California Medical Assn. calls for legalization of marijuana

The doctor group questions the medical value of pot and acknowledges some health risk from its use but urges it be regulated like alcohol. A law enforcement official harshly criticizes the new stance.

The state's largest doctor group is calling for legalization of marijuana, even as it pronounces cannabis to be of questionable medical value.

Trustees of the California Medical Assn., which represents more than 35,000 physicians statewide, adopted the position at their annual meeting in Anaheim late Friday. It is the first major medical association in the nation to urge legalization of the drug, according to a group spokeswoman, who said the larger membership was notified Saturday.

Dr. Donald Lyman, the Sacramento physician who wrote the group's new policy, attributed the shift to growing frustration over California's medical marijuana law, which permits cannabis use with a doctor's recommendation. That, he said, has created an untenable situation for physicians: deciding whether to give patients a substance that is illegal under federal law.

"It's an uncomfortable position for doctors," he said. "It is an open question whether cannabis is useful or not. That question can only be answered once it is legalized and more research is done. Then, and only then, can we know what it is useful for."

http://www.latimes.com/la-me-doctors-marijuana-20111016,0,1563743,print.story

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Alabama's schools caught in immigration law crossfire

A federal appeals court stepped and temporarily blocked the provision that requires school officials to determine students' immigration status.

Alabama's Legislature has made children the chief victims of the nation's harshest anti-immigrant law. With its requirement that school officials determine the immigration status of children when they enroll — and with anecdotal reports that students are being grilled by teachers and administrators on the subject — it's small wonder that the absentee rate among Latino children has reportedly skyrocketed.

This wrongheaded requirement is part of a law that went into effect this month and that has done little but produce fear and confusion among Alabama's undocumented residents, many of whom are Latino. Already, reports are coming in about Latinos who are afraid to work, attend school or, in some cases, to remain in the state. Indeed, that may be the impact the law's authors hoped for.

Thankfully, a federal appeals court stepped in Friday and temporarily blocked the provision that requires school officials to determine students' immigration status. But now the federal government must do everything it can to ensure that this provision is permanently overturned, along with the rest of the law.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-alabama-20111016,0,4475014,print.story

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India

Widen community policing: T.K.A. Nair

Community policing, the police-people partnership in curbing crime and maintaining peace, will be the order of the day in the future, T.K.A. Nair, Adviser to the Prime Minister, has said.

He was addressing a review meeting of the Janamaithri Suraksha Paddhathi here on Saturday. “The efficacy of policing will be nullified unless the community is taken into confidence,” said Mr. Nair. The scheme should be spread across the county, he said.

The scheme had proved a success in bringing down crime, said Inspector General of Police, Thrissur Range, B. Sandhya, who is in charge of the Janamaithri programme.

Mr. Nair also inspected the parade of student police cadets from various schools in the city. City Police Commissioner P. Vijayan, Crime Detachment DYSP Mohammed Arif and others participated.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Kochi/article2540751.ece

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Oct 15, 2011

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U.S. widens inquiry into abuse at L.A. County jails

Sheriff's Department seeks to curtail the extent of subpoenas, which seek data on workers since 2009.

by Robert Faturechi and Jack Leonard, Los Angeles Times

October 15, 2011

Federal authorities have widened their misconduct investigation into the Los Angeles County jail system, demanding internal Sheriff's Department documents detailing deputies' use of force on inmates over several years, as well as other records.

Sheriff's officials balked at the size and scope of the subpoenas when they were served several weeks ago and are negotiating with federal prosecutors to reduce the number of documents they must produce.

A source familiar with the demand said it sought the names of everyone who has worked in the jails since 2009, even janitors, and whether they have been disciplined for misconduct. Federal prosecutors also sought employees' Social Security numbers, dates of birth, home addresses, phone numbers and personal email addresses.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-fbi-jails-20111015,0,783053,print.story

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Reaction to Alabama immigration ruling hints at battles to come

A federal appeals court temporarily blocked portions of the law, even as it upheld others.

Blocked: The requirement that public schools check students' immigration status; and a provision that would let authorities file misdemeanor charges against immigrants caught without documents proving their legal status.

Upheld: The requirement that police assess drivers' residency status during traffic stops; a provision that makes it a felony for illegal immigrants to enter into “business transactions” with the state, such as applying for driver's or business licenses; and a provision that makes invalid all contracts knowingly entered into with illegal immigrants.

The following public statements capture the disparate reaction of people who feel strongly about the issues involved. And they likely apture the tone of the fights yet to come (please see full article):

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/

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Homegrown terrorism' case -- and its defendants -- are typical

When three young Muslim men from North Carolina were convicted in a federal terrorism conspiracy case Thursday, the outcome followed a well-established pattern in so-called homegrown terrorism prosecutions.

The three men -- Omar Aly Hassan, 22, Ziyad Yaghi, 21, and Hysen Sherifi, 24 -- were not accused of committing a terrorist attack. The three were convicted instead of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. Yaghi and Sherifi were also convicted of conspiring to kill unspecified people as part of a terrorist plot cut short by the men's arrests in 2009.

Based on the results of a recent study of domestic Islamic terrorism cases, the three Muslims from the Raleigh, N.C., area are fairly typical of other Americans charged or convicted of jihadist terrorism in the post-Sept. 11 era.

