The early release of inmates in some parts of California is accelerating as officials at county jails struggle to accommodate state prisoners flowing into their facilities.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department planned to begin releasing about 150 inmates Friday because of overcrowding in county jails.

Sheriff Rod Hoops has decided to release the inmates, mostly parole violators or those convicted of nonviolent crimes, over the next five days. The inmates must have served at least half of their sentence, and have less than 30 days remaining on their sentence.

The move is a result of a U.S. Supreme Court decision requiring the state to lower its prison population by 30,000. To meet the mandate, those convicted of certain crimes who until now served their sentences in state prison now must serve their time in a county jail. No inmates are being moved from state prisons to county jails. But as these people are sentenced, they will be sent to a county jail rather than state prison.

San Bernardino is believed to be the largest county to start early releases since the so-called prisoner realignment began. Kern County made a similar move last month.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-jails-20111210,0,3313581,print.story

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San Bernardino County begins releasing inmates early

San Bernardino County Sheriff Rod Hoops decided to release the inmates, mostly parole violators or those convicted of nonviolent crimes, over the next five days. The inmates have to have served at least half of their sentence, and have less than 30 days remaining on their sentence.

The move is a result of a U.S. Supreme Court decision requiring the state to lower its prison population by 30,000. To meet this mandate, inmates convicted of certain crimes who would have initially served their sentences in state prison now must serve their time in county jails.

Up until now, San Bernardino County managed to keep the jails from overcrowding through work-release and other programs. But with the system rapidly approaching capacity, the sheriff opted to make more room for new arrestees and higher priority inmates.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Two New York lawmakers have called for a passenger advocate at airports to immediately act on complaints by passengers over security screenings.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer and state Sen. Michael Gianaris of Queens want the Transportation Security Administration to create the position at all airports.

The proposal to be released Sunday was prompted by an elderly woman's recent claims that she was strip searched by security officials at Kennedy Airport, which the TSA denies, saying it doesn't conduct strip searches. Others have since made similar claims.

"The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) strives to provide the highest level of security while ensuring that all passengers are treated with dignity and respect," the agency stated Saturday night. "TSA has programs in place for the screening of people with all types of disabilities and medical conditions and their associated equipment."

Bill seeks to require drug screening for jobless benefits

Legislation introduced by Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) would require applicants for federally subsidized jobless benefits to fill out a drug screening questionnaire to determine whether they should have to take a drug test. Those identified as having a high probability of drug use would be required to pass a drug test.

"Drug screening as a condition of unemployment benefits safeguards valuable taxpayer dollars by ensuring job seekers are at their competitive best for re-employment and helps to reduce the nation's debt by not using federal resources to enable an individual's drug dependency,'' Kingston said in a letter to colleagues seeking their support.

“This is just another attempt to demonize the unemployed, most of whom have no job for no fault of their own," said Rep. George Miller of California, top Democrat on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. "Why doesn't he propose to drug test executives at Wall Street banks? It was their actions that have been documented to have directly contributed to the recession and high unemployment rate in the first place.”

Scam watch: Computer virus warning, Ponzi scheme, fake BBB email

Computer virus warning -- The Federal Trade Commission has started mailing refunds to 300,000 consumers who were victims of a scam in which they were tricked into buying unnecessary software to remove nonexistent viruses and spyware from their computers. The perpetrators of the scheme caused ads to appear on victims' computers, informing them that a “system scan” had detected viruses and other threats that needed to be removed immediately. In December 2008 the FTC obtained a court order putting a halt to the scheme. The FTC alleged that the defendants conned more than 1 million consumers into buying software products such as Winfixer, Drive Cleaner and Antivirus XP to remove the malware the bogus scans had supposedly detected. Consumers who believe they are entitled to a refund or have questions may call the settlement administrator toll free at 1-877-853-3541 or visit www.FTC.gov/refunds for more information.

