From the Los Angeles Times

Kim and Rick Creed look at the Christmas display in front of their home in Rancho Cucamonga.

Holiday decorations with a somber theme A Rancho Cucamonga couple cover their house with twinkling lights and show photos of military personnel as a tribute to their son, who was killed in Iraq. by Corina Knoll, Los Angeles Times December 25, 2010 These lights flicker for a fallen son. Altogether they number nearly 30,000 — tiny bulbs of red, green, white and blue that flash in sync with a melody from two speakers. Stretched around a home, a garage and the lawn ornaments in between, they make this Rancho Cucamonga residence sparkle from two streets away. But the heart of the display is a more understated affair. Up in the small second-floor bedroom window, a projector shows hundreds of photos of military personnel. Among the young faces is Cpl. Matthew Wallace Creed, a 23-year-old with smiling brown eyes who was killed four years ago by a sniper in Baghdad.

"Oh my goodness, he grew up so much," Rick said. "He held himself differently. The smart aleck was still there, but the tomfoolery was gone."

Matt was stationed in South Korea before heading to Ft. Hood, a military post in Texas. In 2005, he and his girlfriend Ashley married at a church in Covina. He deployed to Iraq that December.

The next October, Kim received a call from Matt while sitting in her car outside a grocery store. He had just signed his release papers and would be home in 45 days. Kim felt uneasy. Stories of soldiers killed shortly before discharge were common.

As the call was about to end, Matt said he was heading into a dangerous situation he couldn't discuss. "Don't worry, the angels are watching over you," Kim told him. She hung up, but sat frozen in her car.

She learned later that her son died hours after that conversation.

The winter of Matt's death echoed with grief. Kim had nightmares of Matt as a child lying in a coffin begging to not be buried alive. Rick wept at random moments, set off by a song, a memory. They barely acknowledged the holidays.

It wasn't until two years after Matt's death that Rick saw an outlet for their ache. After attending a performance by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, he perused their website and saw instructions on how to synchronize holiday lights with songs. Rick visited a house with animated lights that also happened to have a military theme. He fought back tears. "I could do that for Matt," he thought.

Over the next year, he bought controllers, cords and computer software and learned the painstaking craft of setting lights in motion to music, each song taking about eight hours to program. As he threw himself into the task, the city started posting hundreds of portraits of locals serving in the military on banners around town. The Creeds photographed the banners and worked them into their slide show.

The project passed the time and replaced the dread that had come to accompany the holidays, when their son's absence cut deeply. Before his death, the couple had looked forward to decorating for Christmas and won several contests for their displays.

The Creeds designed the layout of the lights, winding them along the eaves of the house, around a train set and props of Santa Claus and eight reindeer. They incorporated the Christmas tree that was once beside Matt's grave in a tiny pot but had grown to 8 feet tall after being replanted in the frontyard.

Kim, who had prescription sleeping pills to get her through the night, found that focusing on the light show offered more relief than the vacant feeling of medication. Rick had found a hobby.

"I don't know if it helps or not, but it definitely doesn't hurt," he said. "The one thing I figured out is you have this energy — whether it's being angry or being very sad, there's an energy and you have to do something with it."

Their son would have liked to see them doing something productive. He also would have loved the attention, they joked.

They unveiled the display last year during the first weekend in December. Passersby who tuned to the right station could hear the music inside their cars. The addition of a voiceover artist made it sound like a radio show.

Slowly, word caught on and cars began to pause outside the tan house at 11426 Tioga Peak Court. People left notes or knocked, wanting to offer thanks. Some had relatives in the military. Others didn't notice the slide show, too caught up in the dancing lights. The Creeds would sneak peeks at older spectators, watching their faces turn childlike. Sometimes they went outside to offer hot cocoa or cider to visitors.

"It's almost a little overwhelming in some ways because it's nothing that we expected," Kim said.

This year, they doubled the lights, added a 20-foot electric tree and better speakers. The neighbors had one request: Crank up the volume. Some even asked that their own homes be included. The Creeds play the show every night from 5 to 10 and have heard no complaints.

Rick, who works for an air-conditioning company, says the show has become an obsession and they plan to continue every holiday season. Next year, they may add tributes to local firefighters and police officers, but the project will always be in honor of a child lost to war.

"I consider my job at this point in life to make sure that Matt's out there all the time, and to honor and respect the veterans who are out there still today," he said.

On a drizzly night in December, Rick stands across the street from his house under an umbrella, quietly watching the flashes of red, green, blue and white. He and Kim never tire of the repetitive songs or the steady stream of motorists that track down their home, even in the dreariest of weather.

Tonight, the sky is nearly black, a backdrop that contrasts with every twinkle. At times like these, a mother and father's salute to a departed son is even more apparent.

Matt lives on in lights.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-1225-christmas-salute-20101223,0,2980117.story

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Juries are giving pot defendants a pass

In cases involving small amounts of marijuana, some people aren't willing to uphold the law in court.

By Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times

December 24, 2010

Reporting from Seattle

It seemed a straightforward case: A man with a string of convictions and a reputation as a drug dealer was going on trial in Montana for distributing a small amount of marijuana found in his home — if only the court could find jurors willing to send someone to jail for selling a few marijuana buds.

The problem began during jury selection last week in Missoula, when a potential juror said she would have a "real problem" convicting someone for selling such a small amount. But she would follow the law if she had to, she said.

A woman behind her was adamant. "I can't do it," she said, prompting Judge Robert L. Deschamps III to excuse her. Another juror raised a hand, the judge recalled, "and said, 'I was convicted of marijuana possession a few years ago, and it ruined my life.' " Excused.

"Then one of the people in the jury box said, 'Tell me, how much marijuana are we talking about? … If it was a pound or a truckload or something like that, OK, but I'm not going to convict someone of a sale with two or three buds,' " the judge said. "And at that point, four or five additional jurors spontaneously raised their hands and said, 'Me too.' "

By that time, Deschamps knew he had a jury problem.

"I was thinking, maybe I'll have to call a mistrial," he said. "We've got a lot of citizens obviously that are not willing to hold people accountable for sales in small amounts, or at least have some deep misgivings about it. And I think if I excuse a quarter or a third of a jury panel just to get people who are willing to convict, is that really a fair representation of the community? I mean, people are supposed to be tried by a jury of their peers."

The Missoula court's dilemma was unusual, yet it reflects a phenomenon that prosecutors say they are increasingly mindful of as marijuana use wins growing legal and public tolerance: Some jurors may be reluctant to convict for an offense many people no longer regard as serious.

"It's not on a level where it's become a problem. But we'll hear, 'I think marijuana should be legal, I'm not going to follow the law,' " said Mark Lindquist, prosecuting attorney in Pierce County, Wash. "We tell them, 'We're not here to debate the laws. We're here to decide whether or not somebody broke the law.' "

Twelve states plus the District of Columbia have decriminalized possession of small quantities of marijuana. Led by California in 1996, 17 states have laws that allow medical use of marijuana.

But federal authorities have continued to pursue prosecutions in those states, prompting increasing calls among drug-law reform advocates for juries to follow their consciences and refuse to convict — a legal concept known as jury nullification, widely used during Prohibition and in the Jim Crow-era South.

"This is one of the first times in a number of years there's a general discussion around this powerful but rarely used jury tool," said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "But going back 20 years plus, there's been some tumult in the courts where the issue is cannabis and the person being prosecuted wants to turn to the jury and say, 'Yes, I am guilty, and here's why.' "

The phenomenon is difficult to measure, St. Pierre and several others said, because the term "jury nullification" is rarely invoked; defendants with substantial evidence against them are simply acquitted, or juries deadlock.

"Sometimes, we're not told what the reason was, whether it was nullification or they just had a factual question about the case; we just don't know," said Ian Goodhew, deputy chief of staff for the King County prosecutor's office in Seattle.

"Some [prospective] jurors will honestly tell us that they don't think they can follow the law because they think the law's wrong and should be changed. At that point, we ask the judge to consider dismissing them," he said. "As attitudes change more and more, that's a problem we could face in trying cases to a jury. You could have that issue trying before a judge too if a judge has a strong opinion on the validity and necessity of those kinds of laws."

St. Pierre said he was convinced that was what happened in the case of Northern California pot activist Ed Rosenthal, whose conviction on federal charges in 2003 prompted prosecutors to seek a 6½-year sentence. Rosenthal instead was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer to a single day — in part reflecting the dismay of eight jurors who said after the trial that they would have voted to acquit Rosenthal had they known his pot was intended for medicinal use.

"The judge nullified the law," St. Pierre said. "He totally ignored the sentencing guidelines."

Last year in Illinois, which has no medical marijuana law, Vietnam veteran Loren Swift, who says he uses marijuana to relieve pain and post-traumatic stress, was charged in LaSalle County after police found 25 pounds of marijuana and 50 pounds of marijuana plants in his home. He was acquitted after only two hours of jury deliberations.

"Some of the jurors got up and they started hugging the guy," said Peter Siena, the deputy prosecutor who tried the case.

"It's becoming an increasing problem. People just don't seem to care about marijuana cases anymore," said Brian Towne, the LaSalle County prosecuting attorney.

The issue is ripe in Montana, which is home to the headquarters of the Fully Informed Jury Assn., a national group that encourages jurors to nullify laws they believe are unjust.

Jury nullification never became an issue in the Missoula drug case; there was never a jury. While Deschamps was wrestling with what to do during a recess, the defendant, Touray Cornell, agreed to accept a conviction on a felony count of distribution of his one-sixteenth of an ounce of dangerous drugs. He was sentenced to 20 years, with 19 years suspended to run concurrently with the sentence on another conviction for conspiring to stage a set-up robbery at a casino.

The prosecutor, Andrew Paul, declined to discuss the case, except to say that Cornell's neighbors had been "complaining about his brazen drug dealing."

