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May 22, 2011

Cellphones: Quieting the public nuisances

Increasingly, there are rules to limit cellphone use everywhere, and that's a good thing.

Anyone who has been forced to endure a stranger's loud and public cellphone conversation in a supermarket line or a restaurant will understand this story:

A woman boarded an Amtrak train in Oakland last Saturday night and proceeded to talk loudly on her cellphone for much of the rest of her 16-hour voyage. Repeated pleas from her fellow passengers — and the conductor — to be quiet fell on, um, deaf ears. Things got so bad that Amtrak officials stopped the train between stations Sunday afternoon in Salem, Ore., and had local police escort her off for being an "unruly passenger." (Usually you have to be a ranting drunk on the train to get that designation.) As a wit on Gawker.com wrote, "She was later charged with unspeakable crimes against humanity and sentenced to life on some distant planet where there are no reception bars, ever."

The question of how to cope with cellphones in public has been a thorny issue for more than a decade. But what's heartening here is that Amtrak officials did something assertive on behalf of the suffering passengers after the woman broke the rule forbidding cellphone use in coach cars at night.

Increasingly, there are rules to limit cellphone use everywhere. On some shorter lines, Amtrak has "quiet cars" where noise from phones, laptops and other devices is prohibited. Gyms often outlaw cellphones in workout areas, and restaurants sometimes nix them. The Los Angeles Public Library system restricts use to lobby areas.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-cellphone-20110522,0,6299724,print.story

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Tim Rutten: S.F. circumcision proposition doesn't belong on the ballot

There is something so breathtakingly wrong about this San Francisco measure.

In November, the residents of San Francisco will not only cast their ballots on pressing state and local issues, they also will decide whether to approve a proposition banning the circumcision of male children.

The immediate temptation, of course, is to roll the eyes and dismiss the measure as another reminder that, along with the wild yeast that produces terrific sourdough bread, a strain of lunacy floats on the Bay Area breezes. Moreover, even if it were to pass, the proposal does such obvious violence to the 1st Amendment that its chances of surviving constitutional review are even more improbable than Donald Trump's hair color.

Still, there's something so breathtakingly wrong about the presence of such a proposition on any ballot that its implications are worth at least a few minutes of reflection. On one level, it's simply the most recent and egregious example of how California's long experiment with direct democracy has gone stunningly wrong at every level of government. Simply because more than 12,000 residents signed a petition, you have the people of an American city voting on whether or not to proscribe one of the central rituals of an entire religious community — in this case, Jews, who have been required to circumcise male infants within eight days of birth since the time of Abraham. Many Muslims also practice circumcision for religious reasons, while significant numbers of other American parents elect the procedure for hygienic or health reasons. The San Francisco measure proposes to make the circumcision of males under 18 a misdemeanor punishable by a $1,000 fine or a year in jail.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-0521-rutten-20110521,0,4679595,print.column

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May 21, 2011

IRAN: Intelligence ministry claims to arrest 30 alleged CIA spies

Iran claimed a major intelligence victory over the United States on Saturday, saying it uncovered and dismantled what it called a "complex espionage and sabotage network" and arrested 30 people allegedly spying for the CIA.

It claimed that it also arrested 42 others in connection to the alleged spy network, the website of Iran's state-owned Press TV website reported .

According to a statemenet by the intelligence ministry published on the website of the semi-official Mehr news agency (link in Persian) the network was run by CIA agents via U.S. embassies in the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Malaysia.

"Due to the massive intelligence and counterintelligence work by Iranian intelligence agents, a complex espionage and sabotage network linked to America's spy organization was uncovered and dismantled," said a statement from the intelligence ministry read on state TV.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/05/iran-arrest-30-spies-cia-intelligence-us-network-middle-east-islam-obama-.html

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Al Qaeda wanted to attack tankers, Bin Laden files show

The material suggests the terrorist network had considered maritime strikes that could raise oil prices and hurt the U.S. economy, officials say. The government has alerted the energy industry.

Material seized when Osama bin Laden was killed show that Al Qaeda considered attacking tanker ships and other marine infrastructure last summer in an effort to force up the price of oil and damage the U.S. economy, according to U.S. officials.

The files don't suggest an attack at sea is imminent, or that terrorist planning progressed since last year, said Matt Chandler, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security. But the FBI and Homeland Security officials issued an alert Friday to law enforcement and the energy industry.