Ponzi scheme -- A San Diego investment manager was arrested on charges that he ran a $25-million investment fraud, in which he falsely claimed that he made huge profits trading stocks. Federal prosecutors alleged that Robert L. Holloway lost millions trading stocks, diverted more than $1 million of investors' money to himself and used new investor money to pay returns to early investors. The scheme operated from 2005 to 2007, prosecutors said. Holloway, 54, is charged with four counts of wire fraud and one count of filing a false tax return.

BBB emails -- The Better Business Bureau is cautioning businesses and consumers about an email that falsely claims to be from the BBB and could infect computers with damaging viruses. The email subject line reads, “Complaint from your customers,” and contains a link to a site not affiliated with the consumer protection group. Consumers should not click on the link because it could cause their computers to be infected with a damaging virus. Anyone who has already clicked on the link should have their computers scanned for spyware, viruses or other potential problems, the BBB said. The group is working with law enforcement to determine the source of the emails.

L.A. County: Bringing dignity to death

It is to be commended for the moving and respectful service it holds each year in which the indigent and the unclaimed are laid to rest.

It took only 12 minutes Wednesday to memorialize the lives of 1,639 people who share a fresh grave at the Los Angeles County Cemetery and Crematory, their cremated remains packed in individual plastic boxes beneath a layer of dirt.

Five chaplains, joined by a smattering of mourners and an unusually quiet contingent of media, stood in the sun, offering prayers that promised an eternal life kinder and richer than the mortal one that ended with a burial plot marked not with the names of the dead but only the year they died: 2008. They are here because they were poor or their remains were unclaimed — or both — and they died in Los Angeles County. Despite the anonymity with which they were buried, they are not unknown; county authorities have identified them all.

County officials have been carrying out these burials since the late 19th century. Interfaith services have been conducted for decades.

The chaplains, who read from various spiritual texts, are usually the only people at these services who may have spent time with some of the dead as they lay dying. The chaplains may have sat at bedsides in county hospitals, heard stories of family members who hurt them or family they hurt. Whether at a hospital or in the hillside cemetery, the chaplains serve as the family that sees the ailing from life to death.

Northeast states cut heating aid to poor

Mary Power is 92 and worried about surviving another frigid New England winter because deep cuts in federal home heating assistance benefits mean she probably can't afford enough heating oil to stay warm.

She lives in a drafty trailer in Boston's West Roxbury neighborhood and gets by on $11,148 a year in pension and Social Security benefits. Her heating aid help this year will drop from $1,035 to $685. With rising heating oil prices, it probably will cost her more than $3,000 for enough oil to keep warm unless she turns her thermostat down to 60 degrees, as she plans.

"I will just have to crawl into bed with the covers over me and stay there," said Power, a widow who worked as a cashier and waitress until she was 80. "I will do what I have to do."

Thousands of poor people across the Northeast are bracing for a difficult winter with substantially less home heating aid coming from the federal government.

Virginia Tech fatal shooting revives fears from 2007 massacre

The incident, which left a police officer and another man dead, also shows how far universities have come in spreading campus safety alerts.

Once more there were gunshots, a lockdown and a campus community trapped in offices and classrooms, waiting in fear.

Once more there was terror at Virginia Tech.

Less than five years after a deranged undergraduate carried out the bloodiest shooting by a lone gunman in U.S. history, the sprawling, picturesque campus was paralyzed Thursday by an incident that left a university police officer dead, as well as an unidentified man reported to have been the shooter.

The slain officer was identified as Deriek W. Crouse, 39, of Christiansburg, Va., a four-year veteran of the Virginia Tech Police Department and a father of five, the university said Thursday night.

Many details remained hazy. Police would not divulge a motive, nor would they confirm that the case was, as reported by several news outlets, a murder-suicide — even though the university told students and employees in the late afternoon that there was "no longer an active threat," and a state police sergeant encouraged the media to "read between the lines" when asked whether the gunman was still at large.

Barry Beach freed after 29 years to await new Montana trial

Barry Beach has walked out of a Montana jail a free man for the first time in nearly 29 years, pending a review of his conviction in the 1979 murder of a woman on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, a killing he once confessed to in shocking detail.