"The jury of course knew none of that stuff," Deschamps said. "What they knew was some guy here was charged with criminal sale of a very small amount of marijuana. Were they going to hang him for that?"

The judge, a former prosecutor, said he voted for Montana's medical marijuana initiative in 2004, which has become highly controversial in part because its beneficiaries have become so numerous: More than 12,000 residents hold cards entitling them to use the drug for sometimes doubtful medicinal purposes.

"My personal view, I think for the most part we should legalize marijuana and be done with it. Because I think it's created way more havoc and trouble than it's worth," Deschamps said. "But when you get some guy [like Cornell] that just comes and rubs it in your face.…"

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-marijuana-juries-20101225,0,664678,print.story

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From wash to spin dry, a haven from the grit of L.A.'s skid row

A laundromat and showers next door offer a respite from the streets. The attendant lends her ear as well. 'You think that you have problems, then you listen to some of these stories,' she says.

By Kate Linthicum, Los Angeles Times

December 25, 2010

Brenda Sanford has spent the last two decades as the desk attendant at the only public laundromat on skid row.

She does more than just help people choose the right wash cycle and retrieve money from jammed dryers.

"They come in here with their problems and I talk to them, listen to them and feedback them," Sanford said. "You think that you have problems, then you listen to some of these stories."

From her perch behind the counter, Sanford keeps an eye on those coming through the door, some toting garbage bags stuffed with clothes and the blankets they use as sidewalk bedding. There have been scuffles in the past, but most of the people who come here "are really so grateful," Sanford said. "They're happy just to have a place to come, and they respect it."

They're especially grateful on stormy days.

On Monday, when some stretches of downtown resembled the Venice canals and the gray looked like it might never lift, Warren Earl Rudolph walked in, shook water from his hair and placed a bag of potato chips on the counter in front of Sanford.

"It was the last bag," he said with a smile.

"Thank you, baby," she said, smiling back.

Rudolph had no laundry to do that day, but he had come to check in on Sanford, his old friend, and to dodge the rain for a minute. Rudolph has lived on the streets of skid row since the late 1970s.

The laundromat is a service of Lamp Community, a homeless advocacy organization. Next door the group provides men's and women's bathrooms and showers, which Sanford also manages.

She hands out hand-wrapped parcels of tissues and sells towels for $1.

A man named Ray always brings his own. He spends about an hour a day at the showers, washing, shampooing and — because you never know when you're going to meet a woman you want to impress — applying deodorant and a splash of cologne.

"I go the 15 yards," he said, patting the top of his head.

In the mornings, the line for the showers sometimes stretches out the door. The blue-and-white-tiled stalls are cleaned after every use and are monitored by Lamp staff.

Occasionally addicts sneak their drugs in.

"Some dudes go in there, take a hit and can't even come out of the stall," said William Thurman, who was pushing a mop Monday.

The showers usually cost 75 cents. But last month an anonymous donor gave Lamp's clients a Christmas gift: free showers until New Year's.

Ray said he was thankful. A warm shower, he said, could help ease the trauma of life on the streets.

"People ain't got nowhere to go," he said. "They go from mission to mission. They've been on the streets all night and all day. They've done messed up their money. What they need in the morning is a shower."

Besides, he said, "Who wants to be funky? You want to be funky? I don't think so."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-adv-skid-row-laundry-20101224,0,6664005.story

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From the New York Times

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A Brutal Attack Outside a School Continues to Horrify One Year Later

Around 4 p.m. on Oct. 24 of last year, Cynthia Avalos saw a short young man with close-cropped brown hair walking near Richmond High School, drunk.

Ms. Avalos said she recognized him as Manuel Ortega, a friend who lived next door to her at a transitional housing complex in Richmond. She said she liked Mr. Ortega, whom she described as a quiet skateboarder, but also feared his mood swings when he drank. He earned the nickname Tweaker for his erratic behavior.

Mr. Ortega, then 19, made his way to a courtyard next to the school. As darkness fell, he mixed with a disparate group of boys and men outside the homecoming dance, drinking alcohol beneath the dim lights and a broken security camera. There were other skaters, members of a clique called the P-Coat Mafia and others who the authorities said ranged in age from 15 to 43.

The chilling story of what happened that night has taken shape over the past month inside a Martinez courtroom, as a prosecutor presented evidence concerning that night's alleged gang rape of a 16-year-old Richmond High sophomore. The preliminary hearing ended Tuesday afternoon with a judge ordering six men, including Mr. Ortega, to stand trial.

While evidence remains fragmentary, the hearing shed light on a case that drew international attention and prompted soul-searching far beyond violence-plagued Richmond. Testimony suggested that the crime was even more brutal than was previously known, as assailants allegedly raped, punched, stomped and urinated upon the nearly unconscious girl over the course of two hours in front of numerous onlookers.

Mr. Ortega emerged as a central figure at the hearing. After his arrest, a drunk and violent Mr. Ortega told detectives that the intoxicated girl wanted to have sex with him and that he struck her because she wouldn't stop crying, investigators testified. His actions ignited a “mob mentality,” said Dara Cashman, the Contra Costa County prosecutor.