For instance, 171 of the 188 terrorism cases studied involved no actual attacks.

The study, released in March by the New American Foundation and Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Public Policy, looked at the 188 cases of American citizens or U.S. residents charged in jihadist terrorism plots in the U.S. since Sept. 11. The study's opening sentence asks: "How real is the 'homegrown' Islamic terrorist threat?"

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/

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Topeka maneuvers over domestic-abuse law outrage survivors

Claudine Dombrowski tells of having her wrists broken, being hit on the head with a crowbar, getting chipped teeth and, at one point, needing 24 stitches to close a wound. Even when she left her boyfriend, she says, the abuse didn't stop. Ultimately, she says, she was left on total disability.

“I called the police, I did all the right things, I ended up in court, and on a good day, it got reduced from domestic violence to disorderly conduct,” Dombrowski, a Topeka, Kansas, resident and now an advocate for abuse survivors, told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday.

So Dombrowski was outraged when misdemeanor domestic abuse — already an insult, she thinks, for not being equal to an assault charge — went unpunished for a month in Topeka after a local funding dispute turned into a circular firing squad that caught battered women in the center.

The county didn't want to pay for prosecuting misdemeanor domestic battery; the prosecutor didn't want to take the cases without more resources; and the city didn't want to pay for handling the cases either.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/

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Burlington Restarts Community Policing Program

BURLINGTON, N.C. -- Six Burlington Police officers have ditched their cruisers to walk the streets in some troublesome neighborhoods thanks to a three-year federal grant.

The C.O.P., or Community-Oriented Policing, unit is back after a nearly 10-year absence. The city received a grant worth $885,000 to restart the program.

Two officers have been assigned to each of three neighborhoods: Tucker Street, Beverly Hills and around Beaumont Apartments. Those neigborhoods have the city's highest crime statistics.

The problem in Tucker Street, for example, is a glut of gun and drug violations.

"We are typically looking for anything that looks suspicious. A lot of times you have people walking behind buildings not wanting to be seen, so we check them out and ask them their names," said Officer Demario Chavis.

Besides looking for people normally not seen in the neighborhoods, officers regularly check in with those who do live there.

http://www.myfox8.com/news/wghp-burlington-restarts-community-policing-program-20111014,0,804880.story

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Budget cut may hamper police efforts in ethnic communities

Minneapolis — Budget constraints could force the elimination of a new Minneapolis police unit that provides community policing and terrorism prevention.

Officers with the Community Engagement Team are tasked with building ties with ethnic communities, and build trust so people will approach police when they see something out of the ordinary.

But within months of the unit's creation, the city may have to shut it down.

BUILDING TRUST, RELATIONSHIPS

Officer Kou Vang visits the New Millenium Academy in north Minneapolis to introduce himself to the mostly southeast Asian staff and students. Vang hands a thick stack of business cards to the dean of students.

"I'm here to build relationship between southeast Asians and officers. Let your staff know. Give me a call whenever you have any issues," Vang told New Millenium's Dean of Students Mike Vang, who is not related to the police officer.

Occasionally, Officer Vang said he has to teach people the basics of contacting police.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/10/14/budget-cut-police-efforts-in-ethnic-communities/

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Oct 14, 2011

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Three U.S. Muslims convicted in terrorism case

The North Carolina men are found guilty in what prosecutors have called a case of 'homegrown terrorism.' They are convicted of plotting an attack on a Marine base in Quantico, Va., among other things.

A federal jury has convicted three Muslim men from North Carolina of plotting to attack unspecified targets overseas, as well as the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Va., in what prosecutors called a case of "homegrown terrorism."

After two days of deliberations, Omar Aly Hassan, 22, Ziyad Yaghi, 21, and Hysen Sherifi, 24, were convicted Thursday of providing material support for terrorists. Yaghi and Sherifi were also convicted of conspiring to kill, kidnap or maim unspecified people overseas; Hassan was acquitted on the conspiracy charge.

Prosecutors in the three-week trial said the men traveled overseas, raised money and trained with weapons to support a jihadist plot to kill perceived enemies of Islam. Defense lawyers said audio and video recordings played in court did not show the defendants discussing or agreeing to any specific attack.

At issue in the case was the extent to which someone in the U.S. can discuss violent jihad and spread radical propaganda in the post-Sept. 11 era, even while committing no violent acts.

Like many other federal terrorism cases since 2001, the prosecution was preemptive. The suspects were arrested as the terrorist plot unfolded — but before they could commit violence.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-terror-trial-20111013,0,2430719,print.story

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Mexico steps up security as host of Pan Am Games

The stakes are high as Mexico prepares to kick off the games, the nation's first since 1975. The games will unfold amid a nearly 5-year-old drug war that keeps setting new thresholds for violence.

When athletes from across the Americas take to playing fields and swimming pools in Mexico this month, they'll be guarded by unmanned drones, infrared-equipped Black Hawk helicopters, hundreds of surveillance cameras and more than 11,000 police officers.

It's the first time since 1975 that Mexico is hosting the Pan American Games — a major multi-sport event held every four years — and the stakes are high, as the games play out amid a nearly 5-year-old drug war that keeps setting new thresholds for shocking violence.