A tearful Beach, 49, emerged from the Fergus County jail in Poplar and into the arms of family members and supporters Wednesday after District Judge E. Wayne Phillips ordered him released on his own recognizance pending a final ruling on a new trial.

"I've spent 29 years in prison fighting for this moment. Rest assured that I will continue to fight for justice," Beach told Montana's KRTV television in Lewistown.

The state's attorney general is appealing Phillips' ruling to the Montana Supreme Court, which is likely to take at least several months.

"We have an obligation to defend a murder conviction rendered by a Montana jury against a man who confessed" to the most serious of crimes, said a statement from the attorney general's office. The original prosecution team in the case included Marc Racicot, Montana's former governor and the chairman of the Republican National Committee during the Bush administration.

Virginia Tech shooting: 2007 massacre led to changes nationwide

After the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech, colleges and universities around the country improved their emergency notification systems and worked to speed up the reaction time of campus police to a potential shooter on campus, according to Christopher Blake, associate director of the International Assn. of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators.

Many universities put into place crime warning systems that can go out by cellphone, email, text message and other methods, while bolstering more traditional methods such as sirens and flashing signs and lights at intersections, Blake said Thursday.

“A lot of institutions looked at multiple ways to put out the word to the community,” he said. “Many institutions strengthened their emergency procedures in both hardware and software.”

University police forces have also spent more time developing tactics to deal with the prospect of a gunman on campus seeking to inflict wide-ranging damage. After the 2007 shootings, school police are more aware than ever of “the urgency in getting there and stopping the person,” he said.

FBI seeking bomber who tossed Molotov cocktails into police post

The FBI is offering $5,000 for help in finding and prosecuting the person who authorities say threw two Molotov cocktails at a police outpost near UC Santa Barbara last month and left taunting graffiti messages.

A surveillance video released by the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department on Thursday shows a suspect hurling two projectiles at the Isla Vista foot patrol building about 7:45 p.m. on Nov. 15.

The devices did not injure anyone. But they caused damage to the exterior of the foot patrol building in the 6500 block of Trigo Road in Isla Vista and caused a windshield on a nearby patrol vehicle to shatter, authorities said.

A witness reported seeing a lone person, dressed in black, running south from the scene. On the next day, graffiti containing references to the attack was found on and around Snidecor Hall, located on the UC Santa Barbara campus about 500 yards from the bombing site, Santa Barbara sheriff's deputies said.

Kansas City police officers join Columbia in attempts to reduce racial bias

Training for Columbia Police Department officers started this Thurs

At Bias-free Columbia Coalition's fourth meeting Wednesday, two Kansas City Police Department officers shared their experience and their approaches to remedy the consequences of racial bias in community policing.

The two officers, Jack Colwell, recently retired, and Sgt. Charles “Chip” Huth, who has been a police officer for 28 years, said their training program reflected the philosophy in their book, “Unleashing the Power of Unconditional Respect: Transforming Law Enforcement and Police Training."

The Kansas City officers said they started training their staff of supervisors Thursday at the Columbia Police Department, CPD Chief Ken Burton said. “I think the philosophy is the future of American policing,” Burton said.

Since the 11th Annual Report on Vehicle Stops from Attorney General Chris Koster showed that CPD officers stop black drivers three times more than they stop Caucasians, Burton has been working with Don Love, chairman of the Missouri Association for Social Welfare, to reduce racial bias in the community.

A simple ceremony is held at the county crematory and cemetery. The chaplain presiding says it is a service like no other, with no grieving families, no personal histories, not even names to read.

They are the unidentified, the estranged, those whose loved ones just couldn't afford to bury them.

In a simple yet poignant ceremony Wednesday near a busy Boyle Heights intersection, the ashes of more than 1,600 people who had never been identified or whose bodies were never claimed were buried in a single grave.

The mass burial has become a custom each December at the Los Angeles County Crematory and Cemetery. This year's ceremony was attended by just a few, none of whom knew the deceased.

The Rev. Chris Ponnet, a chaplain at County-USC Medical Center, led the service for "the nameless and the named but unclaimed" — 1,639 bodies in all.

