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January 30, 2011

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Connecticut agency had questions years ago about kidnapped girl

Child-protection officials raised questions more than five years ago about Nejdra Nance's true identity, but it's unclear why nothing came of it.

Connecticut child-protection officials had questions more than five years ago about the true identity of a girl now known to have been kidnapped as an infant in 1987 and raised in Bridgeport under the name Nejdra Nance.

But although the Department of Children and Families discussed the issue with law enforcement, Commissioner Joette Katz said the agency should have done more years ago to help reunite the girl, now 23, with her biological family.

She has since found out her real name is Carlina White. She scoured the Internet and enlisted the help of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in an effort to unravel her mystery. The recent discovery of her kidnapping and her dramatic reunion with family earlier this month attracted national attention.

"Commissioner Katz is convinced that the department had a greater obligation in supporting Nejdra Nance," department spokesman Gary Kleeblatt said in a written statement. "It's hard not to think this situation could have been handled differently to help this young woman find her birth family — who clearly had hoped to be reunited with her one day — years earlier."

Los Angeles Times

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If Loughner is convicted, death penalty would be difficult to carry out

Prosecutors are expected to pursue the death penalty in the Tucson shootings. But precedent suggests it would be unlikely that Jared Lee Loughner, if found guilty, would ever be executed.

On the day Jared Lee Loughner was indicted for the shootings in Tucson, the top federal prosecutor in Arizona signaled that the government most likely would request the ultimate punishment.

But the federal death penalty process is filled with obstacles, and Loughner's execution would be far from assured if he is convicted. Most defendants initially targeted for death are more likely to spend their lives in prison.

Of 182 federal death penalty prosecutions approved by Washington since 1988, 60 defendants are on death row, and only three — including Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh — were executed, according to Kevin McNally, director of the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel Project, which tracks capital cases. None of the 60 are even close to a date with the executioner.

Other defendants with profiles as high or higher than Loughner — the Unabomber, the Olympics bomber, even Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 attacks — were all spared death and given life in prison.

Los Angeles Times

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OPINION

Watch Out! The Assault Vehicle Is Loose!

Americans are infatuated with guns. And when you're infatuated, you sometimes can't think straight. Maybe that's why, three weeks after the Tucson shootings that shook the nation, we're still no closer to banning oversize magazines like the 33-bullet model allegedly used there. Maybe it will help clarify issues if we imagine an alternate universe — one in which Americans exhibit their toughness not with assault weapons but with assault vehicles, a world in which our torrid libertarian passion is not for our guns but for our cars. That alternate universe might look like this:

The powerful National Automobile Association warned today that vehicle regulation, such as a ban on assault vehicles, would be “the first step toward totalitarianism.”

“Autos don't kill people,” declared Hank Magic, a N.A.A. spokesman. “People kill people.” As part of a campaign against auto registration, the N.A.A. has started selling new bumper stickers: “They'll register my car when they pry the steering wheel from my cold, dead fingers.”

The N.A.A. defends assault vehicles as essential for self-defense and also “loads of fun.”

Taken aback by the furor, the White House denied any interest in banning assault vehicles or registering all vehicles. The White House said that the president was considering more modest steps, such as banning repeat drunken drivers from the roads, prohibiting televisions mounted on the steering wheel and curbs on lethal car accessories that serve no transportation purpose — such as bayonets mounted on the front and back bumpers.

New York Times

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Facebook page supports alleged killer

Page has caused 'pain and hurt' to family

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - A Facebook page has popped up in support of Junior Lee Beebe, the man charged with the murders of Amy Henslee and Tonya Howarth.

The page showed up on Facebook on Saturday and it encourages people to support Beebe claiming he is innocent.

Matt Utley, Amy's brother-in-law, said that the page is not helping the family in the healing process.

"The creator has offended a lot of people, its pretty sick, its hurting a lot of people and it is going to cause a lot of grief."

There is a picture that has been posted to the page that calls Beebe a hero.

WOOD-TV

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Police say mother admits killing teen-aged children for being "mouthy"

A mother in Tampa, Florida has admitted in detail to killing her two teen-aged children, police said.

Police checking on the family at the request of a relative found Julie K. Schenecker, 50, on the back porch of her home Friday morning, dressed in blood-covered clothing, according to a police statement.

They found her son, Beau Powers Schenecker, 13, dead in the family's SUV, which had been parked in the garage, the statement said. Calyx Powers Schenecker, 16, was in an upstairs bedroom, also dead.

"She did tell us that they talked back, that they were mouthy," Tampa police spokeswoman Laura McElroy told CNN affiliate WTSP. "But I don't think that will ever serve as an explanation to the rest of us of how you could take a child's life."

The woman shot her son as she drove him to soccer practice and returned home to shoot her daughter as she studied on her computer, CNN affiliate WFTS reported, citing investigators.

The preliminary investigation indicates that the teens were killed on Thursday evening, a police statement said, but a medical county examiner will determine the time of death.

CNN

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Korean vets do not have to prove Agent Orange exposure

The Department of Veterans Affairs has expanded the pool of Korean War vets who can make claims related to exposure to Agent Orange. This toxic defoliant has been linked to more than a dozen serious, often fatal health problems, including various types of cancer.

Until now, only those Korean War vets who served in certain units along the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ) between April 1968 and July 1969 could make claims regarding Agent Orange exposure. The new ruling, which was published in the Federal Register, extends the net of health coverage to those who served between April 1, 1968, and August 31, 1971 “in a unit determined by VA and the Department of Defense to have operated in an area in or near the Korean DMZ in which herbicides were applied.”

According to the Department of VA, Agent Orange is the name assigned to a combination of herbicides used by the US military sprayed from 1961 to 1971 in Vietnam to eliminate foliage that provided cover for the enemy. It was called “Agent Orange” because the 55-gallon drums in which it was stored had an orange stripe.

Agent Orange contained minute traces of a substance known as TCDD or dioxin (2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin), which causes various illnesses in laboratory animals. Other herbicides were also used during the war, including Agent Blue and Agent White, but Agent Orange was the toxin most widely applied.

eMAXhealth.com

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Three Illegal Immigrants Accused in Death of American Teen Surrender in Arizona

Three Mexican men who were wanted for the murder of an American teenager have turned themselves in at an Arizona border crossing point, Reuters reports.

U.S. officers tell Reuters that Orel Vasquez, 20, Christian Vasquez, 26, and Juan Leon, 29, turned themselves in Saturday for the 2009 murder of 15-year-old Brenda Arenas of Tucson.

Arenas was shot in the head during a botched carjacking and died in her mother's arms.

The U.S. Customs and Borders Protection agency took the three into custody.

All three men were in the U.S. illegally.

FOX News

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January 29, 2011

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Conservatives latch onto prison reform

Reduced sentences and rehabilitation programs once were branded as liberal. But now, states such as Republican-dominated Texas are seeing success after adopting the approach.

Reduced sentences for drug crimes. More job training and rehabilitation programs for nonviolent offenders. Expanded alternatives to doing hard time.

In the not-too-distant past, conservatives might have derided those concepts as mushy-headed liberalism — the essence of "soft on crime."

Nowadays, these same ideas are central to a strategy being packaged as "conservative criminal justice reform," and have rolled out in right-leaning states around the country in an effort to rein in budget-busting corrections costs.

Encouraged by the recent success of reform efforts in Republican-dominated Texas — where prison population growth has slowed and crime is down —conservative leaders elsewhere have embraced their own versions of the strategy.

South Carolina adopted a similar reform package last year. Republican governors are backing proposals in Louisiana and Indiana.

The about-face might feel dramatic to those who remember the get-tough policies that many conservatives embraced in the 1980s and '90s: In Texas, Republican Clayton Williams ran his unsuccessful 1990 gubernatorial campaign with a focus on doubling prison space and having first-time drug offenders "bustin' rocks" in military-style prison camps.

Los Angeles Times

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Gun safety hearings rejected by chairman of House Judiciary Committee

Sixteen Democrats on the panel sent a letter to Republican Rep. Lamar Smith requesting hearings in the aftermath of the Tucson shootings. Smith rejected the request, saying they could prejudice the shooting suspect's upcoming trial.

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee on Friday rejected a request from Democrats to hold hearings related to gun safety in the aftermath of the shootings in Tucson earlier this month.

All 16 Democrats on the committee, which has jurisdiction over firearms laws, sent a letter to Rep. Lamar Smith, the Texas Republican who recently took charge of the panel, asking him to convene hearings on the use of high-capacity magazines and improving background checks to prevent the mentally ill from obtaining guns.

"It is more important than ever that we examine our gun safety laws and regulations," said Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the top Democrat on the committee. "It is simply common sense to limit the availability of high-capacity magazines, and ensure that individuals banned by law from owning firearms are, in fact, prevented from buying guns."

But Smith, in a statement released by the committee, said any such hearings could prejudice the upcoming trial of the shooting suspect, Jared Lee Loughner.

In the letter, the Democrats noted that the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 would have banned the magazine Loughner allegedly used to kill six and injure 13, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, outside a Tucson supermarket Jan. 8. "It has been widely reported that Mr. Loughner used a magazine that allowed him to fire over 30 rounds and that only when he attempted to reload was he able to be subdued," they said. The issue "should be reviewed," the Democrats said.

Democrats also suggested that at least 1.6 million "disqualifying" records of mentally ill people are missing from the national database used by firearms dealers to check the backgrounds of gun buyers. Because Loughner "may have had mental health issues," the letter said, the database's effectiveness should be examined, the Democrats said.

Los Angeles Times

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Parolee arrested on suspicion of making threats against Diane Watson

A 41-year-old South Los Angeles parolee was arrested early Friday in connection with a series of recent phone calls threatening to kill retired U.S. Rep. Diane Watson, authorities said.

Sheron Nelson was arrested in South L.A. at the office of his parole agent, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said in a statement.

Sheriff's Lt. Kent Wegener said authorities had recovered the telephone used to make the calls to Watson. The telephone belonged to the suspect, Wegener said. The suspect “implicated himself” during questioning, Wegener said in the Sheriff Department's statement.

A search of the suspect's home revealed no weapons but did turn up “numerous stolen electronic items,” the sheriff's office said.

Nelson was booked on suspicion of making felony terrorist threats against Watson, as well as on suspicion of felony identity theft, the Sheriff's Department said. He is not eligible for bail since he is on parole on an unrelated terrorist threats conviction, the department said.

Investigators are seeking a motive for the threatening phone calls. Watson and her assistant answered the phone, and each was threatened with death, said Capt. Mike Parker, a Sheriff's Department spokesman.

Watson, 77, who announced her retirement last year after almost a decade in Congress, is aware of the arrest, Parker said.

Watson, a pioneering African American lawmaker in California, is also a former member of the Los Angeles school board and the California Senate.

Plugging the airport security gaps

Post-9/11 security has done its job, but we must continue to adapt. To foil endlessly resourceful terrorists, we need to improve in three areas.

After this week's airport bomb attack in Moscow, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev declared that there was a "systemic failure to provide security." That is difficult to dispute. But the claims of Domodedovo Airport's spokesperson that "we fully met all the requirements in the sphere of air transport security for which we are responsible" was probably also correct. Yet ultimately, dozens of people are dead and dozens more wounded. So who is to blame? What's wrong with the system? And are we in America also at risk?