About 6,000 athletes from 42 countries will take part in the two-week event, which opens Friday with festivities in the host city of Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest. Sports events will also be held in four other cities in the same state, Jalisco.

Although vigilance is always heightened around international sports events, the specter of possible violence in Mexico has thrust security to the forefront of planning for the games. Nationwide, more than 40,000 people have died in drug violence since President Felipe Calderon launched a military-led crackdown on traffickers in late 2006.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-games-security-20111014,0,1019903,print.story

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Obama promises 'toughest sanctions' on Iran over alleged bomb plot

President says US will call on international community to further isolate Iran – but doubts remain over whether plot was genuine

Obama insisted that the US had evidence to back up the allegations, as he said he would not take any options off the table in dealing with Iran - diplomatic code for the possibility of military action. Tehran has vehemently denied any involvement in the plot.

US authorities said on Tuesday they had evidence of a plot by two men linked to Iran's revolutionary guard to kill Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Adel al-Jubeir, by setting off a bomb in a Washington restaurant.

Speaking at a joint press conference with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, Obama said: "Now those facts are there for all to see. We would not be bringing forward a case unless we knew exactly how to support all the allegations that are contained in the indictment."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/13/obama-us-toughest-sanctions-iran?newsfeed=true

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Kicking Off Fire Prevention Week by Glenn Gaines Deputy U.S. Fire Administrator for the U.S. Fire Administration We often say it takes a team to prepare and be ready for disasters. This week, USFA and other members of the emergency management team will be

Alleged assassination plot heightens Iran-Saudi tension

Allegations that Iran sought to kill the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. have given rise to new drama. It comes as the two Mideast powers seek to outmaneuver each other at a time of regional upheaval.

The two Middle Eastern powers have been battling for preeminence in the Muslim world for decades but the alleged Iranian plot to assassinate a Saudi Arabian ambassador has heightened the tension between them during a time of intense regional upheaval.

The new drama has arisen as Saudi Arabia and Iran seek to outmaneuver each other in matters such as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the future of Iraq and the bloody political uprisings sweeping much of the region. Their mistrust, fueled in part by sectarian strain, is sharpened by Iran's nuclear development program and Saudi Arabia's long-standing ties to the U.S., Tehran's most potent enemy.

If the assassination scheme is true it would "represent a very serious ratcheting up of what has emerged as one of the most critical … confrontations in the Middle East," said Rami G. Khouri, director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut. "Iran backs a revolutionary political export movement that scares the daylights out of the Saudis."

The animosity between the Sunni Muslim monarchy in Riyadh and the Shiite Muslim theocracy in Tehran has played out for years in diplomatic back channels and in proxy conflicts from Iraq to Lebanon. A 2008 State Department cable quoted the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, the target of the alleged assassination plot, as saying his country wanted the U.S. to launch military strikes on Iran "to cut the head off the snake."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-saudi-iran-tensions-20111013,0,6281197,print.story

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U.S. ups pressure on Iran over alleged plot to kill Saudi envoy

Top officials, including Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, lashed out at Iran, pledging that the United States would increase its efforts to isolate the country, already the target of economic sanctions in connection with its nuclear weapons policy.

As it has before, the White House insisted that no options were off the table in dealing with Iran, which Carney accused of "a dangerous escalation of the long-standing use of violence."

On Tuesday, U.S. officials announced they had foiled a plot to assassinate Saudi ambassador Adel Al-Jubeir. Two men, including a member of the Iranian special foreign actions unit known as the Quds Force, were charged in New York federal court with conspiring to kill the diplomat.

Manssor Arbabsiar, an Iranian American, is in custody; the whereabouts of the other man are unknown, officials said. Arbabsiar, who lives in Texas, traveled to Mexico, where he tried to hire a purported member of a Mexican drug cartel to carry out the assassination with a bomb attack at one of the ambassador's favorite restaurants in Washington, according to U.S. officials.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/

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Gunman kills 8 at Seal Beach salon

A suspect is arrested. A custody dispute is blamed in the worst mass killing in county history

A gunman apparently enraged over a custody dispute walked into a crowded Seal Beach hair salon where his former wife worked and opened fire, killing eight people and critically wounding another person in the deadliest shooting in Orange County history.

The attacker sprayed Salon Meritage with gunfire Wednesday afternoon as victims fell to the floor and those who could escape ran onto the street or hid in neighboring businesses in the bustling area of trendy restaurants and shops along Pacific Coast Highway, authorities and witnesses said. The gunman continued firing outside, where he shot one man who apparently tried to flee in a Range Rover.

"He just didn't stop. Anybody he saw he was shooting," said an Anaheim woman who was in a stylist's chair when the gunman began firing. "It went boom, boom, boom. I was afraid he was going to shoot everybody."

An officer saw the suspect leaving the area as police responded to reports of the gunfire. The man was arrested about half a mile away and was the sole suspect in the rampage, authorities said.

Police on Wednesday night had not released the alleged gunman's name or the identities of the victims, nor had they established a motive. But friends and witnesses who knew the salon employees said the alleged gunman was Scott Dekraai and he appeared to be targeting his former wife, who was a stylist at Salon Meritage. They said the couple had been involved in a bitter custody dispute involving their son.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-1013-seal-beach-shooting-20111013,0,581853,print.story

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30 jailers punished for inmate beatings, report says

Sheriff's Department watchdog releases study on inmate abuse. Sheriff Baca plans to install more video cameras in jail to document misconduct.