Interfaith burial rites and prayers were included, with readings from the Islamic, Buddhist, Jewish and Christian traditions. The ceremony concluded with the Serenity Prayer, Psalm 23 and a blessing of hands over the burial site.

Mexico says it foiled plot to sneak in Kadafi son

Authorities say four people are held. They allegedly aided Saadi Kadafi's bid to set himself and three relatives up in an oceanfront estate in Nayarit state.

Mexican authorities announced Wednesday that they had busted an international smuggling ring that was planning to sneak a son of Moammar Kadafi into Mexico, where he was to be ensconced in a ritzy oceanfront estate.

Saadi Kadafi, the 38-year-old son of the deposed and slain dictator, and three relatives were to travel to Mexico using falsified documents that gave them new names and Mexican citizenship, authorities said. The plot involved a network of safe houses, illicit bank accounts and private jets crisscrossing the globe from the Middle East to Kosovo to Canada, said Alejandro Poire, Mexico's interior minister.

Poire said four people — two Mexicans, a Canadian and a Dane — formed the smuggling ring and were arrested last month.

The announcement followed publication one day earlier in Canada of an article that described the plot and Kadafi's intentions to set himself up in the Punta Mita resort area, a Pacific coast stretch of million-dollar villas, Jack Nicklaus golf courses and frolicking celebrities.

Smartphones, dumb drivers

With smartphone ownership proliferating, a total ban on cellphone use by drivers is needed, for the safety of everyone on the road.

Can you safely talk on a cellphone — or for that matter, check your email or scroll through Google Maps — while driving? Well, of course you can. But those other folks with their hands off the wheel and their eyes off the road are a public menace.

Unfortunately, that sums up the attitude of many American motorists, who widely acknowledge using their phones while behind the wheel but insist they're safe drivers. Meanwhile, the number of people worried about the other guy is soaring. When the state Office of Traffic Safety asked California drivers to name the biggest safety problem on the road, nearly 40% listed drivers who use cellphones. That's a big jump from last year, when the top worry was aggressive drivers and speeders, and only 18.3% were concerned about cellphones.

So what changed? Probably the explosion of smartphones, which aren't so much phones as portable computers — and which, like a computer, require both eyes and often both hands, meaning that, in our view, drivers should never operate them. But they do. More than 1 in 4 Americans who download applications to their smartphones admit to using those apps while driving, according to a survey by Nationwide Mutual Insurance. And the number of people with smartphones is growing fast. U.S. sales of smartphones are expected to hit 95 million in 2011, and 43% of mobile phone owners have smartphones; soon it will be a majority.

Troops' Cremated Remains Went To Landfill

Neighbourhood's efforts recognized with international policing award

CAMBRIDGE — A neighbourhood's efforts to improve safety and clean up its streets have earned it an international community policing award.

The award from the International Association of Chiefs of Police was formally presented to the Alison Park community Wednesday night to recognize work that began back in 2006, when Waterloo Regional Police were told of a rise in racially motivated violence and harassment targeting local Muslim residents.

Police patrols increased, the Elgin Street pedestrian tunnel was cleaned up, regular meetings began — and people took more pride in their community.

“They're seeing the fruits of their labour,” said Courtney Storey, executive director of the Alison Neighbourhood Community Centre. “When people are connected to each other, they feel safer.”

Remembering Pearl Harbor, 70 years later

Seventy years after the attack on Pearl Harbor, thousands of people, including about 120 survivors, are expected to return to Hawaiian island of Oahu to pay their respects to the Americans who died on Dec. 7, 1941.

An anniversary commemoration will be held early Wednesday at the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center, which looks out onto the USS Arizona Memorial. About 120 survivors of the Japanese attack — which killed 2,400 Americans, sunk 12 ships and destroyed 188 aircraft — are expected to attend.

At 7:55 a.m. local time (9:55 a.m. PST), the time the attack began, a moment of silence will be observed and a Navy ship will render honors to the USS Arizona, followed by a “missing man” formation flight over the memorial.