In the United States, we divide security responsibility according to who performs the activity. For example, Transportation Security Administration personnel search carry-on bags at checkpoints, while airport law enforcement officers patrol the airport perimeter. TSA also requires that airports make public address announcements and not allow vehicles to park at the airport curb, and that airlines inspect aircraft food trays. Each activity costs money, so TSA requires only what it can justify, write down and audit.

But security that depends on an auditable checklist of written requirements is always going to be vulnerable to an enemy that can change the method of attack based on those regulations. Once TSA publishes what is required, three things happen: vulnerability is embedded where those measures are weak; the minimum required becomes the maximum undertaken by the security players; and the regulated party feels protected from blame because it did what was required. Unfortunately, in counter-terrorism, regulations alone are not enough.

When responsibility is finally determined in Russia, there probably will be a gap between what Domodedovo Airport was required to do and what it could have done to prevent the attack. But top-down rules allocate responsibility in slices, fragmenting responsibility, thereby eliminating any one party's accountability in security's overall outcome. A corollary vulnerability is that no government can issue regulations quickly enough to cover every conceivable angle of attack. Therefore, if compliance with set rules is our system, it is a system born to fail.

Los Angeles Times

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Russia Adopts Color-Coded Terror Alert System

MOSCOW — Under intense pressure to ratchet up security measures after the terrorist attack Monday at the airport here, Russian lawmakers on Friday fast-tracked the introduction of a color-coded alert system similar to the one adopted by the United States after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The decision came as the Obama administration scrapped its color-coded system, which officials said provided the public with little helpful information. In a speech on Thursday, the homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, said the United States government would now identify threats as either “imminent” or “elevated,” explain the threat as fully as possible and suggest specific responses.

Russia began discussing a color-coded system months ago, after two suicide bombers exploded in Moscow's subway, killing 40 people. After Monday's attack at Domodedovo Airport, however, President Dmitri A. Medvedev 's angry response has focused almost exclusively on transportation security, and agents who he said act “entirely passively” as soon as the initial shock of an attack has passed.

“After a terrorist attack, in many cases, metal detectors were put in place at transport facilities,” he said. “They worked in the beginning, with everyone being sent through them, but then everything stopped, and people could come and go as they pleased.”

The Russian system would categorize threats as blue, yellow and red, in order of seriousness. The bill was presented Friday by the deputy director of the Federal Security Service, the domestic successor to the K.G.B., and the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament, approved it in the first of three required readings.

New York Times

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President Is Likely to Discuss Gun Control Soon

WASHINGTON — Administration officials say that President Obama, largely silent about gun control since the Tucson shooting carnage, will address the issue soon, potentially reopening a long-dormant debate on one of the nation's most politically volatile issues.

The officials did not indicate what measures, if any, Mr. Obama might support; with Republicans in control of the House and many Democrats fearful of the gun lobby's power, any legislation faces long odds for passage. Among the skeptics is the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada.

Still, Mr. Obama has come under increased pressure to speak out from gun-control advocates, including urban Democrats in Congress and liberal activists and editorial writers. They would like him to at least support a bill that would restore an expired federal ban on the sort of high-capacity ammunition magazine that was used in the Jan. 8 shootings in Tucson that killed six people and injured 13, including Representative Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat of Arizona.

The advocates, including Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, were critical after Mr. Obama did not propose any measures in his State of the Union address Tuesday night to address gun violence. In interviews since, senior White House advisers have said without specifics that Mr. Obama would address the issue in coming weeks, though just how has not been decided.

“I wouldn't rule out that at some point the president talks about the issues surrounding gun violence,” Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, told reporters on Wednesday. “I don't have a timetable or, obviously, what he would say.”

New York Times

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Attorney General Eric Holder Speaks at the National Advisory Committee on Violence Against Women Meeting

Thank you, Sue [Carbon]. Let me also thank your team in the Department's Office on Violence Against Women – as well as my colleagues in the Office of Justice Programs, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the COPS Office, and our partners from the Department of Health and Human Services and other federal agencies – for your work in bringing us together today.

This is an extraordinary group. And it's a pleasure to welcome this circle of law enforcement officers and judges, attorneys and advocates, nonprofit leaders and health experts, researchers and policymakers, and social workers and service providers, to the Department of Justice.

On behalf of the entire Department – and on behalf of Secretary Sebelius, who, unfortunately, could not be with us today – thank you all for being here. Your presence today – and your participation on this National Advisory Committee – is encouraging. And it's so important.

Though you represent many different areas of expertise, each of you has one thing in common: a commitment to protecting the safety, and potential, of our young people, especially our young women and girls. This is critical work – and the challenges that young people across the country now face could not be more urgent.

In America today, more than three out of five children have been exposed to crime, violence or abuse – in their neighborhoods, in their schools, or in their own homes. Almost forty percent of children have been direct victims of two or more violent acts. And approximately 10% of adolescents nationwide report being the victim of physical violence at the hands of an intimate partner.

Teens who experience dating violence are more likely to suffer long-term negative behavioral and health consequences, including suicide attempts, eating disorders and drug use. And we've seen that adolescents in abusive relationships can carry these unhealthy patterns of violence into future relationships.

Dept of Justice

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Georgia Man Sentenced to Life in Prison for Child Sex Abuse Offenses

WASHINGTON - Dwain D. Williams, 37, was sentenced today by U.S. District Court Judge W. Louis Sands to life in prison for child sex abuse offenses, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Michael J. Moore of the Middle District of Georgia.

Williams, of Pelham, Ga., was convicted on Aug. 19, 2010, by a federal jury in Valdosta, Ga., of one count of traveling in foreign commerce and engaging in illicit sexual conduct, one count of aggravated sexual abuse and one count of abusive sexual contact of a child under 12 years of age. The aggravated sexual abuse and the abusive sexual contact charges were committed while Williams was accompanying a member of the Armed Forces outside of the United States in violation of the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA).

At trial, the female victim testified that Williams had repeatedly raped her starting from when she was nine years old until she was 13.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Leah McEwen of the Middle District of Georgia and Trial Attorney Mi Yung Park of the Criminal Division's CEOS. The case was investigated by the FBI and the Office of Special Investigations for Moody Air Force.

Dept of Justice

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ICE most wanted fugitive arrested at JFK on human trafficking charges

Extorted more than $1 million in earnings from victims

DETROIT - Special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arrested today one of ICE's top ten fugitives at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

Veniamin Gonikman, 55, was charged in Detroit in 2005 in a 22-count indictment with trafficking in persons, forced labor, alien smuggling, money laundering, extortion collection and conspiracy, among other charges. He absconded from the United States before being formally charged.

Gonikman, a U.S. citizen, was arrested in Ukraine yesterday, before being deported to the United States. HSI special agents assigned to ICE's attaché office in Germany coordinated Gonikman's arrest and deportation with Ukrainian officials.

According to court records, he came to the attention of HSI special agents in Detroit in 2005 when one of his victims escaped and agents later confirmed he was operating a company called "Beauty Search, Inc.," in metro Detroit.

The indictment alleges that Gonikman, along with his co-conspirators, formed and operated Beauty Search as a corporate cover for a human trafficking operation which smuggled and harbored Eastern European women in the United States. The women were exploited and abused by forcing them - through threats, coercion and isolation - to work as exotic dancers for the economic benefit of the Beauty Search partners.

ICE

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ICE arrests 5 criminal sex offenders in the Rio Grande Valley

HARLINGEN, Texas - Five south Texas men, who were convicted of sexual offences against children, were arrested this week by officers with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in an operation targeting convicted criminal aliens. The enforcement activity was conducted by ICE ERO Fugitive Operations and the Criminal Alien program units. The operation was designed to locate and arrest at-large criminal aliens with sex offense convictions.

"ICE takes a prioritized approach to immigration enforcement, focusing first on identifying and removing aliens who pose a danger to national security or a risk to public safety," said Michael J. Pitts, field office director of ICE ERO in San Antonio. "Our operation this week is yet another example of the critical role that targeted immigration enforcement plays in protecting our communities."

A top priority for the San Antonio Field Office is to first focus on identifying and removing aliens who a pose a danger to our national security or a risk to public safety," said Michael J. Pitts, field office director for ICE ERO in San Antonio. "This operation is yet another example of the critical role that targeted immigration enforcement plays in protecting our communities."

All five men are Mexican nationals who were administratively arrested for violating U.S. immigration laws. They are all being held in ICE custody pending immigration court proceedings or deportation. Following is a list of the convicted criminal aliens who were arrested by ICE officers and agents during the operation; they have been placed into deportation proceedings: (For privacy reasons, ICE does not release the names of aliens who have been administratively arrested.)

ICE

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Human Traffickers Indicted

Massive Case Involves 600 Thai Victims

It seemed pretty straightforward: labor recruiters in Thailand approached impoverished rural farm workers—who made around $1,000 (U.S.) annually—and offered jobs on American farms for higher pay.   

Many, hoping to provide a better life for their families, accepted the offer, which was made through an American company called Global Horizons, in the business of recruiting foreign workers to work in the U.S. agricultural industry. But once in the U.S., the Thai workers soon discovered a harsh reality: they worked for little or no pay, and they were held in place with threats and intimidation.  

Eventually, their plight became known to law enforcement, and earlier this month, after a multiagency investigation, two additional defendants—accused of being part of the scheme to hold 600 Thai nationals in forced agricultural labor—were indicted in federal court in Honolulu. They joined six individuals who had been indicted last fall.

Among those indicted? The CEO of Global Horizons, several Global employees, and two Thai labor recruiters.

The latest indictment alleges a conspiracy among those indicted that began in 2001 and ran until 2007.

FBI

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January 28, 2011

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L.A. school officer faked shooting story, LAPD says

The report of an officer shot by an attacker forced a lockdown of nine San Fernando Valley campuses last week.

A Los Angeles school police officer who said he was shot by an attacker last week, prompting a manhunt that shut down a large swath of Woodland Hills, has been arrested on suspicion of concocting the story, authorities said Thursday night.

The startling revelation came at a hastily called news conference by Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, who said detectives became suspicious about the officer's story as they investigated the case.

A terse Beck said Los Angeles School Police Department Officer Jeff Stenroos had been booked on a felony charge of filing a false police report. He declined to elaborate further on the case, which the head of the Los Angeles Police Protective League called an "embarrassment to law enforcement."

Police had said Stenroos was shot in the chest Jan. 19 after he confronted a man who was attempting to break into vehicles near the eastern boundary of the El Camino Real High School campus. Stenroos' bulletproof vest absorbed the impact of a single gunshot, which Los Angeles Police Department officials said could easily have killed the officer.

The incident sparked a massive police response that inconvenienced thousands of people for the day as officers blocked roads, locked down schools and refused to let people in or out of a 7-square-mile area.

Authorities arrested Stenroos after he allegedly admitted to fabricating the story, a senior LAPD official close to the investigation told The Times.

Los Angeles Times

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Mexican drug cartels suspected in American missionary's slaying

Nancy Davis may have been attacked in Mexico for her truck, police say.

A 59-year-old American missionary was shot in the head and killed in northern Mexico, possibly because one of the local drug cartels coveted her heavy-duty pickup truck, authorities said Thursday.

Nancy Davis' husband, Sam, drove the bullet-riddled blue 2008 Chevrolet against traffic to the border Wednesday afternoon. He crossed the bridge into Pharr, Texas, where he told authorities that the couple had been ambushed about 70 miles south of the border on a Mexican highway by gunmen in a black pickup, according to the Pharr Police Department.