In the last two years, Los Angeles County sheriff's officials have disciplined more than 30 jail employees for beating inmates or covering up the abuse, according to a report from the agency's watchdog obtained by The Times.

Other deputies "get away" with unnecessary force against inmates because "they craft a story of justification … which may be impossible to disprove," according to the report by the Office of Independent Review, which monitors discipline in the Sheriff's Department.

The report comes in response to growing allegations of inmate abuse inside the nation's largest jail system and has been released as the FBI investigates several cases of potentially criminal misconduct by deputies.

The report documents a dozen cases in which deputies were either fired or suspended in connection with inmate beatings. But those who were punished may be only a fraction of those who actually used excessive force. Investigations into excessive force, especially those that involve relatively minor injuries to an inmate, can be "lackluster, sometimes slanted and insufficiently thorough," the report said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-jails-brutality-report-20111013,0,5511010,print.story

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Documents subpoenaed from Atty. Gen. Holder in 'Fast and Furious' probe

The Republican chairman of the House oversight committee contends Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. knew more about the failed ATF gun-tracking operation than he has admitted.

A leading House Republican investigating the ATF operation dubbed Fast and Furious subpoenaed documents from Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. on Wednesday, escalating the confrontation over the botched gun-tracing program.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, issued a far-ranging subpoena seeking all communications between Holder, his deputies and the White House in connection with the now-defunct operation run by the Phoenix field office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Issa contends the attorney general knew more about the operation than he has told congressional investigators. Holder strongly denies that.

Fast and Furious, started in 2009, ended in January. ATF agents allowed illegal "straw" buyers to purchase more than 2,000 firearms, expecting to track them to drug cartel leaders in Mexico. But many of the guns vanished, only for some to turn up at crime scenes on both sides of the border. The Mexican government says the weapons have been found at about 170 crime scenes there. And two were found in Arizona where a Border Patrol agent was shot to death.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-atf-guns-20111013,0,2498606,print.story

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Texas man jailed 25 years for murder is exonerated

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday declared Michael Morton innocent of killing his wife, Christine, according to Paul Cates, a spokesman for the New York-based Innocence Project, which represented Morton in appealing his conviction. The ruling makes Morton eligible to receive $80,000 from the state for each year he was wrongfully imprisoned, about $2 million total.

Morton, 57, an Austin grocery store worker, had been convicted of beating his wife to death and sentenced to life in prison, although he maintained his innocence, blaming an intruder.

Cates told The Times that the Innocence Project is now working with the Williamson County district attorney's office, which prosecuted Morton, to investigate allegations that prosecutors suppressed evidence that could have cleared Morton early on, including evidence showing someone cashed one of his wife's checks and used her credit card after he was imprisoned.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/10/texas-man-jailed-for-25-years-exonerated.html#more

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John Wayne Gacy victims unearthed in bid to identify them

But many of his victims were never identified, something that has always troubled law enforcement officers as well as families who have long wondered whether their missing loved one fell prey to Gacy.

Now, in a bid to provide answers for all involved, the remains of several of Gacy's unidentified victims are being exhumed and subjected to cutting-edge DNA technology. Such tests weren't available back in the 1970s when Gacy was roaming the streets in and around Chicago looking for his next victim.

Relatives of young men who disappeared in the 1970s -- up until Gacy's 1978 arrest -- are urged to come forward and undergo a saliva test to help determine any DNA link to the skeletal remains found buried on Gacy's property or stowed in a crawl space in his Chicago-area home.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/10/john-wayne-gacy-victims-unearthed-in-bid-to-id-them.html#more

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Oct 12, 2011

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U.S. sees alleged assassination plot as radical shift for Iran

FBI says it has uncovered a plan by Iranian operatives linked to senior leaders to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington.

American officials charged that an alleged plot by Iran to blow up the Saudi ambassador as he dined in Washington marks a radical shift by Tehran toward direct confrontation with the United States.

The FBI said Tuesday that it had broken up a conspiracy orchestrated by a secretive unit of Iran's military with close ties to the country's senior leadership. In addition to criminal charges against two alleged perpetrators, the U.S. announced sanctions against five people, including two described as senior officials of Iran's Revolutionary Guard who were accused of overseeing the plot to kill Ambassador Adel Al-Jubeir.

The high-profile nature of the administration's statements, featuring the secretary of State, attorney general and director of the FBI, appeared to reflect the White House's determination to hold Iran responsible for the incident.

"We see this as a dangerous escalation of the Iranian government's use of violence to advance its agenda," said a senior White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

In a statement, the Saudi Embassy called the plot "a despicable violation of international norms."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-iran-plot-20111012,0,2198531,print.story

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Mexico says it helped U.S. foil plot to kill Saudi envoy

REPORTING FROM MEXICO CITY -- Mexico said Tuesday that it cooperated with the U.S. government to help foil an alleged Iranian-backed plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States that supposedly would have required the help of a Mexican drug cartel member.

“From the first moment, Mexico and the United States exchanged information and acted in a coordinated manner,” said Julian Ventura, Mexico's assistant foreign secretary for North America.