Later Wednesday, the USS Oklahoma Memorial Executive Committee will dedicate a memorial marker at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

The commingled remains of 335 USS Oklahoma sailors are interred in graves at the cemetery. The memorial marker will be dedicated in memory of the “unknowns” killed during the attack.

Wednesday's ceremony is a part of a week of activities and tributes to commemorate the 70th anniversary. All the events will be held at the year-old, $56-million Pearl Harbor Visitor Center. The 17-acre campus, operated by the National Park Service, features a museum, movie theaters and exhibits.

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Op-Ed

Congress' small step toward immigration reform

The Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act makes only a small, surgical tuck in the nation's complex immigration code. But this small change could have significant consequences.

Among Republican presidential candidates, it's been demagoguery as usual. Why have a substantive debate when you can exchange inflammatory sound bites instead, especially on immigration?

But something surprising happened last week far from the campaign trail — on Capitol Hill, of all places. Just when we thought Congress would never act to address the nation's broken immigration system, members of the House made a critical breakthrough, voting overwhelmingly to approve a fix that will make American companies more competitive and the immigration system fairer and more welcoming.

The Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act is not a broad, far-reaching bill. It's nothing like the comprehensive overhaul Congress has been debating for years. It doesn't add more slots for would-be immigrants. It makes only a small, surgical tuck in the nation's complex immigration code, phasing out quotas on the number of legal permanent residents who can be admitted in any given year from a single country. But this small change could have significant consequences, for thousands of immigrants and for the politics of immigration.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-jacoby-immigration-reform-20111207,0,1043878,print.story

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Biological weapons threat is growing, U.S. warns

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States called on Wednesday for closer international cooperation to prevent terrorist groups from developing or using biological weapons, a threat it said was growing.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said countries must strengthen their ability to detect and respond to suspicious outbreaks of infectious disease that could be caused by pathogens falling into the wrong hands.

"Unfortunately the ability of terrorists and other non-state actors to develop and use these weapons is growing. Therefore this must be a renewed focus of our efforts," she said in a speech in Geneva.

"Because there are warning signs and they are too serious to ignore."

She said Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula had urged "brothers with degrees in microbiology or chemistry ... to develop a weapon of mass destruction."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/07/us-arms-biological-idUSTRE7B60RV20111207

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Meeting with Lady Gaga on Inclusion and Equality for Our Young People

Lady Gaga is a source of strength for many young people who feel isolated and scared at their schools. Today, I had the opportunity to welcome her to the White House, where we discussed ways we could work together to make sure that no child comes under attack, regardless of his or her race, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other factor.

One of Lady Gaga's newest projects is joining together with the MacArthur Foundation and Harvard University to launch the Born This Way Foundation, which will explore ways to help change the culture, the policies, and the curriculum surrounding the safety of our children in school.

Lady Gaga has described this cause as a personal one – she has said that as a child, she was often picked on for being different. I am deeply moved by the way she has used her story, and her success, to inspire young people, and shine the spotlight on important issues.

I am proud to be part of an Administration that has taken steps to address bullying. In 2010, the Department of Education made it clear to schools that allowing bullying against LGBT students can violate anti-discrimination statutes. In 2011, the Department reaffirmed students' rights to form gay-straight alliances and other similar groups. Earlier this year, President Obama and the First Lady held a White House Conference on Bullying Prevention. And today the Administration released a new analysis of state bullying laws and policies, summarizing the efforts currently in place to prevent bullying in and out of schools. The report shows that while states have made recent progress in enacting policies and legislation to address bullying, more must be done.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/12/06/meeting-lady-gaga-inclusion-and-equality-our-young-people

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Preventing Hunger and Protecting Taxpayers: Our Renewed Efforts to Combat SNAP Fraud

In recent years, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) – formerly known as food stamps – has demonstrated an exceptional record in program integrity and stewardship of taxpayer dollars. The program currently serves as a bridge to success for over 46 million Americans who are at risk of being hungry when they face challenging economic times. More than half of those who rely on the program are children, elderly or the disabled, and many participants are newly unemployed and never thought they would be living in poverty. The program has never been more important and neither has the need to be a good steward of its dollars. In this vein, President Obama and Vice President Biden launched the Administration's new Campaign to Cut Waste in government spending in June to eliminate misspent tax dollars and USDA strongly supports this effort.