In later interviews with detectives, Mr. Ortega, now 20, denied raping the girl. His lawyer, Jack Funk, a public defender, said witness statements given to the police, including accounts that Mr. Ortega tried to penetrate the victim with a skateboard, were unreliable.

The prosecutor “is picking through and asserting these statements must be accurate, but there was an awful lot of confusion,” Mr. Funk said in closing arguments.

The judge, Gregory Caskey of Contra Costa County Superior Court, ruled that the evidence supported numerous charges against Mr. Ortega, including forcible rape while acting in concert and penetration by a foreign object. Mr. Ortega and the five other defendants are scheduled to be arraigned Jan. 10.

Mr. Ortega's story — pieced together from court testimony and interviews with friends and the police — provides insight into an alleged crime that involved several suspects. DNA evidence was discovered on the victim from four people who have not been identified, according to testimony.

“There are other people who should be sitting in this courtroom today, “ Ms. Cashman said at the hearing.

By all accounts, none of those assembled in the courtyard that night called the police as the girl was allegedly brutalized.

“There's such a variety of groups that don't even know each other,” Sgt. Lori Curran, the lead investigator on the case, said in an interview. “The skaters. Little taggers and graffiti guys. Looky-loos who didn't choose to say anything for fear of what would happen to them.”

Friends said that at the time of the assault, Mr. Ortega was unemployed, had just started receiving food stamps and had just found a place to live after nearly a year of homelessness. He had run away from home at 15, and was later caught burglarizing a house. Upon his release from juvenile hall at 18, a former caretaker said, he stayed at a homeless shelter and with friends.

Mr. Ortega eventually began seeing a therapist and taking Seroquel, a medication used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, his friends said. Though the medication helped control his mood swings, they said he often abused it by drinking alcohol and doubling his doses. Around June 2009, Ms. Avalos said, Mr. Ortega moved in next door. She said that at the time of the crime, Mr. Ortega had stopped taking his medication and was drinking more frequently.

“When he's intoxicated and he stopped taking his medication, that's when he starts acting kind of suicidal,” Ms. Avalos said. “He would lash out. He would just, like, start fights with people for the dumbest reasons.”

Although Mr. Ortega did not attend Richmond High, he frequently hung out in the courtyard, according to acquaintances. The area was known as a place where people congregated to drink and smoke marijuana without fear of being caught.

“To be honest, man, back then, we'd go to the back, have a couple drinks and everything,” said Victor Santamaria, who said he is a friend of one of the defendants. “We knew the cameras didn't work.”

According to testimony, the victim left the dance about 9:30 p.m. and was about to call her father for a ride when a 15-year-old Richmond High male student invited her to the courtyard to drink. On Tuesday, Judge Caskey ordered the police to release that boy, who is now 16, after ruling that the police had violated his rights during interrogation.

The girl, an English honors student, wore a glittery purple gown, a diamond necklace and silver shoes, according to testimony. She stood barely five feet tall and weighed about 100 pounds. The girl drank brandy with the group. According to testimony, she told detectives that she remembered getting dizzy and passing out. A pediatrician testified that her blood alcohol level the morning after was 0.355, a concentration that can cause unconsciousness and possible death.

Detectives said that after the victim collapsed and vomited, Mr. Ortega removed her underwear and pantyhose as she moved in and out of consciousness. Witnesses said Mr. Ortega first tried to force the victim to perform oral sex on him and began punching her and kicking her in the head when she either refused or was unable to.

Mr. Ortega told the police that as he tried to pull off her necklace, the victim scratched his neck, and he resumed pummeling her, according to testimony.

After Mr. Ortega's assault, others in the crowd joined in the attack, according to testimony.

A Richmond police detective, Todd Kaiser, testified that he arrived at the high school around 11:45 p.m. and discovered the girl folded over a crossbar beneath a picnic table with her dress hiked up over her back. He said he initially thought she was dead.

Mr. Ortega was arrested a few hundreds yards from the school. Shortly after, according to testimony, he told the police: “Just shoot me in the head.

I don't care. I've been alive 19 years, and nobody don't care about me.”

The police testified that they had to hold him down while trying to obtain further evidence, including a mouth swab and clippings of pubic hair flecked with glitter.

Shouting at the officers that night, Mr. Ortega said he did not think what he had done constituted rape.

“She was so drunk, she didn't even know what was going on,” the police said he told them. “She wanted it. She wanted all of us.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/24/us/24bcrape.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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Suffer the Little Children

As we celebrate this Christmas with the sound of tiny feet rushing toward a tree to rip open presents, let's take a moment to consider the children less fortunate — the growing number who live in poverty in this country.

According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 42 percent of American children live in low-income homes and about a fifth live in poverty. It gets worse. The number of children living in poverty has risen 33 percent since 2000. For perspective, the child population of the country over all increased by only about 3 percent over that time. And, according to a 2007 Unicef report on child poverty, the U.S. ranked last among 24 wealthy countries.