Two men, Iranian American Manssor Arbabsiar, and Gholam Shakuri, an alleged member of Iran's elite Quds Force, were charged Tuesday in New York federal court with planning to detonate a bomb at a busy Washington restaurant and kill Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir.

The plotters planned to pay a Drug Enforcement Administration informant posing as a member of the Zetas cartel $1.5 million to carry out the attack, U.S. officials said.

Ventura told reporters that when Arbabsiar attempted to return to Mexico on Sept. 28, the U.S. government had already issued an arrest warrant for him, and Mexican immigration authorities were on alert. When he arrived, Mexican authorities denied him entry and sent him back to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, where he was arrested.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2011/10/mexico-us-saudi-arabia-iran-plot.html

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Iran rejects U.S. accusations of plot to kill Saudi ambassador

REPORTING FROM TEHRAN -- Iran on Tuesday rejected U.S. accusations of involvement in an elaborate plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States with help from a purported member of a Mexican drug cartel.

The official news agency, IRNA, accused the United States of a "new propaganda campaign" against Iran. Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast called the claims a “prefabricated scenario” and a “ridiculous show,” according to the Associated Press.

The U.S. Justice Department alleged Tuesday that members of an elite branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guard planned to detonate a bomb at a busy Washington restaurant and kill Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir. The plotters planned to pay a member of the Zetas cartel $1.5 million to carry out the attack, U.S. officials said.

An Iranian American, Manssor Arbabsiar, has been arrested in the case. Gholam Shakuri, an alleged member of Iran's Quds Force, was also charged but is not in custody, officials said.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2011/10/iran-us-saudi-arabia-plot-reaction.html

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Free clinic plagued by red tape

California has failed to adopt regulations allowing out-of-state professionals to take part in a four-day health clinic Oct. 20, despite a law passed after crowds overwhelmed facilities last year.

After more than 6,600 people overwhelmed volunteers at a free mobile health clinic in Los Angeles last year, California legislators passed a law making it easier for out-of-state medical personnel to assist with future events.

But just over a week before the massive clinic returns, the state has failed to adopt regulations needed for the additional volunteers to participate. As a result, only medical personnel licensed in California will be able to treat patients and some people could be turned away. It also means Mehmet Oz of "The Dr. Oz Show" won't be able to see patients at the clinic as planned, though he can serve as a consultant.

The clinic, which begins Oct. 20 at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, will offer free healthcare services such as mammograms and eye exams to about 5,000 patients over four days. Run by the local nonprofit group CareNow, the event will be staffed by 700 to 850 doctors, dentists, optometrists, gynecologists, cardiologists and other volunteers. The clinic will be open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.

Organizers said this year's clinic will add a crucial service: connecting patients to local providers for follow-up care. In the past, uninsured patients left the event with few places to go for further treatment. This year, many will leave with a scheduled appointment.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-freeclinic-20111012,0,2851524,print.story

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Pair can face trial in Washington in three-state killing rampage

David Joseph Pedersen, 31, and his 24-year-old girlfriend, Holly Grigsby, appeared in Yuba County Superior Court in Marysville, Calif., on Tuesday to face charges that they murdered Pedersen's father and his wife in Washington state, a confrontation authorities believe was only the beginning of a violent road trip that ended with two more dead in Oregon and California.

The two waived extradition Tuesday, clearing the way for authorities in Washington to try them on charges of aggravated murder in the first degree in connection with the deaths of the David "Red" Pedersen and his wife, Leslie Pedersen, 69, in Everett, Wash.

Prosecutors allege, based on police interviews with the couple and family members, that Pedersen and Grigsby paid a visit to the elder Pedersens, with whom they had had little or no contact over the years, planning from the beginning to kill them because of Pedersen's belief that his father had, years before, molested his sister.

"The plan that they set out was that they were going to allegedly kill Red as he drove them to the Everett station to catch a bus," Everett police Sgt. Robert Goetz said at a news conference.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/10/pedersen-crime-spree-everett-oregon-yuba-city-murders.html

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Jury gets case of 3 North Carolina men charged with terrorism

Lawyers presented closing statements Tuesday in the federal terrorism trial of three young North Carolina Muslims charged with conspiring to take part in a jihadist plot to kill non-Muslims overseas.

The case goes to a jury Wednesday after a three-week trial in which the ringleader of the alleged plot testified for the government in a plea deal.

Daniel Boyd, 41, a Marine officer's son who converted to Islam as a teenager, testified against Omar Aly Hassan, Ziyad Yaghi and Hysen Sherifi. The three men, from Raleigh, N.C., were indicted along with Boyd and Boyd's two sons in 2009 on charges of conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists.

Daniel Boyd and his sons, Dylan Boyd, 24, and Zakariya Boyd, 21, pleaded guilty and testified against their co-defendants. They will be sentenced after the trial.

Jason Kellhofer, a federal prosecutor, said the defendants were motivated by "hate -- quite a lot of hate." He told jurors that the alleged jihad plot involved "murderous intent based on a twisted view of a religion, Islam."