Today we are reinforcing this commitment, strengthening our resolve to ensure program integrity and working on behalf of American taxpayers to protect the federal investment in SNAP and make sure the program is targeted towards those families who need it the most. While we recognize that fraud occurs relatively infrequently in SNAP, it has great potential to undermine public confidence in government and jeopardize the ability of the program to serve the millions of struggling families who rely on benefits each month.

Thankfully, the vast majority of SNAP recipients are honest people who spend their benefits to meet basic nutritional needs and to put food on the table. Data shows that illegal activity – such as selling benefits to others for cash – only affects roughly one cent on the dollar. Still, we cannot tolerate even the smallest abuse of taxpayer resources. That's why we have implemented aggressive strategies to continue to improve SNAP integrity.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/12/06/preventing-hunger-and-protecting-taxpayers-our-renewed-efforts-combat-snap-fraud

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National Preparedness System Description Announced

We first talked about the Presidential Policy Directive on National Preparedness last March and since then we have released the National Preparedness Goal outlining the capabilities necessary to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from the threats and hazards that pose the greatest risk to the nation.

Today, we took the next step in our ongoing efforts to work together to improve for a wide range of these threats and hazards, such as acts of terrorism, cyber attacks, pandemics and catastrophic natural disasters, by releasing a description of the National Preparedness System. What makes this preparedness system unique is that it involves the whole community – individuals, businesses, community- and faith-based organizations, schools and all levels of government. We recognize that the nation will be most prepared for threats and hazards when we work together and the National Preparedness System outlines the approach, resources and tools for achieving that goal.

http://blog.dhs.gov/2011/12/ppd-8-national-preparedness-system.html

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Dec 6, 2011

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South Korean robot prison guards: R2-D2 maybe, not the Terminator

South Korea is ready to wheel out its latest weapon in the war against crime: a 5-foot-tall, four-wheeled prison guard robot that will patrol the behind-bars hallways of penal institutions, even assess the mental states of prisoners.

This won't be just any new guard to join the team. There will be no breaks, no demands for higher pay, no unprovoked attacks and not even a chance of accepting a bribe.

As South Korea battles Japan for supremacy in robot technology, designers have invented what they call a team of “friendly robots” that will not just guard prisoners but keep an eye on their well-being to boot.

Juan Corona, convicted of killing 25 migrant workers in California some four decades ago, was again denied parole Monday.

The California Board of Parole Hearings turned down the seventh parole request of Corona, now 77 and diagnosed with dementia. He is not eligible for another parole hearing for five years, authorities said.

Corona is serving 25 concurrent terms of 25 years to life in Corcoran State Prison. First convicted in 1973, he won a new trial in 1978 and was re-convicted on all charges in 1982.

What at the time was the nation's worst serial murder case had its roots in the early 1950s, authorities said, when Corona moved to Yuba City, in Sutter County, where he worked as a migrant farmer. He soon established himself as a labor contractor.

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

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Escaped Inmate Hunting for Two People in Maine, Police Say

An escaped inmate described as armed, dangerous and seeking revenge is hunting for two people in Maine, authorities said today. David Glenn Hobson, 33, has eluded a dragnet since he escape from a New Hampshire prison on Thursday.

"He's holding a grudge against two individuals," Maine State Police spokesman Stephen McCausland told ABCNews.com. "We warned them early and we believe they're in a safe place." McCausland would not reveal any details about who the two people are or what they may have done to anger Hobson. Federal, state and county authorities are participating in the manhunt.

There have been no confirmed sightings of Hobson but he is believed to be in the vicinity of the towns of Alfred and Sanford where his relatives live.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/escaped-inmate-hunting-revenge-people-maine-police/story?id=15088267#.Tt3w8WP7b38

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State court tosses gang leader's death sentence

SAN FRANCISCO—The California Supreme Court on Monday took the rare step of tossing out the murder convictions and death sentences of a Los Angeles gang leader who authorities believe was the "shot caller" responsible for dozens of murders.