Chandler said the alert urged "random screening, personnel briefings describing possible threats, procedures for reporting suspicious activities and the need for vigilance."

Another U.S. official said the intelligence added details to previously known information on Al Qaeda's interest in targeting the oil and natural gas industry.

The latest haul from Bin Laden's vast trove of documents and computer files emerged as President Obama traveled to CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., to thank the intelligence community for its role in the hunt for Bin Laden and the May 2 raid that killed him in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Obama met privately with senior officials and about 60 spies and analysts who were most closely involved in the chase. He then spoke to about 1,000 employees who jammed the lobby. On the marble wall behind him were 102 stars that memorialize CIA officers killed in the line of duty.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-cia-20110521,0,3677075,print.story

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States Seeking New Registries for Criminals

Lawmakers around the country are pushing for online registries, like those used for sex offenders, to track the whereabouts of people convicted of a wide variety of crimes, from arson and drunken driving to methamphetamine manufacturing and animal abuse.

State senators in Illinois are considering a law to create the nation's first registry for first-degree murderers. In Maine, legislators are debating an online registry of drunken drivers. And proposals to register animal abusers have been put forward in several states; one such registry, in Suffolk County on Long Island, will become operational next week.

Under a canine version of Megan's Law, Virginia even registers dangerous dogs, including Elvis, a cat-killing collie in Roanoke whose bad acts are among those listed on the state's database.

Advocates for online registries, many of them searchable by the public, argue that people have a right to know about potentially dangerous offenders in their midst and that the benefit of alerting parents, neighbors and others in a community outweighs any privacy concerns.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/21/us/21registry.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

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Honolulu grapples with daunting homelessness problem ahead of major economic summit

HONOLULU — The laid-back tropical paradise seen in postcards and tourists' photos of Hawaii has a less pleasant flipside: homeless people sleeping in tents near Waikiki Beach, men splayed out next to public bathrooms, drug addicts and drunks loitering at an oceanside park.

With President Barack Obama hosting a major Asia-Pacific economic summit in Honolulu in November — one that will draw dozens of heads of state and focus international attention on the tourist mecca — state leaders have begun pressing for solutions to solve a homelessness problem that's as deeply entrenched in Hawaii as nearly anywhere in the country.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie recently announced a hotline to find homeless people who may need help. He also gave details Tuesday on a 90-day plan to increase mental health care services, repair shelters, and move the chronically homeless into permanent housing.

Abercrombie simply called it a “happy coincidence” that his plans would be in place in time for the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation conference, stressing that solving the homelessness issue is one his top priorities.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/honolulu-grapples-with-daunting-homelessness-problem-ahead-of-major-economic-summit/2011/05/20/AFdhst7G_print.html

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14-year-old's sentence upheld

May 20, 2011

Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the sins of our systems

The charges against the former IMF chief provoke a cautionary tale of two systems.

Reactions to the Dominique Strauss-Kahn spectacle have been starkly different on the two sides of the Atlantic, and self-congratulations abound. Although national amour-propre makes sense for both the United States and France in this scandal involving the former head of the International Monetary Fund, each nation would do better to look through the eyes of the other.

The United States is justly proud that rich and poor alike stand equal before the law. Americans — really, American feminists — should congratulate themselves on a genuine revolution in the treatment of rape victims. Not much more than 20 years ago, the charges of rape victims — when they were heard at all — were presumed to be lies, grounded in shame at consensual sexual encounters, or revenge. Now, as the stunning speed of Strauss-Kahn's arrest makes clear, an African immigrant worker claiming rape in a luxury hotel is rightly presumed to be as credible as a rich tourist claiming a mugging in the park. On their side, the French can point to a system of criminal justice that avoids a media circus legitimized in the name of "transparency" and that, by and large, treats even the convicted with an appreciation of their humanity lacking in the overcrowded, increasingly privatized warehouses of dying souls that are U.S. prisons.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-kutz-dsk-20110520,0,383082,print.story

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F.B.I. Is Looking at Unabomber in '82 Tylenol Case

WASHINGTON — The Federal Bureau of Investigation is examining whether Theodore J. Kaczynski, the Unabomber, was responsible for lacing several bottles of Tylenol with cyanide in 1982, bringing together two of the highest-profile domestic crimes of the late 20th century.

