New York Drug Enforcement Task Force Group T-41-- which is comprised of agents and officers of the DEA, the New York Police Department, and the New York State Police. He also expressed gratitude to Investigators of the New York City Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor.

The four defendants are expected to be arraigned later at Manhattan Criminal Court today on charges of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the first degree later today.

The charges and allegations are merely accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

http://www.justice.gov/dea/pubs/states/newsrel/2010/nyc111210.html

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