Kellhofer ridiculed defense claims that the young men discussed jihad as a form of internal religious struggle. "What it means in reality ... is to kill innocent people," he said.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow

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'Toy Box Killer': Search reopened for New Mexico woman's remains

New Mexico police have reopened the case of an Albuquerque woman missing for more than 15 years after authorities recently received new information about a man known as the "Toy Box Killer" who claimed he was responsible for murdering at least 40 people.

Police suspect that the remains of 22-year-old Jill Troia, who disappeared in 1995, may be buried near a reservoir in southern New Mexico, an FBI spokesman told The Times on Tuesday as he prepared to board a boat and begin the search about 150 miles south of Albuquerque.

He said about 20 FBI personnel had joined 10 Albuquerque police and New Mexico State Police and were about to head out to search Elephant Butte Reservoir and nearby caves where David Parker Ray may have buried the remains of Troia and other alleged victims.

Ray wrote about how he sexually tortured his victims in the trailer he dubbed his "toy box" in the New Mexico town of Truth or Consequences, within view of the reservoir, Fisher said. Ray claimed he then buried his victims, including an Asian woman who investigators believe may have been Troia.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/10/new-mexico-torture-toy-box.html#more

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U.S. should call Iran's bluff

Whether or not Ahmadinejad is sincere in his proposal to cease production of highly enriched nuclear fuel and import it instead, it is clearly in our interests to accept.

It's time to call Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's bluff.

Over the last few weeks, the Iranian president has stated on a number of occasions that his country will cease domestic efforts to manufacture fuel for one of its nuclear reactors if it is able to purchase the fuel from abroad. The United States should accept this proposal — publicly, immediately and unconditionally.

Iran's enrichment program has been the focus of international concern for almost a decade. Its first efforts were geared toward enriching uranium to 5% — suitable for use in a power reactor. But, in February 2010, in an ominous development, it started to feed some of this material back into its centrifuges to produce uranium enriched to 20%.

Iran's ostensible purpose for enriching uranium to this higher level was to produce fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor, which uses more highly enriched fuel than a normal power reactor to produce radioactive materials for some cancer treatments. This explanation is, however, hardly plausible. Iran can enrich uranium to 20%, but it lacks the technology to convert this material into reactor fuel (previously it bought fuel from abroad, most recently from Argentina). It is much more likely that Iran is stockpiling 20% enriched uranium to give itself the option of rapidly converting it, at some later date, into the 80% or 90% enriched material needed for a nuclear weapon.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-acton-iran-nukes-20111012,0,2821588,print.story

L.A.'s prison realignment opportunity

Done correctly, moving state inmates to L.A. County supervision could revolutionize local policies that have led to the nation's highest costs per inmate and the highest state recidivism rate.

California's prisons are too full. Indeed, federal courts have found them to be illegally, unconstitutionally overcrowded and have repeatedly ordered the state to address the problem. But even if the courts had not done so, hard economic times and empty state coffers all but demand it.

As the largest single consumer of state prison services, Los Angeles County has at least a moral obligation to help come up with solutions. According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, about 54,000 offenders, or a third of all state prison inmates, are from Los Angeles County. Last year, about 19,000 offenders from the county were newly admitted to state prison.

For decades, the state's nonpartisan Little Hoover Commission and various blue-ribbon panels have proposed moving low-level offenders to county facilities and programs. On Oct. 1, this "realignment" began. Besides bringing the state into compliance with the U.S. Supreme Court decision on overcrowding, the shift to community-based corrections can effectively serve the goals of public safety and eliminate costly, counterproductive, short-term prison stints.

Rather than embrace realignment, however, Los Angeles law enforcement leaders have gone out of their way to distance themselves from it. Just days before the shift began, they claimed to be shocked, shocked that the transfer of low-level offenders, months in the making, was happening at all. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief Charlie Beck told The Times that it would put an unfair burden on Los Angeles. Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley predicted a crime wave. Sheriff Lee Baca suggested the county would be overwhelmed with new offenders.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-1012-shapiro-realignment-20111012,0,2582172,print.story

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U.S. aims to "unite the world" against Iran

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration plans to leverage charges that Iran plotted to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States into a new global campaign to isolate the Islamic republic.

"It's critically important that we unite the world in the isolation of and dealing with the Iranians," Vice President Joe Biden said on "The Early Show" Wednesday. "That's the surest way to be able to get results."

U.S. officials say the administration will lobby for the imposition of new international sanctions as well as for individual nations to expand their own penalties against Iran based on allegations that Iranian agents tried to recruit a purported member of a Mexican drug cartel to kill the Saudi envoy on American soil.

Biden also said that U.S. action against Iran could go beyond sanctions, but added that "we're not going there yet."

"This really, in the minds of many diplomats and government officials, crosses a line that Iran needs to be held to account for," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday. She said she and President Barack Obama want to "enlist more countries in working together against what is becoming a clearer and clearer threat" from Iran.

http://www.cbsnews.com/2102-201_162-20119095.html?tag=contentMain;contentBody

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Editorial

Washington bomb plot shows we must stop letting Iran get away with murder

They are murderous in Tehran, and they have been ever since the theocratic revolution took hold in Iran in 1979. But too often, the world has overlooked the madness of the country's rulers in hope that they are susceptible to reasoning.