The ruling was the court's first reversal of a direct death penalty appeal this year. The court affirmed the first 24 death penalty appeals it received in 2011, according to court spokeswoman Lynn Holton.

Cleamon "Big Evil" Johnson led the 89 Family Bloods during the 1980s and early 1990s. Authorities allege the 80 members of Johnson's gang were responsible for more than 60 slayings on their turf, which stretched for a quarter of a square mile in the heart of South-Central Los Angeles.

Johnson was convicted in 1997, along with Michael "Fat Rat" Allen, of murdering two rival gang members six years earlier. Prosecutors allege that Johnson ordered Allen to kill the rivals with an Uzi.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2011/12/06/state_court_tosses_gang_leaders_death_sentence/?page=full

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Nebraska

Police say Immigration Program Hampers Community Policing

A legislative panel heard from Nebraska law enforcers today on how they're dealing with a controversial federal initiative in which they're roped into helping crack down on illegal immigrants.

The Judiciary Committee held the hearing to see how law enforcement has been impacted by aDepartment of Homeland Security program called Secure Communities, which focuses on deporting dangerous criminals by checking the fingerprints of people arrested to determine their immigration status.

Nationally, more than 1,700 jurisdictions participate in the program, including 12 in Nebraska, according to State Patrol Superintendent David Sankey. Of 28,500 arrestees whose prints were submitted to the FBI, 196 have been deported, Sankey said.

Omaha Deputy Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said Omaha police don't check people's immigration status “except in rare circumstances” because it hampers their ability to work with residents through community policing. Others agreed, saying people become fearful of interacting with police, even if they are a victim of a crime.

http://missouri-news.org/midwest-news/nebraska/police-say-immigration-program-hampers-community-policing/11543

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Dec 5, 2011

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Boy, 9, Suspended from School for Sexual Harassment After Calling Teacher 'Cute'

A 9-year-old boy North Carolina boy was suspended for calling a teacher “cute,” WSOCTV.com reports. The boy's mother, Chiquita Lockett, said the principal of Brookside Elementary in Gastonia called her after the incident to say the comment was a form of “sexual harassment.”

"It's not like he went up to the woman and tried to grab her or touch her in a sexual way," Lockett said. "So why would he be suspended for two days?” According to the station, a district spokeswoman said she could not go into detail, but said the boy was suspended for "inappropriate behavior" after making "inappropriate statements."

The district's Code of Conduct doesn't list "inappropriate behavior," but says "disruption of school" is punishable by five days of out-of-school suspension. The news of the North Carolina boy's suspension comes as a Massachusetts elementary school is investigating a first-grader for sexual harassment after the boy struck another boy his age in the groin.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/12/04/boy-suspended-from-school-for-sexual-harassment-after-calling-teacher-cute/

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Community initiatives cut crime on Indian reservations

Native American leaders powwow with President Obama and Interior Secretary Salazar at one-day conference

SUMMIT COUNTY — After two years of targeted community policing and other measures, the Safe Indian Communities initiative helped reduce violent crime by 35 percent across four Indian reservations, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said last week during the annual White House Tribal Nations Conference .

The annual conference is intended to emphasize the Obama administration's commitment to reform, restructure and rebuild federal relations with Indian Country and underscoring initiatives that are building safer and stronger American Indian and Alaska Native communities.

“Today is about continuing a meaningful nation-to-nation dialogue that furthers the march of progress happening in Indian Country,” Secretary Salazar said during the conference. “President Obama is committed to making government work better to fulfill our trust management duties, support tribal self-determination and empower American Indian and Alaska Natives to unlock the economic potential of Indian communities.”