This is a national disgrace.

Yet the reaction to this issue in some quarters is still tangled in class and race: no more welfare to black and brown people who've made poor choices and haven't got the gumption to work their way out of them. The truth is, neither the problem nor the solutions are that simple.

Yes, the percentage of blacks, Hispanics and American Indians living in low-income homes is about twice that of whites and Asians. This raises unpleasant cultural questions that must be addressed. But that's not the whole story. Despite the imbalance, white children are still the largest group of low-income children.

Furthermore, the British may have created a road map for us that dramatically reduces child poverty while not relying solely on handouts. A report released this month by Jane Waldfogel of Columbia University and the London School of Economics paints a fascinating portrait of how smart policies and targeted investments in that country have produced stellar results.

In 1994, about 30 percent of British children were below the country's poverty threshold. Fifteen years later, that number has fallen to 12 percent. Over that same time, the number of American children below our poverty line slipped a bit then rose again as the economy turned sour. It is now approaching its 1994 level.

How did the British do it? It was a three-pronged attack.

First, they established a welfare-to-work program and a national minimum wage (which, at about $9, leaves ours wanting) and instituted tax reductions and credits for low-income workers. They made work more attractive, and people responded. The report said, “Lone-parent employment increased by 12 percentage points — from 45 percent to 57 percent — between 1997 and 2008.”

Second, they raised child welfare benefits, especially for families with small children, whether or not the parents worked.

Third, they invested directly in the lives of young children with things like doubling paid maternity leave, providing universal preschool, assisting with child care and allowing parents of young children to request flexible work schedules.

The British example shows that child poverty is not an intractable problem. If we can rise above the impulse to punish parents and focus on protecting children, we might replicate Britain's success.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/25/opinion/25blow.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

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EDITORIAL

At Last, a Border Crackdown

After nearly two years of foot-dragging while the death toll in the Mexican drug wars rose beyond 30,000, the Obama administration is finally stepping up the fight against the easy movement of illegal guns across the United States' border with Mexico and into the hands of violent drug cartels.

This has long been an open scandal. An analysis of government gun-trace data by the coalition Mayors Against Illegal Guns found that many thousands of guns recovered from Mexican crime scenes and traced between 2006 and 2009 were originally sold by American gun dealers. According to a recent investigation by The Washington Post, eight of the top 10 dealers in Mexican crime guns have shops near the border.

To stem this deadly flow, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is seeking emergency authority to require gun dealers near the border to report multiple purchases of the high-firepower rifles favored by cartel gunmen.

The White House Office of Management and Budget, which must sign off on the A.T.F. plan, should promptly do so. The new reporting requirement, while not a solution, is an important step. It will make it easier to identify and prosecute gun traffickers and, potentially, deter multiple sales using straw purchasers.

All gun dealers already have to report multiple handgun sales to federal authorities. The new rule would extend that requirement to AK-47's and other battlefield assault rifles. The cartels have shown an increasing preference for high-capacity rifles like these.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns, led by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston, urged the Obama administration to create such an initiative more than a year ago. Until now, the White House has ducked the issue, presumably to help the prospects of those Democrats with top ratings from the National Rifle Association. But this has not helped to stop the traffic.

The N.R.A. is predictably opposed to the initiative. The administration must hold its ground and, beginning in January, press the next Congress to remove statutory limitations hampering the A.T.F.'s ability to shut down irresponsible dealers near the border and elsewhere.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/25/opinion/25sat3.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

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OPINION

The Street-Level Solution

When I was growing up, one of my father's favorite sayings (borrowed from the humorist Will Rogers) was: “It isn't what we don't know that causes the trouble; it's what we think we know that just ain't so.” One of the main insights to be taken from the 100,000 Homes campaign and its strategy to end chronic homelessness, which I wrote about in Tuesdays' column, is that, until recently, our society thought it understood the nature of homelessness, but it didn't.

That led to a cascade of mistaken assumptions about why people become homeless and what they need. Many of the errors in our homelessness policies have stemmed from the conception that the homeless are a homogeneous group. It's only in the past 15 years that organizations like Common Ground, and others, have taken a more granular, street-level view of the problem — disaggregating the “episodically homeless” from the “chronically homeless” in order to understand their needs at an individual level. This is why we can now envision a different approach — and get better results.

Most readers expressed support for the effort, although a number were skeptical, and a few downright dismissive, about the chances of long-term homeless people adapting well to housing. This is to be expected; it's hard to imagine what we haven't yet seen. As Niccolò Machiavelli wrote in “The Prince,” one of the major obstacles in any effort to advance systemic change is the “incredulity of men,” which is to say that people “do not readily believe in new things until they have had a long experience of them.” Most of us have witnessed homeless people on the streets for decades. Few have seen formerly homeless people after they have been housed successfully. We don't have reference points for that story. So we extrapolate from what we know — or think we know.