No such naivete is possible this morning. Not after the U.S. government persuasively charged that Iran's elite Quds Force conspired to kill the Saudi ambassador to America in a bomb plot that would have taken hundreds of lives.

According to the federal criminal complaint, key actor Manssor Arbabsiar, a naturalized U.S. citizen holding both Iranian and U.S. passports, told a confidential informant in a taped conversation, "They want that guy [the ambassador] done. If the hundred go with him, f--k 'em."

The outlandish quality of the plot - Iranians hiring Mexican druglords to blow up a Washington restaurant - serves only to reinforce that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's supreme leader, will stop at nothing in pursuit of calculations that are inexplicable outside his demented realm.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2011/10/12/2011-10-12_killers_on_the_loose.html?print=1&page=all

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Missouri

City eyes ‘community policing'

Branson's new police chief is looking at implementing a new philosophy of policing for the department that would get the community more involved. Chief Kent Crutcher said the philosophy is called “community policing” and would replace the traditional style of coverage currently used by the department.

“Traditional policing, going back 50 years, is where the officer would go out, handle the call, take a police report and turn it in to detectives and go on to the next call,” Crutcher said. “He wasn't even concerned with the problem itself or what caused the problem. He was more worried about getting to the next call and making the next arrest. Community policing flips that upside down.”

Crutcher said community policing will require a lot of policy changes within the department. He also said transparency is a large part of the new policy.

“We have to be transparent, and by that, I mean revealing what the problem is, what area of town we are focusing on, if possible, and what is the problem we are trying to address,” Crutcher said.“When you make it public, the thought is you get more support and you get more people engaged that way.”

http://bransontrilakesnews.com/news_free/article_f94cd100-f452-11e0-bf29-001cc4c002e0.html?mode=print

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Oct 11, 2011

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L.A. Unified to consider expanding anti-dating violence programs

The proposal comes in the wake of a fatal stabbing in which a high school girl was allegedly attacked by her ex-boyfriend. If approved, it would teach students to recognize when a relationship is becoming abusive.

On the heels of a fatal stabbing last month in which a high school girl was allegedly attacked by her ex-boyfriend, the Los Angeles Board of Education is expected to consider a proposal Tuesday that will take on teen dating violence by teaching students to recognize when a relationship is becoming abusive.

Board member Steve Zimmer, who called for the board action, said the Sept. 30 incident at South East High School "punctuates the urgency" for expanding anti-dating violence programs districtwide. Zimmer's proposal has been in the works for months, he said.

Abraham Lopez, 18, remains in custody — his bail set at nearly $1.3 million — in the killing of his ex-girlfriend, Cindi Santana 17, during a lunchtime attack. Lopez also is accused of stabbing a dean and another student who attempted to restrain him.

If the proposal is approved, the district would hire a coordinator and train a teacher or staff member on school campuses to help students identify when they may be veering toward physical, emotional or verbal abuse and to raise awareness of these issues.

Zimmer said the program could cost about $2 million.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-schools-dating-20111011,0,6174389,print.story

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Gov. signs bills expanding drug users' access to sterile syringes

The first bill, SB41, written by Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), allows people to buy syringes at pharmacies without a prescription. California was one of the few states where this was illegal, other than a few pilot program areas.

The second bill, introduced by Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), allows the state to authorize needle exchange programs in areas deemed high risk for the spread of disease.

As the bill made its way to the governor's desk, the issue was playing out in real-time in Fresno, which has one of the highest rates of IV drug use in the country.

In September, the Fresno County Board of Supervisors voted to back away from a plan to legalize a longtime needle exchange even though county health officials warned that new infections of HIV and hepatitis C were climbing.

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

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SF Chief: Force "Find Your Chi"

The few San Francisco police officers who do not yet have the proper balance to conduct community policing will "find their Chi," according to Chief Greg Suhr

Community policing -- a newfangled term meaning more foot beats, more interaction with citizens and less cruising in patrol cars -- is now official SFPD policy, and cops who may be "less gregarious" and less-inclined to engage the citizenry will "find their Chi," Suhr told the Board of Supervisors last week.

"There are an ocean of San Francisco officers... that conduct themselves exactly like this [community policing model tells them to do]. And for them this is not a change on how they will do the day-to-day business," Suhr told the Board of Supervisors' Public Safety Committee, according to The Examiner. "There are other officers who may be less engaging, or less gregarious than some other officers and this is going to have to make them try and find their Chi, if you will, to raise the bar."

Community-based policing -- whatever it means, exactly -- has been an issue in San Francisco for some time now, and was the focus of a ballot measure that lost at the Nov. 2010 polls. Suhr issued a general order in the SFPD last week that informed all that community policing has arrived, drawing praise from city legislators. Once all SF cops find that elusive Chi, that is.

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/politics/SF-Cops-Told-To-Find-Their-Chi-By-Their-Chief-131478258.html

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Maryland

New Carrollton to get new police officer to patrol city schools

New Carrollton will add a new officer to its police department who will be stationed in the city's five public schools, thanks to a federal grant.

New Carrollton was the only Prince George's County police department awarded money this year through the U.S. Department of Justice's Community Oriented Policing Services Hiring Program grant. The city received about $214,000 to bring on an extra police officer whose salary and benefits are funded for three years.