Davis was rushed to a hospital in McAllen, where she died. Friends told reporters she was a longtime missionary with vast experience in the increasingly dangerous area of northern Mexico, which has been racked by drug violence for several years. Local police said the type of truck the Davises drove was prized by Mexican cartels.

The shooting was reported to have taken place near the town of San Fernando, in Tamaulipas state. San Fernando was the site in August where 72 immigrants, mostly from Central America, were abducted and slain in the single largest massacre of Mexico's raging drug war.

Gunmen from the notorious Zeta cartel were suspected in the migrant massacre. They control much of Tamaulipas and are locked in a vicious battle with the rival Gulf cartel for supremacy.

Los Angeles Times

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Is the drug war creeping into Mexico City?

On a street corner waking up for the day Thursday in downtown Mexico City, La Plaza observed a military unit on patrol.

A green Humvee was stationed in front of a convenience store, with several armed soldiers inside. One stood behind a mounted automatic firearm. Two troops in green fatigues and combat vests and carrying long assault rifles were strolling down a street, patrolling in the way police officers normally do in this congested capital.

We don't see this often in Mexico City.

Soldiers are generally only visible when they are being transported in cargo vehicles from government buildings in the city center to large bases in the west and south. None of the large-scale operations -- or wild shootouts -- that have become common elsewhere in Mexico have occurred here, making Mexico City somewhat of a haven from the drug war that has left more than 34,000 dead.

But this week the Mexican military pursued drug-trafficking suspects in operations smack in the middle of the sprawling capital.

Marines raided a hotel and a home in the middle-class districts of Napoles and Del Valle, arresting one suspected member of the Zetas cartel. On Wednesday, army units searched homes in the Iztacalco borough (links in Spanish). Is something changing?

Los Angeles Times

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Serial killer Rodney Alcala may face murder charges in New York cases

Convicted serial killer Rodney Alcala, already condemned to death row in a string of Southern California slayings, will probably be taken to New York to face charges in the slaying of two women there in the 1970s.

On Thursday, Manhattan Dist. Atty. Cyrus Vance Jr. announced that a grand jury had voted to indict Alcala on murder charges in the deaths of two young women that Vance said “have haunted New York since the 1970s.”

Alcala is charged with the murder of Cornelia Crilley, a 23-year-old flight attendant who in 1971 was raped and strangled with her stockings in her apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

He is also charged with the slaying of Ellen Hover, also 23 and a young Manhattan socialite and daughter of a Hollywood nightclub owner, who was found dead in 1977, not far from her family's estate in Westchester County.

Authorities long suspected Alcala in both cases, but it wasn't until the district attorney's “cold case” unit reexamined the files, re-interviewed old witnesses and pieced together new evidence, Vance said, that they had enough evidence to bring the case to a grand jury.

It marked the third time he was sentenced to death for the murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe, last seen alive riding her bike to ballet class in 1979.

Los Angeles Times

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Jury Delivers Mixed Verdict for 3 Officers

WASHINGTON — A federal jury on Thursday convicted a former Pennsylvania police officer of the most serious charge against him in what prosecutors said was a cover-up of the beating death of a Mexican immigrant. But the jury delivered a less severe verdict against a second officer and acquitted a third.

The former officers, Matthew Nestor, Jason Hayes and William Moyer, were accused of helping a group of white teenage football players cover up their parts in the death of Luis Ramírez, an illegal Mexican immigrant who was fatally beaten in July 2008 in Shenandoah, Pa.

The men were tried in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania in Wilkes-Barre. The jury gave its verdict after two days of deliberation.

Mr. Nestor, the former Shenandoah police chief, was found guilty of falsifying records, a charge that could bring up to 20 years in prison, but he was acquitted of conspiracy. Mr. Moyer, a former Shenandoah lieutenant, was convicted of lying to the F.B.I., but acquitted of all other counts, including obstruction of justice, and he faces up to five years in prison. Mr. Hayes, a former patrolman, was acquitted of all charges.

Hispanic groups have viewed the beating death of Mr. Ramírez, and the state's response to it, as a test case for the national treatment of Hispanics.

New York Times

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Lethal Injection and the F.D.A.

Capital punishment means lethal injection. The administration of a barbiturate as part of a fatal dose of drugs is meant to render a convict unconscious before other drugs stop his or her breathing and heart so the execution can somehow be construed by a judge as being neither cruel nor unusual.

Sodium thiopental is at the heart of this story. A fast- and short-acting general anesthetic, it has been used to put convicts under and make executions methodical. For more than a year, however, a shortage of the drug has widened the gap between the reality of carrying out executions and support for them in American law. In October, a majority of the Supreme Court wrongly insisted there was no evidence that the shortage had any bearing on whether an execution can be done constitutionally. Now the evidence is impossible to ignore.

We strongly oppose capital punishment on many grounds. Even with judicial blessing, the conduct of executions in this country is a shambles. In Arizona and Georgia, the sodium thiopental used in executions has possibly been ineffective and almost certainly been illegal. It came from Dream Pharma, an unlicensed British supplier, run from a driving school. The batches carried a date of 2006. They were likely made by a company in Austria that went out of business. The drug is said to be effective for only a year. As a foreign-made drug without approval by the Food and Drug Administration, it is prohibited by federal statute.

The F.D.A. initially suspected the drug from Dream Pharma of being adulterated or mislabeled and refused to let it be imported. Then it let the drug enter the country — but with the warning that the agency hadn't reviewed the drug's “identity, safety, effectiveness, purity or any other characteristics.”

New York Times

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White House Supports Airwaves for Public Safety 

WASHINGTON—The White House endorsed a plan Thursday to give a chunk of airwaves worth an estimated $3 billion to public-safety groups for a new national wireless public-safety network that could cost as much as $15 billion to build, if Congress approves.

The proposal is part of the administration's plan to make good on a pledge President Barack Obama made during his State of the Union speech Tuesday to make mobile Internet available to 98% of Americans in five years.

White House officials are also expected to ask Congress to set aside billions of dollars in future airwave auctions for a new broadband public-safety network. The network would allow police and firemen to share video and other data during emergencies.

In the past, administration officials have suggested that these beefed-up public-safety networks could be shared by private companies to provide Internet access in rural areas.

White House officials declined to comment on specifics of the new public-safety network plan.

However, the administration's plan depends on the willingness of House Republicans to set aside billions of dollars the government would raise from airwave auctions for the new network, instead of using it for deficit reduction or to offset other federal spending.

Wall Street Journal

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Sharing the Responsibility for Our Collective Security

From day one, this Administration has operated on the premise that security is a shared responsibility. No matter who you are – a student, a small business owner, a first responder, a member of the military, or a civilian – we all play a part.

This involves trust and confidence in the American public, as well as the notion that candor and common awareness of the threats we all face, coupled with concrete steps that individuals, families, communities, businesses, and governments can take to prepare for emergencies and disasters, deliver far better security than the federal government can provide acting alone.

Because of the trust we have in Americans to share in our collective security, today I announced the end of the old system of color-coded alerts. In its place, we will implement a new system that is built on a clear and simple premise: when a threat develops that could impact you, the public – we will tell you.  We will provide whatever information we can so you know how to protect yourselves, your families and your communities.  

The new system, called the National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS), reflects the reality that we must always be on alert and ready.  Under the new, two-tiered system, DHS will coordinate with other federal entities to issue formal, detailed alerts regarding information about a specific or credible terrorist threat. These alerts will include a clear statement that there is an “imminent threat” or “elevated threat.” The alerts also will provide a concise summary of the potential threat, information about actions being taken to ensure public safety, and recommended steps that individuals and communities can take.

The White House

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Immigration & Winning the Future

In his State of the Union address, President Obama laid out his vision for winning our future.  Part of accomplishing  this important goal means fixing our nation's broken immigration system.  The President again reiterated his deep commitment to addressing this issue because it's critical to strengthening our global competitiveness and boosting our economy. Last July, the President outlined his vision for commonsense, comprehensive immigration reform grounded in the principles of responsibility and accountability:

• Continue to make border security the responsibility and priority of the federal government,
• Hold accountable businesses that break the law by exploiting undocumented workers,
• Make those living in the United States illegally take responsibility for their actions, and
• Strengthen our economic competiveness by creating a legal immigration system that meets our diverse needs.

Over the last two years, the President has taken his responsibility to enforce our immigration laws and secure our borders very seriously.  This Administration dedicated unprecedented resources to secure our borders, implemented smarter, more strategic interior and worksite enforcement policies, and improved our legal immigration system.

The White House

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Secretary Napolitano Announces New National Terrorism Advisory System to More Effectively Communicate Information about Terrorist Threats to the American Public

DHS Discontinues Color-Coded Alert System

Washington, D.C. - Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano today announced that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will discontinue the color-coded alerts of the Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS) in favor of a new system, the National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS), that will more effectively communicate information about terrorist threats by providing timely, detailed information to the public, government agencies, first responders, airports and other transportation hubs, and the private sector.

The National Terrorism Advisory System will be implemented over the next 90 days in order for DHS and our federal, state, local, tribal, community and private sector partners to transition to the new system.

“Security is a shared responsibility, and we must work together to keep our nation safe from threats,” said Secretary Napolitano. “This new system is built on a clear and simple premise: when a credible threat develops that could impact the public, we will tell you and provide whatever information we can so that you know how to keep yourselves, your families and your communities safe.”

HSAS was first introduced on March 11, 2002. In July 2009, Secretary Napolitano formed a bipartisan task force of security experts, state and local elected and law enforcement officials, and other key stakeholders—co-chaired by Fran Townsend, former Assistant to President George W. Bush for Homeland Security, and Judge William Webster, former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)—to assess the effectiveness of HSAS. The results of this assessment formed the basis of the National Terrorism Advisory System.

Dept of Homeland Security

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Search Warrants Executed in the United States as Part of Ongoing Cyber Investigation

FBI agents today executed more than 40 search warrants throughout the United States as part of an ongoing investigation into recent coordinated cyber attacks against major companies and organizations. Also today, the United Kingdom's Metropolitan Police Service executed additional search warrants and arrested five people for their alleged role in the attacks.

These distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) are facilitated by software tools designed to damage a computer network's ability to function by flooding it with useless commands and information, thus denying service to legitimate users. A group calling itself “Anonymous” has claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying they conducted them in protest of the companies' and organizations' actions. The attacks were facilitated by the software tools the group makes available for free download on the Internet. The victims included major U.S. companies across several industries.

The FBI also is reminding the public that facilitating or conducting a DDoS attack is illegal, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, as well as exposing participants to significant civil liability.

The FBI is working closely with its international law enforcement partners and others to mitigate these threats. Authorities in the Netherlands, Germany, and France have also taken their own investigative and enforcement actions. The National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance (NCFTA) also is providing assistance. The NCFTA is a public-private partnership that works to identify, mitigate, and neutralize cyber crime. The NCFTA has advised that software from any untrustworthy source represents a potential threat and should be removed. Major Internet security (anti-virus) software providers have instituted updates so they will detect the so-called “Low Orbit Ion Canon” tools used in these attacks.

FBI

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January 27, 2011

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Controversial Muslim cleric is arrested while sneaking into the U.S.