But that can be misleading, even to experts. When I asked Rosanne Haggerty, the founder of Common Ground, which currently operates 2,310 units of supportive housing (with 552 more under construction), what had been her biggest surprise in this work, she replied: “Fifteen years ago, I would not have believed that people who had been so broken and entrenched in homelessness could thrive to the degree that they do in our buildings.”

And Becky Kanis, the campaign's director, commented: “There is this sense in our minds that someone who's on the streets is almost in their DNA different from someone who has a house. The campaign is creating a first hand experience for many people that that is really not the case.”

One of the jolting realizations that I had while researching this column is that anybody could become like a homeless person — all it takes is a traumatic brain injury. A bicycle fall, a car accident, a slip on the ice, or if you're a soldier, a head wound — and your life could become unrecognizable. James O'Connell, a doctor who has been treating the most vulnerable homeless people on the streets of Boston for 25 years, estimates that 40 percent of the long-term homeless people he's met had such a brain injury. “For many it was a head injury prior to the time they became homeless,” he said. “They became erratic. They'd have mood swings, bouts of explosive behavior. They couldn't hold onto their jobs. Drinking made them feel better. They'd end up on the streets.”

Once homeless people return to housing, they're in a much better position to rebuild their lives. But it's important to note that housing, alone, is not enough. As with many complex social problems, when you get through the initial crisis, you have another problem to solve which is no less challenging. But it is a better problem.

Over the past decade, O'Connell has seen this happen. “I spend half my time on the streets or in the hospital and the other half making house calls to people who lived for years on the streets,” he said. “So from a doctor's point of view it's a delightful switch, but it's not as if putting someone in housing is the answer to addressing all of their problems. It's the first step.”

Once in housing, formerly homeless people can become isolated and lonely. If they've lived on the streets for years, they may have acquired a certain stature as well as a sense of pride in their survival skills. Now indoors, those aspects of their identity may be stripped away. Many also experience a profound disorientation at the outset. “If you're homeless for more than six months, you kind of lose your bearings,” says Haggerty. “Existence becomes not about overcoming homelessness but about finding food, panhandling, looking for a job to survive another day. The whole process of how you define stability gets reordered.”

Many need regular, if not continuous, support with mental health problems, addictions and illnesses — and, equally important, assistance in the day to day challenges of life, reacquainting with family, building relationships with neighbors, finding enjoyable activities or work, managing finances, and learning how to eat healthy food.

Common Ground's large residences in New York offer insight into the possibilities for change when homeless people have a rich array of supports. In additional to more traditional social services, residents also make use of communal gardens, classes in things like cooking, yoga, theatre and photography, and job placement. Last year, 188 formerly homeless tenants in four of Common Ground's residences, found jobs.

Because the properties have many services and are well-managed, Haggerty has found post-housing problems to be surprisingly rare. In the past 10 years, there have been only a handful of incidents of altercations between tenants. There is very little graffiti or vandalism. And the turnover is almost negligible. In the Prince George Hotel in New York, which is home to 208 formerly homeless people and 208 low income tenants, the average length of tenancy is close to seven years. (All residents pay 30 percent of their income for rent; for the formerly homeless, this comes out of their government benefits.) When people move on, it is usually because they've found a preferable apartment.

“Tenants also want to participate in shaping the public areas of the buildings,” said Haggerty. “They formed a gardening committee. They want a terrace on the roof. Those are things I didn't count on.” The most common tenant demand? “People always want more storage space — but that's true of every New Yorker,” she adds. “In many ways, we're a lot like a normal apartment building. Our tenants look like anyone else.”

As I mentioned, homelessness is a catch-all for a variety of problems. A number of readers asked whether the campaign will address family homelessness, which has different causes and requires a different solution. I've been following some of the promising ideas emerging to address and prevent family homelessness. Later in 2011, I'll explore these ideas in a column. For now, I'll conclude with an update on the 100,000 Homes Campaign. Since Tuesday, New Orleans and a few other communities have reported new results. The current tally of people housed is 7,043.

Happy holidays.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/24/the-street-level-solution/?pagemode=print

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EDITORIAL

The Police and the Schools

School officials across the country are revisiting “zero-tolerance” disciplinary policies under which children are sometimes arrested for profanity, talking back to teachers or adolescent behavior that once would have been resolved in meetings with parents. The reappraisals are all to the good given that those who get suspended or arrested are more likely to drop out and become entangled in the criminal justice system permanently.

The New York City Council clearly had this link in mind when it passed a new law earlier this week that will bring long overdue transparency to the school disciplinary process. Under the Student Safety Act, which takes effect in 90 days, the New York Police Department's school security division will be required to provide clear and comprehensive data that show how many students are arrested or issued summonses at school and why. School officials will also have to provide similarly detailed information on suspensions.

The Council turned its attention to this problem in 2007 when the New York Civil Liberties Union published an alarming report charging that schoolchildren were being belittled, roughed up, sexually harassed and sometimes arrested by police and school security officers for noncriminal violations of school rules. The report further asserted that this treatment was disproportionately meted out in black and Hispanic neighborhoods. At the time, ineffective data collection made it difficult to determine exactly what was happening where.