New Carrollton Police Chief David G. Rice applied for the grant to have a second designated officer visit each of the city's five schools daily with the ultimate goal of getting students better acquainted and more trusting of law enforcement, Rice said.

"We're 24-hour coverage and we're doing our own detective stuff now," Rice said. "It's a lot. This [new] person would go into patrol and help out with the [city] schools."
Currently there is one officer specifically assigned for local school work, but the remaining officers rotate on patrol duty near the schools, Rice said. The assigned officer goes to PTA meetings and back to school nights to build relationships with staff and students. There are five public schools in New Carrollton's city limits: Carrollton Elementary, Charles Carroll Middle, Lamont Elementary, Margaret Brent Regional and Robert Frost Elementary schools.

http://www.gazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111010/NEWS/710109995/1124/1124/new-carrollton-to-get-new-police-officer-to-patrol-city-schools&&template=PrinterFriendlygaz

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Attorney General Holder Delivers Remarks at the Annual National Organization of Black Law Enforcement (NOBLE) Executives Dinner

Thank you, Chief [Eugene] Williams, for your kind words, for your warm welcome – and, of course, for your outstanding leadership in one of the finest police forces – in one of the greatest cities – in this country.

It is a pleasure to be part of this annual celebration. And I am honored to stand with you – and with NOBLE members from federal, state, and local law enforcement organizations throughout the Chicago area, including every member of the Chicago Chapter's executive board and committee. Without question, I am in good company – and grateful to be among so many old friends and essential partners.

Throughout my career, I've had the opportunity to work with many of you – including my dear friend Terry Hillard and Chicago's talented new Police Chief, Garry McCarthy, as well as Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez and Cook County Sherriff's Police Chief Dewayne Holbrook – and with NOBLE leaders and members across the country. In fact, this organization was established the very same year – in 1976 – that I graduated from law school, started my first job as an attorney at the Department of Justice, and witnessed – in a way I hadn't before – the disparities and divisions that NOBLE members have worked for more than three decades to address and overcome.

Over the last 35 years, as this organization has grown from a small band of concerned, frustrated, and, ultimately, hopeful law enforcement executives, it has become an increasingly influential voice. I have seen firsthand how – by opening new doors of opportunity and encouraging diversity in police departments and law enforcement agencies nationwide – you have helped to strengthen an entire profession. And – as your mission has broadened to encompass a wide range of efforts designed to build relationships with the citizens you serve; to promote civic engagement among a new generation of officers; and to help our nation's young people achieve their dreams and break free of the destructive cycle of guns, gangs, and drugs – you have pressed communities across the country toward progress.

http://www.justice.gov/iso/opa/ag/speeches/2011/ag-speech-111007.html

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Oct 10, 2011

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Calif. Gov. Enacts Ban on Open Handgun Carrying

Gov. Jerry Brown's says he has signed a measure that bans the open carrying of handguns in California.

The law, AB144, makes it a misdemeanor to carry an exposed and unloaded gun in a public place.

The governor's office made the announcement in a statement early Monday morning. Brown has been rushing to sign dozens of measures sent to him by lawmakers.

Top California law enforcement officials supported the legislation.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Brown said he had "listened to the police chiefs."

Supporters say the only person who knows whether the gun is loaded is the person carrying the gun. Opponents say the bill is one of many assaults on the public's Second Amendment rights.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/calif-gov-enacts-ban-open-handgun-carrying-14703202

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Chicago Heights Police Pull 90-Ton Plane for a Good Cause: Cool News

The police department donated money to the Special Olympics to participate in the Plane Pull at O'Hare International Airport.

In fact, they're strong enough to pull a 180,000-pound aircraft 20 feet in less than nine seconds. Now, take into account they actually paid someone to do this, and we can all tip our hats to the muscle-bound men and women in blue.

The Chicago Heights Police Department, along with 25 other Illinois teams donated at least $1,000 to the Special Olympics of Illinois to participate in pulling a 90-ton plane on Sept. 24.

Our police personnel took second place among the public safety teams, coming within eight-tenths of a second of beating the Chicago Police Department's Airport Law Enforcement Section. Heights Police Chief Michael Camilli joked about the winners' advantage. "They had more opportunities to practice," Camilli said.

Take a look at the photos to see the Heights Police pulling that massive UPS B757 aircraft. You can see more photos by visiting the Special Olympics Illinois Website. Big congrats to the Chicago Heights Police Department for showing off their strength and unity.

Police, School District Work Together for Safer Schools

Security cameras to be added thanks to grant money.

The Berkeley Heights Police Department is working with the Berkeley Heights Board of Education to install additional security cameras in local schools, thanks to a $76,000 grant the BHPD recently received through the federally-funded COPS community policing program.

This grant matches the $76,000 investment in security cameras already made by the Board of Education. In addition to the installation of new surveillance cameras in and around the school buildings, the COPS grant funding will cover the cost of establishing remote access for the Police Department to the cameras.

“The Police Department did an outstanding job in applying for the grant and we are truly appreciative of their efforts,” said Donna Felezzola, School Business Administrator for the Berkeley Heights Board of Education. “This collaborative effort between the police and school district is an excellent example of the benefits of shared services and cooperation between government agencies.”

http://berkeleyheights.patch.com/articles/police-school-district-work-together-for-safer-schools

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