Deported from Canada to Tunisia three years ago, Muslim cleric Said Jaziri was found hiding in the trunk of a BMW near the Mexican border.

U.S. border authorities have arrested a controversial Muslim cleric who was deported from Canada to Tunisia three years ago and was caught earlier this month trying to sneak into California in the trunk of a BMW, according to court documents.

Said Jaziri, the former imam of a Muslim congregation in Montreal, was hidden in a car driven by a San Diego-area man who was pulled over by U.S. Border Patrol agents near an Indian casino east of San Diego on Jan. 11. Jaziri had allegedly paid a Tijuana-based smuggling group $5,000 to get him across the border near Tecate, saying he wanted to be taken to a "safe place anywhere in the U.S."

The arrest marks the unexpected resurfacing of the 43-year-old cleric, whose protracted legal battle to avoid deportation drew headlines in Canada. A Tunisian immigrant, Jaziri was deported for failing to disclose a criminal conviction in France while applying for refugee status in the mid-1990s.

But Jaziri's supporters said he was targeted for his fundamentalist views: He backed Sharia law for Canadian Muslims and led protests over the publication of the Prophet Mohammed cartoons in a Danish newspaper in 2006.

Jaziri is being held as a material witness in the criminal case against the BMW's driver, Kenneth Robert Lawler, who has been charged with alien smuggling. He is at the San Luis Detention Facility near Yuma, Ariz., according to his attorney, Wayne Charles Mayer. His bond has been set at $25,000.

In Quebec's large Muslim community, Jaziri stood out for his outspoken views, and though his mosque was small, he drew outsized media attention for his strict interpretation of the Koran. Jaziri labeled homosexuality a sin and pushed for government subsidies to build a large mosque for Montreal's growing Muslim population.

Los Angeles Times

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U.S. missionary fatally wounded in Mexico

A U.S. missionary died at a southern Texas hospital Wednesday after her husband rushed her, mortally wounded, over the Rio Grande from Mexico.

Sam Davis told police that he and his wife were traveling about 70 miles south of the border when gunmen in a pickup truck tried to stop them. When the couple sped up, the gunmen fired, wounding his wife in the head, he said.

Nancy Davis, 59, died in a McAllen hospital about 90 minutes after her husband drove the couple's truck against traffic across the Pharr International Bridge, according to a statement issued by the Pharr Police Department.

Pharr Police Chief Ruben Villescas said Mexican authorities had confirmed that the shooting occurred near San Fernando, about 70 miles south of Reynosa. The area is controlled by the Zetas drug cartel and is one of Mexico's most dangerous. It is the same area of Tamaulipas state where 72 Central and South American migrants were found slain in August, a massacre blamed on the Zetas.

Pharr police and U.S. customs agents converged on the Davises' truck just before 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, after Sam Davis stopped in the middle of bridge traffic to seek help. Nancy Davis was bleeding from a head wound in the passenger seat.

A police statement said the Davises live in the lower Rio Grande Valley in southern Texas but did not specify where or provide details about Nancy Davis' missionary work.

The Mexican Interior Ministry released a statement expressing its condolences. It said Mexican authorities were investigating the shooting but gave no details.

In late September, an American tourist was killed on a border lake about 170 miles northwest of San Fernando, and concerns about the investigation prompted Texas Gov. Rick Perry to call for a stronger response from Mexican authorities. David Hartley's wife says he was gunned down by Mexican pirates while riding a jet ski on the Mexico side of Falcon Lake. His body was never found.

Los Angeles Times

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Former border agent says he was fired for drug-war comments

A former U.S. Border Patrol agent says he was fired for expressing his opinions on the drug war in Mexico while on the job.

Bryan Gonzalez, the former agent, alleges in a lawsuit filed last week that he was fired for telling a fellow agent that the drug-related violence in Mexico would end if the United States legalized drugs. He made the comments in April 2009 during a patrol along the U.S.-Mexico border in New Mexico.

According to the complaint, available here, Gonzalez's remarks prompted an internal affairs investigation at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection office in El Paso, which found that he held "personal views that were contrary to the core characteristics of Border Patrol Agents, which are patriotism, dedication, and esprit de corps."

The suit names his former supervisor and was filed in U.S. District Court in West Texas.

Gonzalez's case, in which he is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union in New Mexico, has been publicized by Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a group that supports drug legalization. A press officer at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection office in El Paso declined to comment on the Gonzalez complaint, citing the pending litigation.

Gonzalez's case could prove "tricky" in court because he was fired one month before his two-year probationary period as an agent was to end, Micah McCoy, a spokesman for the ACLU in New Mexico, said in a telephone interview. Yet the ACLU is convinced Gonzalez's 1st Amendment rights were violated, he said.

"I think it was very clear that he was being fired simply because of the content of his political opinions. There was no misconduct or anything else cited in his termination. It was very explicitly chalked up to opinions that they considered contrary to the core beliefs of the Border Patrol," McCoy said. "Bryan Gonzalez, our plaintiff, would disagree with that strongly. His belief would be that having an opinion is very patriotic."

Los Angeles Times

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LAPD detectives reveal two new Grim Sleeper cases

Detectives said Wednesday night that they are investigating two additional killings that may have been committed by  Lonnie Franklin Jr., the Grim Sleeper serial slaying suspect.

The revelation came during a meeting with about 100 residents at the Bethel AME Church in South Los Angeles.

The detectives' comments were prompted by a question from a relative of a victim in one of the two new cases. The detectives acknowledged the new probes had been launched but declined to elaborate.

The church, in the 7900 block of Western Avenue, is just a few blocks from the home where Franklin was arrested in the summer. The meeting was organized by Councilman Bernard C. Parks, who represents the area.

"It's important for the Police Department to stay connected to the community," Det. Dennis Kilcoyne of the Los Angeles Police Department told The Times.

Franklin, 57, is charged with 10 counts of murder and one count of attempted murder — crimes that occurred in South L.A. and spanned three decades, prosecutors have said. Franklin has pleaded not guilty.

Detectives have released about 180 photos of women whose pictures were found on Franklin's property after investigators served a search warrant in July. As a result of those photos, 72 women were identified and ruled out as victims. Detectives still need to identify about 62 women, Kilcoyne said.

Scores of calls and tips from the photos resulted in the LAPD developing four missing-person cases.

Los Angeles Times

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Pearl Harbor survivor found living in filth; caretaker arrested on suspicion of elder abuse

A 93-year-old Pearl Harbor survivor was found dirty, disoriented and living in filth at his home outside El Cajon, according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.

The man's caretaker, Milagros Angeles, 63, was arrested on suspicion of elder abuse. Sheriff's deputies also discovered that thousands of dollars had been taken from the veteran, the Sheriff's Department said Wednesday.

When deputies went to the tiny home on Euclid Avenue on Tuesday, they found the resident clutching what apparently was his prized possession: a picture of the ship, the Vestal, that he was serving on the day of the Japanese attack.

The Vestal, a repair ship, was moored next to the battleship Arizona. After being repaired at Mare Island in Vallejo, Calif., it returned to the fleet and engaged in several major battles.

Suffering from dementia and dehydration, the victim was taken to the Veterans Affairs hospital in San Diego. His name was not released, in accordance with rules involving elder abuse cases.

Los Angeles Times

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'Skins' passes an ick test

'Skins' is more graphic in its depictions of drug use and sex, but it somehow doesn't have nearly the ick factor of 'Jersey Shore.'

Even if you haven't watched MTV since Duran Duran broke up, you've probably heard of "Skins." It premiered on Jan. 17 amid a fanfare of anticipation after the Parents Television Council pronounced it "the most dangerous program that has ever been foisted on your children."

The council has demanded a federal investigation as to whether the young actors on the show (ages 15 to 19) are participating in child pornography. "Skins" quickly lost sponsors, and the news came that MTV executives were considering editing out particularly racy scenes in future episodes.

No doubt the whiff of forbidden fruit only piqued curiosity, especially among the 12- to 17-year-olds for whom the show's TV-MA, or "mature audiences," rating was already code for "don't miss."

To watch "Skins" is to sit slack-jawed before a hormone-soaked bacchanal. The kids are sexy in a damaged, string-beany kind of way; they're like American Apparel models that walk and talk. There's a street kid named Chris, a lesbian cheerleader named Tea, a self-cutter named Cadie and a rebellious Muslim named Abbud. They have lots of sex, do lots of drugs, watch a lot of porn and speak blithely of plying each other with said drugs in order to facilitate said sex.

In the first episode, the de facto ringleader, Tony, encounters logistical problems when he arranges a drug deal and attempts to relieve his best pal Stanley of his virginity. In the second episode Tea beds Tony — never mind that she routinely masturbates to a photograph of Audrey Hepburn and just hooked up under her parents' roof with a bi-curious classmate.

But it's the third episode of "Skins," airing Monday, that's got everyone really worked up. The character of Chris, played by a 17-year-old, takes a male enhancement pill and ends up running naked down the street, the camera capturing his bare buttocks in all their nubile glory. I bet you can't wait.

Does "Skins" constitute child pornography and violate federal law? That depends, of course, on whether it constitutes pornography in general, and that determination, at least legally, pretty much boils down to Justice Potter Stewart's "I know it when I see it" decree. In any case, the question isn't likely to produce any instant answers.

Los Angeles Times

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Demise of a death drug

States need sodium thiopental to perform lethal injections, but it's in short supply. Now what?

In response to violations of international human rights norms, Western governments are slapping sanctions on a rogue regime by halting exports of a deadly substance. That's nothing new; what is new is that the rogue nation is the United States.

The substance in question is sodium thiopental, a fast-acting anesthetic designed for surgery that has been put to a more sinister purpose in 34 states, which use it to numb condemned prison inmates before injecting another drug that stops their breathing and a third that stops their hearts. Sodium thiopental is very hard to come by because the only U.S. company that makes it has ceased production. Hospira Inc., unable to make the drug in the U.S., had hoped to manufacture it at a plant in Italy, but authorities there demanded assurances that it wouldn't be used for capital punishment. Unable to provide them, Hospira opted to get out of the business. Britain has banned exports of the drug to the U.S.

The United States is an extreme rarity among industrialized democracies for its embrace of the death penalty, which has been abolished in law or practice by 139 nations. That's why European countries are teaming up to stop exports of execution drugs to the U.S. — and that's throwing a wrench into the American machinery of death. Without a supply of sodium thiopental, many states will have to go through the lengthy process of revising their execution procedures. Executions have been delayed for five years in California amid lawsuits over whether the state's lethal injection method — which uses sodium thiopental — constitutes unconstitutionally cruel punishment. The state has an ample supply of the drug because it acquired 90 doses from Britain before London imposed its ban, but when that cache expires, the whole legal nightmare might start over.

If this were just a supply problem, it might be comparatively easy to solve. But lethal injection, considered the most "humane" way to execute criminals, comes with a host of other ethical, regulatory and legal challenges. Medical associations refuse to condone physician participation in executions, increasing the danger of botched procedures. The Food and Drug Administration wants nothing to do with lethal-injection drugs, refusing to verify the effectiveness of imports but allowing states to purchase them. Thus there is no way of knowing whether the drugs are producing the "painless" death they promise, or a torturous death forbidden by the Constitution.