Mr. Kaczynski, who is serving a life sentence at the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colo., recently filed court papers disclosing that the F.B.I.'s Chicago office was looking into whether he could be linked to the unsolved killings of seven people who swallowed the poisoned medicine.

The F.B.I. “wanted a sample of my DNA to compare with some partial DNA profiles connected with a 1982 event in which someone put potassium cyanide in Tylenol,” Mr. Kaczynski wrote. “The officers said the F.B.I. was prepared to get a court order to compel me to provide the DNA sample, but wanted to know whether I would provide the sample voluntarily.”

In the handwritten filing, dated May 5, Mr. Kaczynski, now 68, also denied any role: “I have never even possessed any potassium cyanide,” he wrote.

The F.B.I. office in Chicago announced in February 2009 that it was conducting a new review of evidence related to the Tylenol case, citing tips that had come in as a result of news media attention on the 25th anniversary of the killings and noting that “given the many recent advances in forensic technology, it was only natural that a second look be taken at the case and recovered evidence.”

It appeared that the F.B.I. was just making sure that Mr. Kaczynski's DNA did not match the fragment it suspects belonged to the Tylenol killer. Cynthia J. Yates, an F.B.I. spokeswoman in Chicago, confirmed that investigators were looking at Mr. Kaczynski, but said that investigators assigned to the revived effort to solve the case had already looked at several other people.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/20/us/20tylenol.html?ref=us

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More than 30 cities out of gov't grant program

The Department of Homeland Security has notified more than 30 cities across the country that they are losing anti-terror funding from the federal government.

The department said Thursday that money for the Urban Areas Security Initiative grants has been cut by about $170 million as part of a larger budget cut that eliminated more than $780 million in grant money from the latest federal budget. The budget cuts mean that only 31 high-threat urban areas, including New York and Washington, will still receive grants this year.

Texas is taking the largest hit, with Austin, El Paso, and San Antonio no longer eligible to receive millions in funding through the Department of Homeland Security's Urban Areas Security Initiative grant program. Combined, the cities received more than $14.5 million in federal funding last year.

Rep. Peter King, chair of the Homeland Security Committee, praised the department for continuing to fund the New York City region at the same level -- about $151.5 million -- as in years past.

He said in a statement that the allocations "in this difficult fiscal climate" reflect his and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's "recognition that New York and Long Island remain the top target of al Qaida and its affiliates and need continued federal funding."

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9NAM0E00.htm

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Jared Loughner's outbursts documented by emails

PHOENIX — An Arizona college complied with a court order and released numerous emails about the Tucson shooting rampage suspect, painting a picture of a struggling student with emotional problems who disturbed others with his strange behavior.

At one point, a Pima Community College police officer wanted to expel Jared Lee Loughner after he caused an outburst in a math class in June 2010, but a dean said she wasn't ready to do so and expressed concerns about Loughner's due-process rights, according to one of the notes.

The emails released Thursday document several outbursts by Loughner while at the college and efforts by school officials to confront his unusual behavior.

The school was ordered to release 250 emails after The Arizona Republic sued it for withholding documents mentioning Loughner and a judge rejected the school's argument that the records were protected by a federal privacy law.

Three months before the shooting rampage, campus police asked federal firearms agents to see whether they had any firearms information on Loughner, but the check turned up nothing, according to the emails.

The apparent final straw was a Sept. 23, 2010, disturbance by Loughner. Campus police records say a teacher asked an officer to meet her outside her classroom to deal with Loughner because he was “being verbal disruptive.” They do not elaborate on what Loughner allegedly did.

Six days later, officers went to Loughner's home to serve an immediate suspension notice. He was told to get a mental health evaluation or not return.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/emails-document-outbursts-by-ariz-shooting-suspect-efforts-by-college-to-confront-him/2011/05/20/AFpMjd7G_print.html

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May 19, 2011

U.S. to investigate Secure Communities deportation program

Homeland Security's inspector general plans a review of the immigration enforcement program that purports to target 'serious convicted felons' but which some accuse of racial profiling.

The Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General plans an investigation of an immigration enforcement program that purports to target "serious convicted felons" for deportation but has ensnared many illegal immigrants who were arrested but not subsequently convicted of crimes or who committed minor offenses, a letter obtained Wednesday shows.