The new law changes that by requiring the police department to furnish quarterly reports on arrests or summonses associated with noncriminal offenses like trespassing, disorderly conduct and loitering. The data will have to be broken down by race, age and grade level.

The report also must say whether the students were disabled or English-language learners. Most important, people who wish to lodge complaints about school police or the security officers they supervise can call the 311 help line and be transferred to the police department's internal affairs division.

The new law represents a good first step. But the Council will need to ride herd on the police department, which has a history of ignoring data-reporting requirements. Beyond that, the Council needs to make sure that problems that should be dealt with at school are handled there and not at the precinct station.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/25/opinion/25sat4.html?ref=opinion

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From Google News

Thermoses, coffee cups added to list of possible terrorist weapons

During the busiest travel season of the year, travelers carrying thermoses or beverage cups – which could be used to conceal explosive materials – may be subject to extra scrutiny.

On one of the busiest travel days of the year, federal officials have alerted travelers to the likelihood of extra scrutiny regarding such items – which could be used to conceal explosive materials.

“Passengers traveling with insulated beverage containers can expect to see additional screening of these items using procedures currently in place, including X-ray screening, physical inspection and the use of explosives trace detection technology,” states an advisory issued Thursday night by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

Officials note no specific threat regarding thermos bottles and cups. But the warning to Christmas Eve travelers and others flying on airliners over the winter holidays – 43.6 million people, according to the Air Transport Association of America – comes as part of a broader official effort regarding airport and airline security.

The year has seen a number of specific threats and foiled terrorist attempts, beginning with the “underwear bomber” on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit last Christmas.

Since then, there's been an attempted car bombing in New York's Times Square, the shipment of explosives hidden in printer toner cartridges on cargo planes bound for the US from Yemen, and several arrests of suspected domestic terrorists as the result of sting operations by the FBI and other law-enforcement agencies.

Most notably, that includes Mohamed Osman Mohamud, arrested recently for allegedly plotting to explode a bomb at the Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland, Ore., where thousands of families had gathered for the traditional Christmas tree lighting. In October, a Pakistani-born US citizen was arrested on charges of plotting to carry out a coordinated bombing attack on Metrorail stations in suburban Virginia near Washington.

Controversial personal security measures

Travelers already have noted – and many have complained about – increased personal security measures at airports since last year's Christmas Day airliner bomb attempt by a young Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

In response to terrorist threats, the TSA now gives airline passengers two choices: Get a full-body scan using low-dose radiation that shows a naked image – everything from head to toe. Or refuse the scan and have a TSA official run his or her hands over every part of your body.

At a White House briefing Wednesday, chief counterterrorism adviser John Brennan outlined steps taken over the past year to increase security.

Among other things, according to Mr. Brennan, gaps in analysis and data collection have been closed, the criteria used to create terrorist watch lists and "no fly" lists have been revised, some 500 of the controversial “Advanced Imaging Technology” scanning machines for passengers have been deployed at more than 75 US airports, and additional steps have been taken to screen cargo shipped by air (or checked by passengers).

“We are in a much better position today than we were last year at this time,” he said.

Still, authorities are taking no chances when suggestions arise of new means of attack – including the possibility of hiding explosives as part of the insulation in thermoses and beverage cups.

Watch those carry-ons

The new TSA advisory notes that such items are allowed – for now, at least – based on an assessment of risk. The advisory applies to thermoses and cups whether or not they contain any liquids. It also reminds airline passengers that the “3-1-1 rules” for liquids remain in effect for carry-on bags. This states that liquids or gels must be in containers holding no more than 3 ounces; that such containers must be placed in a clear, one-quart zip-lock bag; and that travelers are limited to one such bag apiece.

This latest announcement comes as part of stepped-up efforts to prevent a terrorist attack in the United States during the holiday season.

“We are concerned these terrorists may seek to exploit the likely significant psychological impact of an attack targeting mass gatherings in large metropolitan areas during the 2010 holiday season, which has symbolic importance to many in the United States,” warns a recent bulletin sent to law-enforcement agencies by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security.

Of particular concern are public gatherings such as sporting events, parades, and religious or cultural activities.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/1224/Thermoses-coffee-cups-added-to-list-of-possible-terrorist-weapons

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Imam to tour nation promoting NYC Islamic center

(AP) – 11 hours ago

NEW YORK (AP) — The Muslim cleric who hopes to build an Islamic center near the World Trade Center site said Friday that he'll tour the country in an effort "to inspire interfaith understanding" for a project that has ignited explosive faceoffs between supporters and opponents.

"The major purpose is to make people aware of what America means as a country that protects the right to freedom of religion," Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf told The Associated Press.

American Muslims like himself, he said, "can play an important role as interlocutors between the United States and the Muslim world."

Rauf's first appearance is scheduled for Detroit on Jan. 15. The city has North America's largest Muslim population.