Our biggest objection to the death penalty has nothing to do with death drugs. In an excellent but still imperfect legal system, it is impossible to determine guilt with 100% certainty, which is why dozens of death row inmates have been exonerated. Once a convict is dead, it's too late to set him or her free if new evidence materializes. Add to this the expense of the never-ending appeals process and the serious questions about execution methodology raised by the sodium thiopental fracas, and we have to ask: Is the visceral satisfaction Americans derive from killing convicted killers really worth its cost?

Los Angeles Times

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Army Trauma Unit's Woes Detailed

The Army units created to provide special care for wounded soldiers after the Walter Reed Army Medical Center scandal continue to struggle with short staffing, inadequate training and an overabundance of prescription medications, a report by the Army inspector general's office said.

The easy access to medications in the so-called Warrior Transition Units has meant that about a quarter to a third of all the soldiers in the units are “over-medicated, abuse prescriptions and have access to illegal drugs,” the report said, based on estimates provided by the staff at the units.

The report, which was released this week, said that over all, the program was working. But it suggested that too many soldiers were staying longer in the units than was necessary, either because they were trying to “game” the system to improve their disability benefits or because a slow and understaffed medical bureaucracy had delayed treatment.

As a result of those delays, deserving soldiers are being prevented from rejoining their regular units or from getting out of the military altogether, while less deserving soldiers may be taking resources away from troops who need care more.

“The inspection team noted a ‘sense of entitlement' among some warriors in transition,” the report said.

The report was a result of growing complaints from the soldiers in those units about the quality of care they were receiving as well as from their commanders about the discipline problems posed by some soldiers.

Nerw York Times

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Man Charged in Tucson Shootings Had Researched Assassins, Official Says

TUCSON — Jared L. Loughner, the man accused of opening fire outside a Tucson supermarket on Jan. 8 in what the authorities consider an attempted assassination of Representative Gabrielle Giffords, researched famous assassins, the death penalty and solitary confinement on the Internet before the shootings, an official close to the investigation said Wednesday.

Mr. Loughner, 22, pleaded not guilty on Monday to three federal counts of attempted murder in connection with the shootings, which left six people dead and 13 injured. Among those shot were Ms. Giffords, who the authorities say was the target of the attack but who survived with a bullet wound to the brain, and a federal judge, John M. Roll, who was killed.

Additional federal charges, including murder, are expected within 45 days, and Pima County prosecutors are likely to pursue separate state charges as well.

Mr. Loughner, who lived with his parents, was signed on to a home computer until the wee hours of the morning of the shootings, investigators said. An analysis of Mr. Loughner's Web searches from computers seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation showed that Mr. Loughner was conducting Internet research days before the shooting and until just hours before he took a taxi to a “Congress on Your Corner” event shortly before 10 a.m., an official close to the investigation said.

“He was looking at Web sites related to lethal injection and Web sites about famous assassins,” the official said, adding, “These are things he was looking into in the days leading up to — including the evening and morning hours — up to the event.”

Nerw York Times

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Color-coded threat system to be replaced in April

Not that anyone is really paying attention.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is expected to announce Thursday that the almost 9-year-old threat alert system will go away in April. It will be replaced by the new National Terror Advisory System that will focus on specific threats in geographical areas, a department source said Wednesday.

The source did not provide details of the new system, which Napolitano will unveil at what the department is calling "the first annual 'State of America's Homeland Security' address" at George Washington University.

The top Democrat and Republican on the House Homeland Security Commission reacted positively to the news, although committee chairman Rep. Peter King, R-New York, reserved judgment on the specifics.

"Though the system served a valuable purpose in the terrible days and months following the terrorist attacks of September 11, it was clearly time for the current color-coded system to be replaced with a more targeted system," King said. "I know they have been working on this for a long time. It sounds to me like the changes they are proposing make sense. We will have to wait and see how they implement this new, more targeted system. I expect the biggest challenge for DHS will be balancing the need to provide useful and timely information with the need to protect sensitive information."

CNN

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TOP STORY: ICE aids in capture of international fugitives

Perdomo Henriquez was a notorious, violent gang leader in El Salvador - wanted for crimes ranging from decapitation and dismemberment to murder and extortion. He made his way to New York where he wandered our streets, lived among us. This month, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers removed him from the United States and placed him in the custody of law enforcement in El Salvador.

Henriquez's story is not unique. Across the world, fugitives evade law enforcement by fleeing countries where they've committed crimes. Since August 2010, ICE's Fugitive Alien Removal Program has removed 27 individuals from the United States who were wanted overseas.

The removals are due in large part to improved cooperation with INTERPOL, the International Crime Police Organization. One hundred eighty-eight countries are INTERPOL members. They work with one another to disseminate information about wanted fugitives.

"INTERPOL has played a significant role in how ICE responds to and disseminates information about international fugitives," said Deputy Assistant Director of the Fugitive Operations Division John K. Crowther. "We think of it as a warning system that not only helps the United States, but a number of other countries as well. INTERPOL notices alert law enforcement agencies around the world that an international gang member or child predator may be seeking refuge in their country. That country can then monitor, and if appropriate, arrest the deported criminal alien for crimes committed. Additionally, these notices are a great tool for limiting the ability of a criminal to travel from one country to another."

In September 2010, ICE and INTERPOL initiated the first joint international fugitive enforcement operation called "Operation Far Away." Sixteen countries in the Western hemisphere participated in the operation targeting at-large INTERPOL foreign fugitives. The operation netted 30 arrests of individuals wanted for crimes ranging from human trafficking to political assassination. ICE's Fugitive Operations Team had a hand in 23 of them.

ICE

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Michigan man charged with transporting minor for sex

INDIANAPOLIS - A Michigan man was charged on Monday with traveling in inter-state commerce intending to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor, announced U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Hogsett, Southern District of Indiana. The investigation was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Indiana State Police, and Michigan State Police.

The complaint alleges that late in the evening on Jan. 10, 2010, Daniel Feneis, 24, from Sears, Mich., and a 14-year-old girl identified as Jane Doe in the complaint, left Michigan together and intending to start "a new life" in St. Louis, Mo. Feneis and Jane Doe had been involved in a sexual relationship in Michigan for about six months. The complaint further alleges that the two engaged in sex acts in Indiana.

Following an investigation by Michigan and Indiana authorities, Feneis and Jane Doe were found together in a hotel room at the Days Inn in Terre Haute, Ind., within the Southern District of Indiana, less than 24 hours after Feneis transported Jane Doe out of Michigan.

Feneis faces a maximum of 30 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Following a hearing on Jan. 25, 2011, Feneis was ordered detained pending disposition of this case before a U.S. District Court.

This investigation was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide ICE initiative to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas for sex with minors, Internet child pornographers, criminal alien sex offenders, and child sex traffickers.

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 .

A Complaint t is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Assistant U.S. Attorney A. Brant Cook, Southern District of Indiana, is prosecuting this case.

ICE

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January 26, 2011

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State of the Union: Obama says U.S. acts 'together, or not at all'

President Obama's State of the Union speech emphasizes the need for bipartisanship in creating new jobs. He vows to protect his legislative achievements from more than 'fixes.'

Confronting a divided government, President Obama struck notes of conciliation and challenge in his State of the Union speech, suggesting new spending cuts while advocating increased outlays for education, mass transit and infrastructure.

Obama's hourlong address Tuesday night sought to repel Republican efforts to roll back his party's signature legislative achievements, including the healthcare overhaul, during the next two years.

He emphasized the need for bipartisanship, calling on Democrats and Republicans to work together to create new jobs. "We will move forward together, or not at all — for the challenges we face are bigger than party, and bigger than politics," Obama said.

Obama called for a five-year freeze on nonmilitary discretionary spending in a bid to help reduce the deficit and said he would veto any bill containing pet projects known as "earmarks." He also endorsed $78 billion in Pentagon cuts and said he would consider other reductions.

But he defended his record and warned that although he may agree to tweaks to his legislative accomplishments, his top priority in the next two years would be to preserve that work. Especially on his landmark healthcare law, he called for changes where needed, but warned he would oppose repeal.

"Instead of re-fighting the battles of the last two years, let's fix what needs fixing and move forward," he said.

Los Angeles Times

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TRANSCRIPT

Obama's State of the Union: 'We do big things'

Prepared text of President Obama's State of the Union, as provided by the White House

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans:

Tonight I want to begin by congratulating the men and women of the 112th Congress, as well as your new Speaker, John Boehner. And as we mark this occasion, we are also mindful of the empty chair in this Chamber, and pray for the health of our colleague – and our friend – Gabby Giffords.

It's no secret that those of us here tonight have had our differences over the last two years. The debates have been contentious; we have fought fiercely for our beliefs. And that's a good thing. That's what a robust democracy demands. That's what helps set us apart as a nation.

But there's a reason the tragedy in Tucson gave us pause. Amid all the noise and passions and rancor of our public debate, Tucson reminded us that no matter who we are or where we come from, each of us is a part of something greater – something more consequential than party or political preference.

We are part of the American family. We believe that in a country where every race and faith and point of view can be found, we are still bound together as one people; that we share common hopes and a common creed; that the dreams of a little girl in Tucson are not so different than those of our own children, and that they all deserve the chance to be fulfilled.

That, too, is what sets us apart as a nation.

Los Angeles Times

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Mother describes border vigilante killings in Arizona

Gina Gonzalez says her 9-year-old daughter, Brisenia Flores, pleaded for her life. Opening arguments begin in the trial of Shawna Forde of the Minutemen movement, who is accused in the killing of the girl and her father.

As her mother tells it, 9-year-old Brisenia Flores had begged the border vigilantes who had just broken into her house, "Please don't shoot me."

But they did — in the face at point-blank range, prosecutors allege, as Brisenia's father sat dead on the couch and her mother lay on the floor, pretending that she too had been killed in the gunfire.

Even as this city continues to mourn the victims in the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, another tragedy took center stage Tuesday, as opening arguments began in the trial of a member of a Minutemen group accused of killing Brisenia and her father, Raul Flores Jr.

Prosecutors allege that in May 2009, Shawna Forde decided to strike an odd alliance with drug dealers in southern Arizona: Forde would help the traffickers ransack their rivals' houses for stashes of drugs and cash, which could then fund her fledgling group, Minutemen American Defense.

She and another border vigilante, dressed in uniforms, identified themselves as law enforcement officers before bursting into the Flores home, prosecutors allege. If convicted, Forde could face the death penalty.

Los Angeles Times

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20 arrested in gun smuggling case

Federal authorities indict the men on charges of buying hundreds of weapons in Arizona and conspiring to sell them to drug cartels in Mexico.

In a case aimed at stemming the flow of U.S. weapons to the Mexican drug war, federal authorities indicted 20 men Tuesday on charges of buying an estimated 700 weapons in Arizona and conspiring to transfer them across the border, chiefly to the Sinaloa drug cartel.

The arrests, carried out by at least 100 federal agents, began early Tuesday, the latest crackdown targeting an international trafficking network that authorities say has seen as many as 60,000 weapons seized in Mexico and traced to U.S. sources.

"The massive size of this operation sadly exemplifies the magnitude of the problem: Mexican drug lords go shopping for war weapons in Arizona," Dennis Burke, U.S. attorney in Arizona, said in a statement.

Officials at the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said the case demonstrates the need to include long-barreled weapons in the requirement for gun sellers to report multiple weapon sales to a single buyer. The proposal has been opposed by the National Rifle Assn. and many gun owners as an inappropriate reach of federal authority.