The letter from acting Inspector General Charles K. Edwards to Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose), who requested an investigation late last month, said the watchdog agency had already scheduled a review of the program, known as Secure Communities. Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency launched the program in 2008 with plans for mandatory nationwide participation by 2013.

The review, Edwards wrote, aims to "determine the extent to which ICE uses the program to identify and remove dangerous criminal aliens from the United States."

It will also examine cost, "the accuracy of ICE's data collection," whether the program is being applied equitably across communities, and the way ICE officials portrayed the program to states and counties, which were initially told they could opt out but were later informed that participation has always been mandatory.

Under the program, fingerprints routinely sent by local jails to the FBI for criminal background checks are shared with ICE. Although local law enforcement does not actively participate, the program has turned jails in about 1,200 U.S. counties into immigration screening centers. All 58 California counties are on board, though San Francisco and Santa Clara sought unsuccessfully to opt out.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-secure-communities-20110519,0,5898370,print.story

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Chilling portrait of neo-Nazi's home life emerges

The 10-year-old son of neo-Nazi leader Jeffrey R. Hall tells Riverside investigators of shooting his father and says Hall beat him and other family members regularly.

A chilling family portrait emerged Wednesday in the case of a 10-year-old Riverside boy charged with murdering his neo-Nazi father, including outings to practice target shooting, a house with guns and knives stashed in easily accessible places and, the boy told police, regular beatings by his father. And he knew exactly where to find the family's .357 magnum revolver.

The boy gave a harrowing account of how he carried out the early morning attack May 1 as his father, 32-year-old Jeffrey R. Hall, was dozing on the living room couch, detectives said in a court declaration filed in connection with charges against the boy's stepmother, Krista F. McCary.

The 10-year-old told police he grabbed a Rossi .357 magnum revolver from a closet and "went downstairs with the gun, pulled the hammer back, aimed the gun at his dad's ear while he was asleep and shot him," Riverside Police Det. Greg Rowe wrote in the declaration. The boy "went upstairs and hid the gun under his bed."

The court document, based on police station interviews of McCary and four of the family's five children, offered the first glimpse of a household terrorized by Hall's alleged out-of-control violence and rants. The boy was a target of that abuse "on a daily basis," McCary, 26, told police, adding that her husband "kicks, hits and yells" at him more than the other four children.

"He was tired of his dad hitting him and his mom…he thought his dad was cheating on his mom and thought he might have to choose which person he would live with," Rowe said, referring to McCary in the court declaration. "He knew his mom and dad had a gun, and he knew where they kept it."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-neo-nazi-20110519,0,7755159,print.story

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Fighting mosques in the name of freedom

The real threat in a Tennessee case is to our nation's Bill of Rights.

Last year, a Muslim congregation in Murfreesboro, Tenn., a pleasant college town of about 110,000 people southeast of Nashville, decided that the time had come to build a proper mosque.

For 20 years or more, the town's roughly 250 Muslim families had met for prayers in makeshift quarters, and the congregation's prosperous leaders — doctors, professors, auto dealers — thought they could do better. They bought a 15-acre plot of land next to a Baptist church south of the city limits, and won approval from the Rutherford County Planning Commission for a 53,000-square-foot community center.

Then, as has happened in several places around the country lately, bedlam broke out.

Conservative activists protested that they didn't want a big, visible mosque in their quiet Southern town. A candidate for the Republican congressional nomination decried the construction. Vandals torched one of the (non-Muslim) contractor's bulldozers. And a group of residents filed suit, charging that the building permit had been issued improperly and that they would suffer "emotional distress" if they had to live near a mosque.

What happened next was unexpected, but it was what should happen in a country where freedom of religion is enshrined in the Constitution: Most of Murfreesboro rallied around the Muslims. Christian clergymen and a rabbi formed a support committee; there were marches and teach-ins. The fiery congressional candidate lost her primary race.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-mcmanus-mosques-20110519,0,1952445,print.column

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DHS Partners on the "If you See Something, Say Something" Campaign with the Pentagon Force Protection Agency

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May 18, 2011

Stepmother of boy accused of killing his neo-Nazi father charged with child endangerment

The stepmother of a 10-year-old Riverside boy charged with shooting his father, a local neo-Nazi activist, was charged Tuesday with child endangerment and failure to properly store a firearm.

Krista F. McCary and her husband, 32-year-old Jeffrey R. Hall, recklessly stored the loaded handgun on a shelf in the house where their five children had easy access to the weapon, said Assistant Dist. Atty. Ambrosio E. Rodriquez.