The imam said he'll continue on to Chicago, Washington, San Antonio and college campuses including Harvard, Georgetown, Yale and the University of North Carolina. He did not release specific dates for his speeches.

Rauf said he expects the tour will end sometime in April; he's still receiving and considering invitations.

In a telephone interview — "on a cell phone while shopping," he said — he told the AP that he wants to make clear both to New Yorkers and people across the country the purpose of a project "about which I've been dreaming for 20 years."

He said the Islamic center would be modeled on Manhattan's 92nd Street Y — "a community space where people of all faiths can come to participate in everything from athletics to cooking classes, adult education programs, and panel discussions on issues of importance."

There also would be theater productions and film screenings, he said.

Last summer, Rauf's idea of constructing the high-rise Islamic community center and mosque two blocks from ground zero provoked a political firestorm that led to virulent demonstrations.

Opponents call it offensive to families of Sept. 11 victims and are demanding that the project be moved to another location. They say building a mosque near the site of the terrorist attack perpetrated by Muslim extremists is an affront to them.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has endorsed the center at the original proposed location.

Rauf noted that he's been "a member of the Lower Manhattan community for 25 years" — leading a mosque about a 15-minute walk from the site of the proposed new Islamic center.

In Detroit, Rauf is scheduled to deliver a keynote address to the so-called "Diversity Forum Banquet" of the Islamic Society of North America.

"I want to inspire interfaith understanding," he said. "This past summer, during the demonstrations, we also saw the birth of what we believe to be a global movement of people of all faiths who want to have a better future for their children and grandchildren."

Despite opposition to the Islamic center, the imam is viewed as a moderate Muslim sponsored by the U.S. State Department to travel on behalf of the United States, tempering extreme positions in the interest of world peace.

"It's a good idea to reach out to Americans and address any misunderstandings between Muslims and non-Muslims," Zaheer Uddin, head of New York's Islamic Leadership Council, said of Rauf's speaking tour.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hVVNxqTxAHedb0LXhYlSWCrjzr3Q?docId=6ba4df0b3122461295c52331567aecd9

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From the Department of Homeland Security

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Public Notice

For Travelers

Passengers may observe additional security measures related to insulated beverage containers. TSA is carefully monitoring information related to terrorist tactics and working with our international partners to share information and security best practices.

The possible tactics terrorists might use include the concealment of explosives inside insulated beverage containers, so in the coming days, passengers flying within and to the U.S. may notice additional security measures related to insulated beverage containers. While such items are not being banned from travel, TSA Officers have been trained to detect a variety of threats including the concealment of explosives in common items.

TSA will continue to deploy risk-based security measures and work with our international, federal, state, local and private sector partners to protect the traveling public.

As always, the safety and security of the American people is our highest priority and we ask the public to remain vigilant and aware of their surroundings and report any suspicious activity to their local authorities.

FAQs

Q. Why is TSA issuing this notice now?
A. TSA is carefully monitoring information related to terrorist tactics and working with our international partners to share information and security best practices. The possible tactics terrorists might use include the concealment of explosives inside insulated beverage containers.

Q. If there is no specific threat, why is TSA issuing a notice?
A. TSA is carefully monitoring information related to possible methods of attack. We will continue to deploy risk-based security measures and work with our international, federal, state, local and private sector partners to protect the traveling public.

Q. Are thermoses/insulated beverage containers now prohibited in carry-on or checked baggage?
A. At this time, insulated beverage containers are permitted in carry-on and checked baggage. TSA liquid policy still applies at the checkpoint.

Q. If thermoses/insulated beverage containers pose a threat, why aren't they prohibited?
A. TSA makes risk-based decisions and our officers have been trained to detect a variety of threats including the concealment of explosives in common items. We have also shared this information with our stakeholders and foreign partners.

Q. If liquids are already prohibited, why are these measures being put in place?
A. These measures apply to empty, insulated beverage containers at the checkpoint. 3-1-1 rules for liquids remain in effect.

Q. What changes can the traveling public expect?
A. Passengers traveling with insulated beverage containers can expect to see additional screening of these items using procedures currently in place, including X-ray screening, physical inspection and the use of explosives trace detection technology.

Q. Is TSA implementing new security measures related to this notice?
A. TSA is continuing to deploy risk-based security measures based on the latest intelligence to protect the traveling public. Passengers traveling with insulated beverage containers can expect to see additional screening of these items using procedures currently in place, including X-ray screening, physical inspection and the use of explosives trace detection technology.

Q. What happens if an insulated beverage container alarms while being screened?
A. As is currently the case, any item that alarms while undergoing X-ray screening will receive additional screening, to include the use of explosives trace detection technology. If TSA Officers are unable to resolve a alarm, the item will not be permitted on board the plane.

Q. How long will this measure remain in place?
A. This measure is designed to be sustainable. TSA will continuously review this measure to ensure the highest levels of security.

Q. Do these new measures apply to all personal liquid containers?
A. The notice is based on intelligence and specific to insulated beverage containers.

http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/public_notice_insulated_beverage_containers.shtm

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