Gun advocates say many of the weapons in the hands of Mexican drug traffickers were acquired from weapons stocks officially supplied by the U.S. government to Mexico and other Latin American countries.

The case involves the relatively common use of "straw purchasers," legal residents of the state who buy the weapons from licensed gun dealers and certify that they are for their own use, but end up selling the guns to the drug cartels.

None of those charged in the indictments are licensed gun dealers. But the indictments identify a number of Arizona dealers that legally supplied large quantities of weapons to individual buyers, often in a single day.

Los Angeles Times

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States' Lawmakers Turn Attention to the Dangers of Distracted Pedestrians

Many joggers don earbuds and listen to music to distract themselves from the rigors of running. But might the Black Eyed Peas or Rihanna distract them so much that they jog into traffic?

That is the theory of several lawmakers pushing the latest generation of legislation dealing with how devices like iPods and cellphones affect traffic safety. The ubiquity of interactive devices has propelled the science of distraction — and now efforts to legislate against it — out of the car and into the exercise routine.

In New York, a bill is pending in the legislature's transportation committee that would ban the use of mobile phones, iPods or other electronic devices while crossing streets — runners and other exercisers included. Legislation pending in Oregon would restrict bicyclists from using mobile phones and music players, and a Virginia bill would keep such riders from using a “hand-held communication device.”

In California, State Senator Joe Simitian, who led a successful fight to ban motorists from sending text messages and using hand-held phones, has reintroduced a bill that failed last year to fine bicyclists $20 for similar multitasking.

“The big thing has been distracted driving, but now it's moving into other ways technology can distract you, into everyday things,” said Anne Teigen, a policy specialist for the National Conference of State Legislatures, which tracks legislative developments.

Exercising in Central Park on Tuesday, Marie Wickham, 56, said she understood what all the fuss was about: “They're zigging, they're zagging, they don't know what's around them. It can definitely be dangerous.”

But Ms. Wickham added that she would be opposed to any ban of such devices. “I think it's an infringement on personal rights,” she said. “At some point, we need to take responsibility for our own stupidity.”

New York Times

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Ex-Detainee Gets Life Sentence in Embassy Blasts

Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, the first former detainee at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to be tried in the civilian court system, was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday for his role in the 1998 bombings of two United States Embassies in East Africa.

The nearly simultaneous attacks in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killed 224 people and wounded thousands.

The defense had asked the judge for a lesser sentence, citing the extraordinary circumstances of Mr. Ghailani's case, like the years he spent in detention in a so-called black site run by the C.I.A., where his lawyers say he was tortured.

But the judge, Lewis A. Kaplan of Federal District Court in Manhattan, said that no matter how Mr. Ghailani was treated while in detention, “the impact on him pales in comparison to the suffering and the horror that he and his confederates caused.”

“It was a cold-blooded killing and maiming of innocent people on an enormous scale,” Judge Kaplan said. “The very purpose of the crime was to create terror by causing death and destruction.”

New York Times

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Girl shot in Washington still unidentified, but Utah parents certain it's her

CLEARFIELD — The parents of a missing Utah teenager say they are nearly certain their 13-year-old daughter was the girl who was killed in a weekend shootout with police in Washington.

Investigators in Washington said Tuesday that dental records are needed to officially identify the young girl — a task that could take a week.

Neither authorities in Washington nor Utah could confirm Tuesday whether the teenage girl killed in front of a Walmart in Port Orchard, Wash., about 15 miles west of Seattle across Puget Sound, is Astrid Valdivia, who ran away from a South Salt Lake foster home.

But a spokesman for her family said Tuesday they know it was her and are planning for her funeral.

On Sunday afternoon, police say Anthony Allen Martinez, 30, shot two Kitsap County, Wash., sheriff's deputies before he was fatally shot by a third deputy.

At some point during the confrontation, a teenage girl ran toward Martinez. Witnesses reported seeing the girl run toward the man after he was shot. It was unknown Tuesday whether the girl was shot by police gunfire or by Martinez's gun.

Desert News

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Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli at the Defending Childhood Grantee Meeting

Good morning. I know it's early in our first day, but I hope you are already getting a sense of just how important Defending Childhood is to the Department of Justice. One of my responsibilities here at the Department that I find most rewarding is overseeing all of the Department's grant programs. This allows me the opportunity to support the excellent work related to children, youth and violence that comes out of the Office of Justice Programs, the Office on Violence Against Women and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. A hallmark of this Department of Justice's approach to its work is collaboration – if we want to work with communities on broad-ranging and truly comprehensive solutions to problems, we ourselves in the Department need to work together. The Defending Childhood Initiative is one of several in the Department where we have sought to enhance how we work together, all with the goal of better helping our partners in cities, towns, reservations, and rural areas throughout the Nation.

We are here today because communities across the country face a reality that is simply unacceptable – our children are exposed to far more violence than I think most people realize and that is intolerable. We can have only one response – something must be done. I want to echo what the leaders from all our components have said about the vital importance of this initiative. It has the potential to substantially change the lives of American children and families. With the Attorney General's Defending Childhood Initiative, the Justice Department is committing to a comprehensive approach to a pervasive problem. With a fragmented approach, children exposed to violence can slip through the cracks of every service system. Other times, these children may be viewed as collateral damage in shattered lives – or, most tragically, when the sources of their trauma goes unnoticed, as troublemakers or delinquents. This initiative is about targeting and breaking the cycle of violence that affects our most vulnerable Americans.

This initiative seeks to redefine how the Justice Department responds to children who experience violence, witness violence, or suffer ongoing negative ramifications from violence. We have devised an initiative that will harness resources from across the Department to – first, prevent exposure to violence when possible; second to mitigate the negative impact of violence when it does occur; and third, to develop knowledge and spread awareness that will ultimately improve our homes, cities, towns, and communities. We are integrating efforts to protect and assist children exposed to violence into everything we do at the Justice Department.

Dept of Justice

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Statement of Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division Jason Weinstein Before the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security

Good afternoon, Subcommittee Chairman Sensenbrenner, Committee Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Scott, and Members of the Subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on behalf of the Department of Justice. We welcome this opportunity to provide our views about data retention by companies that provide the public with Internet and cell phone services. I am particularly pleased to be able to speak with you about data retention, because data retention is fundamental to the Department's work in investigating and prosecuting almost every type of crime.

In offering this testimony, our goal is explain the nature of the public safety interest in data retention by providers. We do not attempt to discuss appropriate solutions, evaluate cross-cutting considerations, or evaluate the proper balance between data retention and other concerns. We look forward to continuing the dialog on these important issues with Congress, industry, and other interested organizations.

The harm from a lack of retention

Our modern system of communications is run by private companies that provide communications services. These providers include the companies that sell us cell phone service, the companies that bring Internet connectivity to our homes, and the companies that run online services, such as e-mail. These providers often keep records about who is using their services, and how. They keep these non-content records for business purposes; the records can be useful for billing, to resolve customer disputes, and for business analytics. Some records are kept for weeks or months; others are stored very briefly before being purged. In many cases, these records are the only available evidence that allows us to investigate who committed crimes on the Internet. They may be the only way to learn, for example, that a certain Internet address was used by a particular human being to engage in or facilitate a criminal offense.

All of us rely on the government to protect our lives and safety by thwarting threats to national security and the integrity of our computer networks and punishing and deterring dangerous criminals. That protection often requires the government to obtain a range of information about those who would do us harm.

Dept of Justice

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Man Wanted for More Than a Decade Nabbed After Profile Airs on National TV

ROCKWELL, TX—A man on the run for more than a decade was arrested in Rockwell, TX this morning after investigators received tip calls from viewers of America's Most Wanted. Jack Allen Poteat (dob: 10/03/1964) is wanted on a federal Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution warrant based on charges in Union County, NC.

A jury indicted Poteat in June 1999 for first degree statutory rape, first degree statutory sex offense, indecent liberties with a minor and crimes against nature involving a 13-year-old girl in Monroe, NC. Poteat failed to appear for his jury trial on October 19, 1999 and has been a fugitive ever since.

A profile of the case aired on America's Most Wanted on January 22, 2011. Viewers in Texas recognized Poteat and called the FBI. After tracking down leads, law enforcement went to a home in Rockwell, TX this morning to make the arrest. When Poteat spotted law enforcement approaching the home, he took off in a truck and ended up crashing after a short chase. Poteat is being treated for minor injuries.

“We are grateful for the opportunity to have profiled this case on America's Most Wanted, as well as the opportunity to work with the FBI and the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office in apprehending this man,” said Ben Bailey, Chief Deputy Sheriff at the Union County Sheriff's Office. “This is a prime example of what can happen when law enforcement agencies share information and cooperate in investigations. It also demonstrates that the public has the courage and willingness to come forward and turn in criminals.”

“After more than a decade, most fugitives may begin to believe they've beaten the system, but this case proves we won't give up the chase. Our law enforcement partners and the Task Force Officer on our Safe Streets Task Force never stopped searching for Poteat,” said Aaron T. Ford, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Charlotte FBI. “This also proves the public can be our eyes and ears when we most need their help. Those tipsters who called in share in the success of this case.”

FBI

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January 25, 2011

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Blowing the whistle on drug firms

A tiny pharmacy in Florida has built a lucrative niche market: filing lawsuits against drug makers that overcharge Medicare and Medicaid.

Last December, a specialty pharmacy in Florida enjoyed its best month ever — posting a hefty $168.7 million in revenues.

But it wasn't filling prescriptions that made Ven-A-Care of the Florida Keys Inc. such a success.

Tiny Ven-A-Care has developed a lucrative niche market: blowing the whistle on drug companies that overcharge Medicare and Medicaid — and collecting tens of millions of dollars in reward money.

Unlike most whistle-blowers who help the government with one case after they encounter wrongdoing, Ven-A-Care has filed suits alleging fraudulent conduct against dozens of drug companies supplying pharmacies and healthcare providers.

The company's whistle-blowing essentially works like this:

The company conducts research, comparing the prices it paid for drugs with the prices reported by drug makers to the government for reimbursement. Ven-A-Care files suit, on behalf of the government, when it spots large discrepancies between the two sets of prices.

Los Angeles Times

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Insurers are scouring social media for evidence of fraud

If someone receiving disability benefits for a bad back brags on Facebook or Twitter about finishing a marathon, chances are their insurance company will find out and stop the checks.

Now there's another reason to be careful about what you post on Facebook: Your insurance company may be watching.

Nathalie Blanchard found out the hard way.

Struggling with depression, the 30-year-old from Quebec, Canada, took a medical leave in early 2008 from her job as an IBM technician. Soon after, she began receiving monthly disability benefits from her insurer, Manulife Financial Corp.

A year later and without warning, the payments stopped.

A representative of the Toronto insurance company told Blanchard that Manulife used photos of her on Facebook — showing her frolicking at a beach and hanging out at a pub — to determine she was depression-free and able to work, said Tom Lavin, Blanchard's attorney.

"They just assumed from the pictures that she was a fraud," Lavin said, "without investigating further before terminating Nathalie's benefits."

Los Angeles Times

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Canadians arrest Moreno Valley man in connection with 1982 massacre

U.S. Justice Department officials seek extradition in the killing in Guatemala of more than 150 civilians, including children.