“There are going to be consequences for anyone who leaves a .357-magnum within easy reach of their small children, especially when that gun kills someone,'' said Rodriquez, the prosecutor in the case. “It's like playing Russian roulette.''

The 10-year-old boy is scheduled to come before a Riverside County Juvenile Court judge Wednesday morning for a detention hearing, where he is expected to enter a plea. On May 5, the boy's attorney told the judge he may pursue a defense of not guilty by reason of insanity.

The boy has been charged as a juvenile in the shooting death of his father, a regional director for the National Socialist Movement. Hall was shot about 4 a.m. May 1 on the living room couch. Detectives believe the shooting was an "intentional act."

McCary, 26, has been charged with five counts of child endangerment and four counts of criminal storage of a fire arm. “The gun didn't have a trigger lock and was not in a lock box as required by law. It was fully loaded," Rodriguez said. “The children knew where it was, and the children could easily access this gun.'' Rodriguez said state laws protecting juveniles bar him from discussing details of the shooting until after Wednesday's hearing.

Two of Hall's children were from a previous marriage, including his 10-year-old son. According to court records, the boy had a history of aggression and violence after his parents went through a bitter divorce, with both Hall and his ex-wife, Leticia Neal of Spokane, Wash., accusing each other of abusing and neglecting the children.

Hall was granted full custody of the children. Last year, Neal filed for custody of the 10-year-old boy and his 9-year-old sister, saying she was concerned about the children's well-being because of the father's affiliation with the neo-Nazi group. Hall opposed the motion, saying Neal had had no contact with the children for six years.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/05/neo-nazi-father-killed.html

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Fewer Emergency Rooms Available as Need Rises

Hospital emergency rooms, particularly those serving the urban poor, are closing at an alarming rate even as emergency visits are rising, according to a report published on Tuesday.

Urban and suburban areas have lost a quarter of their hospital emergency departments over the last 20 years, according to the study, in The Journal of the American Medical Association. In 1990, there were 2,446 hospitals with emergency departments in nonrural areas. That number dropped to 1,779 in 2009, even as the total number of emergency room visits nationwide increased by roughly 35 percent.

Emergency departments were most likely to have closed if they served large numbers of the poor, were at commercially operated hospitals, were in hospitals with skimpy profit margins or operated in highly competitive markets, the researchers found.

Although the study did not examine emergency care at the remaining facilities, the closings take a toll on the quality of care in all emergency rooms, said Dr. Renee Y. Hsia, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and the lead author of the study.

“Some people think, ‘As long as my emergency room isn't closing, I feel O.K. and protected,' ” said Dr. Hsia, whose research was financed by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “But even if they don't lose the E.R. in their own neighborhood, they do experience the effect of fewer emergency rooms — the waits get longer and longer, and people's outcomes get worse.”

New York City lost three hospital emergency rooms in 2008, two in 2009 and two more last year, when St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan in Greenwich Village closed, followed by North General Hospital in Harlem. St. Vincent's had handled more than 60,000 emergency visits a year, while North General's E.R. had recorded 36,000 annual visits.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/18/health/18hospital.html?_r=1&ref=us&pagewanted=print

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The Supreme Court's Stinky Ruling on Marijuana Odor: What Does it Really Mean?

This week's Supreme Court decision in Kentucky v. King has civil-libertarians and marijuana policy reformers in an uproar, and rightly so, but it's not exactly the death of the 4th Amendment. Here's a look at how this case could impact police practices and constitutional rights.

It all started when police chased a drug suspect into a building and lost him. They smelled marijuana smoke coming from an apartment and decided to check it out, so they announced themselves and knocked loudly on the door. They heard movement inside, which the officers feared could indicate destruction of evidence, so they kicked in the door and entered the apartment. Hollis King was arrested for drugs and challenged the police entry as a violation of his 4th Amendment right against unreasonable searches.

In an 8-1 decision written by Justice Alito, the Court determined that an emergency search was justified to prevent destruction of evidence, even though police created the risk of such destruction by yelling "Police!" and banging on the door. The determining factor, in the Court's view, was that police had not violated the 4th Amendment simply by knocking on the door. Since the subsequent need to prevent destruction of evidence was the result of legal conduct by the officers, the events that followed do not constitute a violation of the suspect's constitutional rights.