A Moreno Valley martial arts instructor suspected of belonging to the Guatemalan military unit that killed more than 150 civilians, including children, in the country's infamous Dos Erres massacre in 1982 has been arrested on immigration fraud charges after fleeing from federal authorities last year.

Jorge Sosa, 52, was arrested by Canadian authorities last week while visiting his parents near Calgary, and Justice Department officials are seeking his extradition back to California. Sosa holds both Canadian and U.S. citizenship.

Sosa is accused of concealing his foreign military service and of lying under oath when he said he had never committed any crime or offense when he applied for U.S. citizenship in March 2008, authorities said.

If convicted, Sosa could be sentenced to a maximum of 15 years in federal prison and would be stripped of his U.S. citizenship and deported, said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles.

Authorities said that Sosa, also known as Jorge Vinicio Sosa Orantes, was a commander in a special forces unit known as the Kaibiles, which interrogated and then killed men, women and children while searching their Guatemalan village for guerrilla fighters who had ambushed a military convoy.

"During the course of these interrogations, the special patrol proceeded to systematically kill the men, women, and children at Dos Erres by, among other methods, hitting them in the head with a sledgehammer and throwing them into a well,'' according to an Orange County federal grand jury indictment handed down Sept. 1. "Members of the special patrol also forcibly raped many of the women and girls at Dos Erres before killing them.''

Los Angeles Times

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Moscow airport bombing kills 35

The blast at an arrival hall at Domodedovo Airport serving Moscow was a suicide attack, officials say. They say they are looking for three Chechen men in connection with the attack.

A suicide bomber slipped into a crowd waiting for international passengers arriving at Moscow's newest and busiest airport, setting off a huge blast that killed 35 people and highlighted another weak spot in security for global air travelers.

The attack at Domodedovo Airport illustrates how difficult it is to safeguard public areas at terminals, even as the United States and other governments engaged in a cat-and-mouse battle with would-be bombers have tightened screenings of passengers and their luggage.

In the United States, such public areas at airports are protected by a hodgepodge of security agencies. In Moscow, visitors are supposed to pass through a metal detector, but one survivor of Monday's attack said he saw no one being required to do so.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, which also wounded about 130 people. However, Russia has suffered repeated attacks by Islamic militants from the Caucasus region. Russia has fought two wars against separatists in Chechnya and other republics there, and though the military campaign has largely ended, sporadic violence continues.

Los Angeles Times

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Researcher projects 5,000 will die in Ciudad Juarez in 2011

An artificial-intelligence model generated by a university researcher in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, projects that 5,000 people will be killed in the violent border city this year. The same model projected at the start of 2010 that 3,000 would be killed in the greater Juarez area, a figure that eventually reached 3,111 -- about a 94% accuracy rate.

It may seem far-fetched to make such long-term projections on a fluid criminal conflict such as the drug war in Juarez. Researcher Alberto Ochoa, in an interview with La Plaza on Monday, said his model is based on methods that mimic biology-based, or "bioinspired," patterns. Barring a "radical change" in Ciudad Juarez -- where the Juarez and Sinaloa cartels are battling over the drug-trafficking route across the U.S. border into El Paso, Texas -- his projection foresees a figure of roughly 5,000 dead.

"This technique is nothing new," Ochoa said from the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juarez, where he is a researcher at the Center for Social Investigations. "It's not the most accurate model but it is based heavily on reality."

"It's not Excel," the researcher added, referring to the commonly used software program. "The model has to be fed, values have to be adjusted. It's complicated."

By differing measures, Juarez ranks as the most violent city in Mexico, most violent in the Western Hemisphere, or even the most violent in the world, the local newspaper El Diario reported earlier this month (link in Spanish). Juarez, with a current population of 1.3 million, has lost more than 230,000 residents in an "exodus" from the daily barrage of drug-related killings, kidnappings and extortion operations.

Los Angeles Times

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Not guilty plea is entered for Jared Loughner in Tucson attacks

The suspect smiles through a court appearance in which he is arraigned on charges that he tried to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and two of her aides in the shooting rampage that killed six.

His hands and feet shackled, Jared Lee Loughner on Monday shuffled into the special proceedings courtroom in the federal courthouse here to answer charges that he tried to assassinate U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords during a shooting rampage that killed six.

He was beaming.

Loughner, 22, continued to flash an uncanny, self-satisfied grin throughout the otherwise routine nine-minute arraignment. He sat down and leaned back in his chair, crossing his legs. He glanced at the domed room, normally used for naturalization ceremonies or other special events, and his smile got even broader. His attorney, Judy Clarke, whispered something to him. Loughner chortled.

Clarke asked U.S. District Court Judge Larry A. Burns to enter a plea for her client. Burns recorded Loughner as pleading not guilty. Loughner stared straight ahead and kept smiling.

A grand jury had indicted Loughner in the Jan. 8 shooting of Giffords and two of her aides at a Tucson shopping center. More charges are expected in the slayings of Gabriel Zimmerman, a Giffords staffer, and John M. Roll, the presiding judge of the federal courthouse in Tucson. Those charges could make Loughner eligible for the death penalty if he is convicted.

Los Angeles Times

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By Nature, Airports Have Risks

How do you fully secure something as big and sprawling as an international airport against a terrorist bombing like the one on Monday at Domodedovo Airport in Moscow?

You cannot, security experts I spoke with on Monday say. Airports are by definition public places requiring relatively free access.

The experts have long contended that serious holes in security at airports have been neglected while most of the effort and money goes into looking for weapons on passengers at checkpoints.

But they have also warned that a sensational incident in one place can lead to widespread overreaction and demands for quick fixes.

“It always does,” said Bruce Schneier, a security technology consultant and author who has long argued that there is no such thing as perfect security, and that pretending otherwise is foolish.

Douglas R. Laird, a former Secret Service agent and onetime head of security for Northwest Airlines who now operates an aviation security consulting firm, Laird & Associates, made much the same case.

“At some point, it needs to be made clear that nothing is 100 percent secure,” he said. “With airports, if you were to build a new terminal from scratch, sure, you could do a better job of anticipating certain security issues.

“But still, we're talking about public areas,” he said. “It doesn't matter if it's an airline terminal, a train station or the front of Macy's — as long as you have free access, you're going to have these potential issues.”

New York Times

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Unusual Wave of Violence Strikes Police Officers

MIAMI — As thousands of law enforcement officers gathered inside the American Airlines Arena here Monday morning for a funeral for two slain Miami-Dade police officers, news quickly spread that two more officers had been shot and killed a few hours earlier — this time in St. Petersburg, Fla.

It was an eerie repeat of the police shootings last Thursday in Miami. In both cases, officers were killed as they tried to serve an arrest warrant.

“This is a chief's worst nightmare,” said St. Petersburg's police chief, Chuck Harmon. “To lose two officers in one day is a tremendous loss to our department and our community.”

The Florida shootings are part of a wave of violence that law enforcement officials called highly unusual. Thirteen officers have been shot in the United States since Thursday, four fatally and several others critically wounded.

“It's unbelievable,” said Chuck Wexler, the executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a research group in Washington. “I can't remember this many shootings happening in such a short period of time.”

Already this year, 10 police officers have been killed in the line of duty, after an especially deadly year for law enforcement. In 2010, 61 federal, state and local officers were killed by gunfire, a 24 percent increase from 2009, when 49 were killed in the line of duty, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, a nonprofit group.

New York Times

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Tucson Attack Reawakens Pain From Virginia Tech

BLACKSBURG, Va. — In the parlance of trauma, Jerzy Nowak considers himself a “secondary victim.” His wife, Jocelyne Couture-Nowak , a French teacher, was one of the 32 people killed at Virginia Tech here on April 16, 2007, by a crazed gunman who then killed himself in the worst campus shooting in American history.

The effects of that massacre linger, and they reverberate anew every time another gunman goes on another rampage, as one did this month in Tucson.

Mental health experts say it generally takes two to five years for secondary victims — loved ones and survivors of such traumatic events — to “come to terms with new realities” and “reconstruct a new life.” Mr. Nowak, 64, is nearing his fourth year, and he still does not use the word “recovery.”

“You never recover,” he said sadly the other day, in a thick Polish accent. “This is a myth. You just learn to live. Or adapt. This is a big word, ‘recovery.' ”

The traditional stages of grief are achingly familiar by now, but like Tolstoy's unhappy families, each secondary victim and survivor travels involuntarily through those stages in his or her own way. Mr. Nowak agreed to talk about his experience in the hope that doing so might provide some solace and guidance for families and survivors in Tucson.

New York Times

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States Help Ex-Inmates Find Jobs

Faced with yawning budget gaps and high unemployment, California, Michigan, New York and several other states are attacking both problems with a surprising strategy: helping ex-convicts find jobs to keep them from ending up back in prison.

The approach is backed by prisoner advocates as well as liberal and conservative government officials, who say it pays off in cold, hard numbers. Michigan, for example, spends $35,000 a year to keep someone in prison — more than the cost of educating a University of Michigan student. Through vigorous job placement programs and prudent use of parole, state officials say they have cut the prison population by 7,500, or about 15 percent, over the last four years, yielding more than $200 million in annual savings. Michigan spends $56 million a year on various re-entry programs, including substance abuse treatment and job training.

“We had a $2 billion prison budget, and if you look at the costs saved by not having the system the size it was, we save a lot of money,” said Patricia Caruso, who was Michigan's corrections commissioner from 2003 through 2010. “If we spend some of that $2 billion on something else — like re-entry programs — and that results in success, that's a better approach.”

All told, the 50 states and the federal government spend $69 billion a year to house two million prisoners, prompting many budget cutters to see billions in potential savings by trimming the prison population. Each year, more than 600,000 inmates are released nationwide, but studies show that two-thirds are re-arrested within three years.

“An exorbitant amount of money is dedicated to incarcerating people,” said Nancy La Vigne, director of the Justice Policy Center at the Urban Institute. “There are ways you can go about reducing the number of people incarcerated. The best way to help them successfully integrate into society and become independent, law-abiding citizens is to make sure they get a job.”

New York Times

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Detroit precinct shooter suspected in girl's kidnapping

Attack came after 13-year-old reported assault

Lamar D. Moore calmly walked into the Detroit Police Department's Northwestern District station just after shift change Sunday afternoon, when few officers were in the building, and approached the front desk while concealing a pistol-grip shotgun.

Details emerged Monday night that may explain what first appeared to be an unprovoked attack.

Moore had been implicated in the kidnapping and sexual assault of a runaway teenage girl, according to an official familiar with the investigation.

She escaped Sunday afternoon from Moore's house on Sorrento, sought help and police were called, according to the official, who said it was after this that Moore shot up the station.

Struck were Cmdr. Brian Davis, who was working Sunday to get briefed on an earlier nightclub shooting; Sgts. Ray Saati and Carrie Schulz, and Officer David Anderson. All four survived. Two still were hospitalized Monday.

During the ambush, officers at the station returned fire, killing Moore.

Detroit Free Press

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The Department of Homeland Security's Commitment to Military Families

Secret Service Site Security Training Gains a High-Tech Edge

Chemical releases, suicide bombers, air and subsurface threats:  the U.S. Secret Service needs to be prepared to handle these real-life incidents.  Training to respond to such incidents, however, has been more theoretical than practical. Now, with the help from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science & Technology Directorate (S&T), the Secret Service is giving training scenarios a high-tech edge:  moving from static tabletop models to virtual kiosks with gaming technology and 3D modeling.