Naturally, any fan of the 4th Amendment can look at this scenario and wonder what's to stop police from "smelling" marijuana and "hearing" evidence being destroyed any time they have an urge to enter a particular dwelling. What does destruction of evidence sound like anyway, and what doesn't it sound like? Doesn't someone jumping up to destroy evidence sound the same as someone jumping up to answer the door before police kick it down? It's hard to argue with anyone who sees this result as a blueprint for facilitating not only widespread police actions that circumvent the warrant requirement, but also more innocent people being killed in their own homes in misunderstandings that could have been prevented by just a little patience from police.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-morgan/what-does-the-supreme-cou_b_863415.html

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May 17, 2011

Bomb neutralized on bus ahead of queen's trip to Ireland

A second device is determined to be a hoax. Queen Elizabeth II is the first monarch to visit the Republic of Ireland since its independence.

Police and Army officials say a bomb found on a bus has been made safe Tuesday, hours before Queen Elizabeth II was due to arrive in Dublin.

The device was found in the luggage compartment of a bus traveling on the outskirts of Maynooth in County Kildare west of Dublin, officials said.

It was found late Monday night and was declared safe early Tuesday morning after a controlled explosion by bomb disposal experts. The bomb parts were given to the police for testing and investigation.

Bomb experts also examined at least one other suspicious object discovered Tuesday but police concluded the small device was a hoax and did not pose a threat to public safety.

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said the threat from dissidents is minimal because of the police's extensive security arrangements.

Supreme Court gives police leeway in home searches

Officers may break in if they hear sounds and suspect that evidence is being destroyed, the justices say in an 8-1 decision. Justice Ginsburg dissents.

The Supreme Court gave police more leeway to break into homes or apartments in search of illegal drugs when they suspect the evidence otherwise might be destroyed.

Ruling in a Kentucky case Monday, the justices said that officers who smell marijuana and loudly knock on the door may break in if they hear sounds that suggest the residents are scurrying to hide the drugs.

Residents who "attempt to destroy evidence have only themselves to blame" when police burst in, said Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. for an 8-1 majority.

In her dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she feared the ruling gave police an easy way to ignore 4th Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. She said the amendment's "core requirement" is that officers have probable cause and a search warrant before they break into a house.

"How 'secure' do our homes remain if police, armed with no warrant, can pound on doors at will and …forcibly enter?" Ginsburg asked.

An expert on criminal searches said the decision would encourage the police to undertake "knock and talk" raids.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-court-search-20110517,0,1616771,print.story

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U.S. Calls for Global Cybersecurity Strategy

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Monday proposed creating international computer security standards with penalties for countries and organizations that fell short.

While administration officials did not single out any countries in announcing the strategy, several officials said privately that the hope was that the initiative would prod China and Russia into allowing more Internet freedom, cracking down on intellectual property theft and enacting stricter laws to protect computer users' privacy.

“The effort to build trust in the cyberspace realm is one which should be pushed in capitals around the world,” said Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, who will soon be taking over as President Obama's ambassador to China.

The strategy calls for officials from the State Department, the Pentagon, the Justice Department, the Commerce Department and the Department of Homeland Security to work with their counterparts around the world to come up with standards aimed at preventing theft of private information and ensuring Internet freedom. A fact sheet released by the White House also promised that the United States would respond to attempted hacking “as we would to any other threat to our country.”

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. called it a “historic strategy,” adding that “the 21st-century threats that we now face to both our national and international security really have no borders.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/17/us/politics/17cyber.html?_r=1&ref=us&pagewanted=print

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Police investigate two more murders that could be linked to Long Island killings

Craigslist Ripper victims could total 15

Up to 13 prostitutes have been murdered in Long Island and Atlantic City – now police believe two more murders may be connected to the killings, including a mother of three whose dissected body was found in a suitcase.

The dismembered body of 39-year-old Tanya Rush, a prostitute from East New York, was found in Bellmore in June 2008. This case, along with another that the police are refusing to identify, is being reviewed, according to the New York Post.

If they are connected, it would bring the total number of killings in the so-called 'Craigslist Ripper' case to 15.

News that the investigation is being widened further follows the revelation by the paper that two NYPD police officers are under suspicion in connection with the case.

Parts of the victims' bodies have been found along a secluded section of Long Island beach over the past several months.