For the past 40 years, a miniature model environment called “Tiny Town” has been one of the methods used to teach Secret Service agents and officers how to prepare a site security plan. The model includes different sites -- an airport, outdoor stadium, urban rally site and a hotel interior -- and uses scaled models of buildings, cars and security assets. The scenario-based training allows students to illustrate a dignitary's entire itinerary and accommodate unrelated, concurrent activities in a public venue.  Various elements of a visit are covered, such as an arrival, rope line or public remarks.  The class works as a whole and in small groups to develop and present their security plan. 

Enter videogame technology.  The Secret Service's James J. Rowley Training Center near Washington, D.C., sought to take these scenarios beyond a static environment to encompass the dynamic threat spectrum that exists today, while taking full advantage of the latest computer software technology.  The agency's Security and Incident Modeling Lab wanted to update Tiny Town and create a more relevant and flexible training tool. 

Dept of Homeland Security

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Department Releases Proposed Rule in Accordance with the Prison Rape Elimination Act Proposed Regulation Contains Four Sets of Standards Aimed at Combating Sexual Abuse in Prisons

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department today released a proposed rule that aims to prevent and respond to sexual abuse in incarceration settings, in accordance with the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). Based on recommendations of the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission (NPREC), the proposed rule contains four sets of national standards aimed at combating sexual abuse in four types of confinement facilities: adult prisons and jails, juvenile facilities, lockups and community confinement facilities.

A 60-day public comment period will follow publication in the Federal Register, after which the department will make revisions as warranted and the standards will be published as a final rule. The department expects the final rule will be published by the end of the year.

“Sexual abuse is a crime, not punishment for a crime,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “The Department of Justice's goal is to eliminate these acts of violence by taking deliberative and concrete steps to ensure the health and safety of prisoners. In crafting our proposed rule, we have aimed to build a durable set of standards that are attainable, effective and consistent with the Prison Rape Elimination Act's requirements and goals.”?

In developing the proposed rule, the department convened listening sessions with key stakeholders, performed an extensive analysis of the anticipated costs and benefits of the standards, and reviewed more than 650 comments that were submitted in response to an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. The standards are based on recommendations by the NPREC, which was created by PREA to study sexual abuse in confinement settings and disbanded in 2009 after issuing its final report, which included recommended standards.

Dept of Justice

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Truck driver re-sentenced to nearly 34 years in federal prison for his role in the deaths of 19 illegal aliens in Victoria, TX, in 2003

HOUSTON - The driver of the insulated tractor trailer used in a smuggling operation which left 19 aliens dead in the deadliest smuggling operation ever in the district was re-sentenced on Monday to 33 years and nine months imprisonment without the possibility of parole, announced U.S. Attorney José Angel Moreno, Southern District of Texas. The investigation was conducted by the Houston, San Antonio, Harlingen, Brownsville and McAllen, Texas, offices of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Tyrone Mapletoft Williams, 40, was re-sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal to 405 months imprisonment on each of 19 counts of conviction - counts 40 through 58 of the indictment - relating to the 19 deceased victims of the ill-fated smuggling operation in May 2003. Williams was the driver of a tractor trailer discovered abandoned at a truck stop in Victoria, Texas, during the early hours of May 14, 2003.

Victoria law enforcement officers who arrived at the location came upon the bodies of 17 smuggled foreign nationals in and around the trailer who had died as a result of being transported inside Williams' insulated trailer. Two additional trailer occupants subsequently died of their injuries at Victoria-area hospitals. The resulting 19 deaths associated with this smuggling operation established it as the deadliest in the district.

Williams was originally sentenced to life imprisonment on each of these 19 counts of conviction by a jury's verdict. However, the case was remanded to the District Court for re-sentencing after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion finding that Williams' punishment on these counts of conviction should have been assessed by the court and not the jury.

ICE

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ICE arrests 77 in operation targeting criminal aliens and immigration fugitives

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - More than 70 criminal aliens, immigration fugitives and immigration violators are facing deportation and criminal charges following a four-day enforcement operation spearheaded by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Fugitive Operations Teams (FOTs) in and around Grand Rapids, Mich.

During the operation, which concluded late yesterday, ICE made a total of 77 arrests in Kent, Calhoun, Ottawa, Kalamazoo, Berrien, St. Joseph and Mason counties.

Of those taken into custody, 22 were aliens with prior criminal convictions, six had been previously deported who returned to the United States illegally after being removed, and 35 were immigration fugitives who failed to comply with a final order of deportation issued by an immigration judge. The remaining illegal aliens arrested were encountered by ERO officers during the course of the four-day operation.

Their criminal histories included prior arrests and convictions for a variety of violations, including manslaughter, criminal sexual conduct, weapons violations, reentry after deportation, and assault and disorderly conduct among others. Since many of the individuals have outstanding orders of deportation or have been previously deported, they are subject to immediate removal from the country.

ICE

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January 24, 2011

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Survey notes illegal-texting tendencies

Officers count up how many drivers are breaking the law with their phones.

Standing on a downtown street corner, Glendale Police Officer Mathew Bolton spotted at least 12 motorists illegally using a cell phone — and all within 60 seconds.

The count was part of an undercover survey Wednesday on Brand Boulevard and California Avenue of distracted drivers, in which roughly 10% of motorists were spotted doing something illegal while at the wheel.

Dressed in regular clothes, Bolton stood on the corner and yelled out "texting," "phone" and "talking" at a rapid pace as another officer noted the results.

"I just look for the hands. The big thing is the hands," Bolton said.

Bolton pointed out a motorist who was using an earpiece to talk on the phone while driving.

"That's what we want people to do is to use their Bluetooths," he said.

Los Angeles Times

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OPINION

The doctor can't see you now

By 2025, the U.S. may be short 130,600 physicians, half in primary care.

Three months ago, I finished my last 30-hour shift as a medical student. Although I'll be starting my residency soon, it's unlikely I'll ever again work such a marathon shift.

Last fall, the American Council for Graduate Medical Education released new standards governing the nation's 111,000 physicians in training. In the most controversial reform in the recent history of medical education, these celebrated overnight rites of passage for rookie docs will soon join the ranks of bloodletting and barber surgeons in medical antiquity.

In an attempt to decrease errors and improve patient safety, the new standards restrict the consecutive hours a first-year resident may work without sleep, from the customary 30 to 16. Meanwhile, experienced residents are limited to 24-hour shifts, with a recommendation to pursue "strategic napping" in downtime.

The measures are well intentioned but controversial. Critics fear that shortened shifts will increase the number of physician-to-physician handoffs that occur as residents change shifts, resulting in lost details and miscommunication that could cause errors and harm patients. Continuity of care is desirable because of the advantages of having a single physician caring for the same patient over time. Others charge that 16-hour shifts are insufficient for educational purposes.

Surprisingly, research evidence supporting duty-hour regulations is lacking. Even the council concedes that the 80-hour limit on the resident physician workweek, instituted in 2002, failed to yield conclusive effects — positive or negative — on patient outcomes, though researchers acknowledge this is a challenging metric to assess. Both sides of the debate offer compelling, albeit unproven, arguments championing patient safety.

Los Angeles Times

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4 Detroit Police Injured in Shootout

DETROIT — Four police officers were slightly wounded and their assailant killed on Sunday after a man walked into a police precinct and “began shooting indiscriminately,” a spokeswoman for the mayor said.

Karen Dumas, who is spokeswoman for Mayor Dave Bing, said the incident began about 4:30 p.m. when the man walked into the 6th Precinct in the northwestern part of the city and opened fire with a pistol grip shotgun. The man was able to shoot four officers before one or more officers returned fire, killing him.

The most seriously injured police officer was the precinct’s commander, Brian Davis, who was hit in the lower back, Ms. Dumas said. He underwent surgery at the nearby Sinai Grace Hospital on Sunday evening.

“His condition is critical but he is expected to pull through,” Ms. Dumas said.

Two other male officers were hospitalized but expected to be released on Monday. A female officer was hit in the chest but the bulletproof vest she was wearing prevented her from being injured. All four officers were expected to survive, according to a police official at the department’s headquarters who was not authorized to speak to the media.

The police chief, Ralph Godbee, said that the police know the gunman’s identify but did not release that information Sunday as they began to investigate his background and possible motive. It was unclear whether the gunman had previous contact with the precinct or was targeting any specific officers.

New York Times

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Wal-Mart Shooting Leaves 2 Dead

PORT ORCHARD, Wash. (AP) — Detectives are investigating why a man ran from deputies and then opened fire in a Walmart parking lot, sparking a shootout that left him and the woman he apparently was with dead and two law officers wounded.

Sunday's violence came after the Kitsap County Sheriff's deputies answered a call about a suspicious person at the store in Port Orchard.

Two deputies located the man and tried to talk to him but he began running, pursued by the officers.

"For reasons not yet known, the suspect turned and fired multiple shots," sheriff's spokesman Scott Wilson said.

Both men were hit and unable to return gunfire, but a female officer arriving on the scene shot and killed the gunman, Wilson said.

The two deputies were reported to be in satisfactory condition Sunday night.

Authorities said it wasn't immediately known who shot the woman, who died later at a Tacoma hospital.

New York Times

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Loughner's attorney gets juries to see other side

Clarke's list of clients includes Theodore Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber; Eric Rudolph, the 1996 Olympics bomber in Atlanta; Susan Smith, the South Carolina woman who drowned her children; and Zacarias Moussaoui, a conspirator in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

In each of those cases, Clarke's mission was not to win acquittal but to stave off a death sentence for a client who was despised by the public. In each case, she and her fellow lawyers succeeded.

Colleagues, family members and legal foes describe Clarke as a workhorse with an encyclopedic knowledge of the law and uncanny litigation skills. Her forte, they say, is gaining the trust of clients who may be mentally ill, then helping jurors understand why they committed seemingly inexplicable crimes.

Those talents are expected to be tested in the case of Loughner, a 22-year-old accused of killing six people, including U.S. District Judge John Roll, and wounding 13 others, including Rep. Perry Mason and win all the time."Those talents are expected to be tested in the case of Loughner, a 22-year-old accused of killing six people, including U.S. District Judge John Roll, and wounding 13 others, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords , D-Ariz., in a Jan. 8 rampage near Tucson.

Officials fear bath salts are growing drug problem

From the Deep South to California, emergency calls are being reported over exposure to the stimulants the powders often contain: mephedrone and methylenedioxypyrovalerone, also known as MDPV.

Sold under such names as Ivory Wave, Bliss, White Lightning and Hurricane Charlie, the chemicals can cause hallucinations, paranoia, rapid heart rates and suicidal thoughts, authorities say. The chemicals are in bath salts and even plant foods that are sold legally at convenience stores and on the Internet. However, they aren't necessarily being used for the purposes on the label.

Mississippi lawmakers this week began considering a proposal to ban the sale of the powders, and a similar step is being sought in Kentucky. In Louisiana, the bath salts were outlawed by an emergency order after the state's poison center received more than 125 calls in the last three months of 2010 involving exposure to the chemicals.

In Brown's case, he said he had tried every drug from heroin to crack and was so shaken by terrifying hallucinations that he wrote one Mississippi paper urging people to stay away from the bath salts.

USA Today

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