Criminologists had said it was possible the killer or killers worked in law enforcement, or at least was familiar with police procedures. Recent estimates have put the number of alleged killers at two to four.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1387922/Police-investigate-murders-linked-Long-Island-killings.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

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Do You Know Someone Like This?

This morning, President Obama sent the email below to the White House email list asking for nominations for the 2011 Citizens Medal, our nation's second-highest civilian honor. This year, President Obama is looking for Americans who have performed exemplary deeds of service outside of their regular jobs and provided inspiration for others to serve. Learn more about the Citizens Medal and submit your nomination.

If you didn't get this email, be sure to sign up for the White House email list.

Last year I asked the public to help identify outstanding Americans I should consider for the Citizens Medal, the nation's second-highest civilian honor. After receiving more than 6,000 nominations, I invited 13 outstanding Americans to the White House to receive the medal and be recognized for their service.

It's time to do it again.

Like last year, we're looking for Americans who have performed exemplary deeds of service outside of their regular jobs and provided inspiration for others to serve. You can view the full criteria and get started on a nomination here.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/05/16/do-you-know-someone

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FBI Releases Preliminary Statistics for Law Enforcement Officers Killed in 2010

Of these 56 felonious deaths, 15 officers were killed during ambushes (13 during unprovoked attacks and two due to entrapment/premeditation situations), eight were investigating suspicious persons or circumstances, seven were killed during traffic pursuits/stops, six of the fallen officers interrupted robberies in progress or were pursuing robbery suspects, and six were responding to disturbance calls (four of them being domestic disturbances). Three of the officers interrupted burglaries in progress or were pursuing burglary suspects, three died during tactical situations, two were conducting investigations, one officer was handling or transporting a prisoner, one was killed during a drug-related conflict, and four of the officers were attempting to make arrests for other offenses.

Offenders used firearms in all but one of the felonious deaths of law enforcement officers in 2010. Thirty-eight of the fallen officers were killed with handguns, 15 with rifles, and two with shotguns. The only officer who was not a victim of firearms was killed with a vehicle.

http://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-releases-preliminary-statistics-for-law-enforcement-officers-killed-in-2010

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May 16, 2011

Massacre leaves 27 dead in northern Guatemala

Witnesses say an attack by 200 gunmen killed at least 27 farmworkers in Guatemala's Peten province, an area used by Mexican-based drug cartels. The victims were decapitated.

At least 27 people were slain early Sunday in a remote area of northern Guatemala that has become a key base for Mexican drug-trafficking groups, authorities said.

Police said a small army of gunmen attacked workers on a coconut farm in the northern province of Peten, a zone that has become increasingly dangerous as Mexican drug smugglers extend operations in Central America to escape a crackdown at home.

The victims included 25 men and two women, all of whom were decapitated, according to Jaime Leonel Otzin, director of Guatemala's National Civil Police. He said witnesses reported that the attack was carried out by 200 gunmen, who arrived in buses.

Authorities had not determined a motive.

Otzin said police were investigating a possible link to the killing a day earlier of Haroldo Leon. He was the brother of a suspected trafficker, Juan Jose "Juancho" Leon, who was slain by gunmen in 2008 in a hit attributed to the Zetas gang.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-guatemala-massacre-20110516,0,1535023,print.story

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States make their own tuition rules for undocumented students

A new law in Maryland allows illegal immigrants to pay in-state rates at public colleges. In neighboring Virginia, many are required to pay out-of-state fees. The lack of a comprehensive federal plan allows such discrepancies.

Anngie Gutierrez was a child when she arrived in the United States as an illegal immigrant 10 years ago. There's still no path to legal status for her, but in Maryland and a handful of other states, there is a more affordable road to college.

Gutierrez, a high school junior in Hyattsville, Md., will benefit from a new state law that allows illegal immigrants who reside there to pay in-state tuition rates at Maryland's public colleges. If she lived in Virginia, about 15 miles to the west, she would find that many public colleges require undocumented students to pay out-of-state tuition.

Some Virginia legislators want to go further: In February, the House of Delegates passed legislation that would prohibit the state's public universities from admitting illegal immigrants. The proposal has not passed the state Senate.

The states' radically different approaches illustrate the polarization of Americans over what to do about the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S., and the heated nature of a debate that extends far from border states such as Arizona and California.

The tuition battle has grown, in part, because of a lack of action by Congress. The federal government holds jurisdiction over immigration law, and a 1982 Supreme Court ruling mandated that states provide illegal immigrants with access to K-12 education in public schools. But the absence of a comprehensive federal immigration plan has given states relatively free rein to impose their own rules on issues such as who can attend public colleges, and at what rates.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immigration-tuition-20110516,0,1348784,print.story

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Smoke the Iraqi donkey, a favorite of Camp Pendleton Marines, arrives in U.S.

A donkey adopted as a pet by Marines from Camp Pendleton while they were deployed in Iraq has been brought to America to serve as a therapy animal for wounded military personnel.

Smoke arrived last week in New York aboard a cargo flight that originated in Turkey after a combined effort of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and retired Marine Col. John Folsom.

In 2008, Folsom and Marines from the Camp Pendleton-based 1st Marine Logistics Group found the donkey at Camp Taqaddum in Anbar province. The animal quickly became a favorite. His name comes from his color and the fact that he once snatched a cigarette from a Marine.

In 2009 the Marines departed but Folsom never stopped thinking of Smoke and what a morale boost he was for the troops. With help from the SPCA, Folsom raised funds and cleared away bureaucratic obstacles to get Smoke to America.

The SPCA estimates the final cost at upward of $40,000. The group has brought dogs and cats from Iraq but Smoke was the first of his species. The U.S. ambassador in Turkey was recruited to help get Smoke from neighboring Iraq.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/

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Editorial

The latest case of U.S. paranoia

Americans' fear that Sharia, or Islamic law, will work its way into U.S. courts is delusional.

A federal appeals court will soon consider a challenge to an Oklahoma measure prohibiting the use of Sharia, or Islamic law, in the state's courts. The constitutional amendment is part of a national trend in which politicians — including Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich — argue that it is vital to prevent Sharia from insinuating itself into the administration of justice in U.S. courts. Never mind that there is scant evidence that American judges are resolving cases on the basis of Sharia.

Like the belief that President Obama wasn't born in the United States, the fear that Islamic law will become a touchstone of American justice is delusional. What is depressing is how widespread it is. The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing a Muslim man challenging Oklahoma's law, says 24 states have adopted or considered measures forbidding the use of Islamic law. In the paranoid anti-communism of the 1950s, it was said that Americans feared a Red under every bed. Now the dark fantasy is an imam on the bench.

Are American judges applying Islamic law? Rarely, if ever. In New Jersey last year, a judge declined to issue a restraining order against a Muslim man accused of forcing himself on his wife; the judge said his behavior was "consistent with his [religious] practices." An appeals court overturned the decision, rejecting the idea that courts should take religious law into account.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-sharia-20110516,0,2173220,print.story

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Remembering the Freedom Riders

Fifty years ago this month, a group of black and white volunteers boarded two public buses in the District of Columbia to travel into the Deep South, where segregated waiting rooms, restrooms, lunch counters and other indignities were a fact of life despite Supreme Court rulings striking down segregation in interstate travel.

These Freedom Riders would be followed by hundreds of others. Their mission was to nonviolently confront local laws and customs that perpetuated illegal segregation. Their aim was to jolt Americans' consciousness and challenge the Kennedy administration to enforce African-Americans' constitutional rights.

A new documentary on PBS stations captures the political complexities and drama of this pivotal chapter in civil rights history. Written and directed by Stanley Nelson, it is based on Raymond Arsenault's 2006 book, “Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice.”

Fears that the integrated teams would meet with violence proved well founded. The first bus was attacked in the Alabama town of Anniston by a mob of Ku Klux Klansmen who slashed the tires and then firebombed the crippled vehicle. The mob first held the doors shut, and then beat passengers escaping the burning bus. When the second bus arrived in Birmingham, passengers were brutally attacked by another Klan mob.

The violence did not end the Freedom Rides. In all, more than 400 men and women participated. Many were arrested and ended up spending time at Mississippi's bleak Parchman prison farm. In the end, they could claim victory. Acting at the request of Attorney General Robert Kennedy, the Interstate Commerce Commission issued a sweeping order in September 1961 ending segregation in all interstate facilities and calling for all “Whites Only” and “Colored Only” signs to come down.

Five decades later, injustices remain. But the country's debt to the Freedom Riders is clear.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/16/opinion/16mon4.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

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