“We know that safer Indian communities mean stronger Indian communities,” said Salazar. “The positive results from the pilot program are extremely encouraging and far surpassed our goals. We are committed to building on that progress and will be expanding the Safe Indian Communities initiative to other reservations that are experiencing high levels of violent crime.”

http://summitcountyvoice.com/2011/12/05/community-initiatives-cut-crime-on-indian-reservations/

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Racial gap found in traffic stops in Milwaukee

City's disparities are greater than other large metro police departments

A black Milwaukee driver is seven times as likely to be stopped by city police as a white resident driver, a Journal Sentinel analysis of nearly 46,000 traffic stops has found. Similarly, Milwaukee police pulled over Hispanic city motorists nearly five times as often as white drivers, according to the review, which took into account the number of licensed drivers by race.

Police also searched black drivers at twice the rate of whites, but those searches didn't lead to higher rates of seized weapons, drugs or stolen property. The review found that the disparities spanned all seven police districts. The two with the greatest racial discrepancies - Districts 1 and 6 - have the lowest crime rates, and both have predominantly white populations.

The disparities found in Milwaukee are greater than other large metro police departments where traffic stop data is collected, including Charlotte, Kansas City, Raleigh and St. Louis. In those jurisdictions, black drivers were stopped between 1.6 and 2.2 times as often as white drivers, according to 2010 data from North Carolina and Missouri. Hispanic drivers in those cities were between 0.7 and 1.2 times as likely to be stopped as whites, taking into account the overall driving-age population. Using that same measure, Milwaukee's disparities were 3.9 for blacks and 2.1 for Hispanics.

Imran Awan, senior lecturer in the Centre for Police Sciences at the University of Glamorgan looks into undercover policing in covert operations across British mosques in the pursuit of extremists

The terrorist threat has had an immense impact on how UK counter-terrorism policy and counter-terrorism policing is shaped. The aim of such policies has been in the narrative of winning hearts and minds and in order to do that counter-terrorism policing has been used in a number of controversial campaigns that have alienated Muslim communities and viewed them as 'suspects'. Greater Manchester Police is the latest force to have fallen prey to poor policing tactics when it began using undercover police officers to pose as Muslims and use British Mosques as a forum to 'spy' upon the community and as such tackle the threat of extremism.

A recent Dispatches documentary aired on Channel 4 called 'Confessions of an Undercover Cop' aptly examined the role of undercover police officers and the problematic nature of their role within communities as well as the ethical issues as regards the role of the police in such covert operations. Indeed, Greater Manchester Police further exacerbated an antagonistic feeling between the Muslim community and the police when they used police officers in undercover operations within British mosques. This approach targeted the Muslim community as the police used such tactics to gather intelligence and further fuel the potential for terrorist ideology to flourish; underpinned by a grievance against law enforcement agencies.

California's county jails struggle to house influx of state prisoners

Overcrowding forces the early release of some county jail inmates because of the so-called prisoner realignment. Another alternative is electronic monitoring of some low-level offenders.

San Bernardino County begins releasing inmates early

Bill seeks to require drug screening for jobless benefits

Scam watch: Computer virus warning, Ponzi scheme, fake BBB email

L.A. County: Bringing dignity to death

It is to be commended for the moving and respectful service it holds each year in which the indigent and the unclaimed are laid to rest.

Northeast states cut heating aid to poor

Virginia Tech fatal shooting revives fears from 2007 massacre

The incident, which left a police officer and another man dead, also shows how far universities have come in spreading campus safety alerts.

Barry Beach freed after 29 years to await new Montana trial

Virginia Tech shooting: 2007 massacre led to changes nationwide

FBI seeking bomber who tossed Molotov cocktails into police post

Kansas City police officers join Columbia in attempts to reduce racial bias

Training for Columbia Police Department officers started this Thurs

A simple ceremony is held at the county crematory and cemetery. The chaplain presiding says it is a service like no other, with no grieving families, no personal histories, not even names to read.

Mexico says it foiled plot to sneak in Kadafi son

Authorities say four people are held. They allegedly aided Saadi Kadafi's bid to set himself and three relatives up in an oceanfront estate in Nayarit state.

Smartphones, dumb drivers

With smartphone ownership proliferating, a total ban on cellphone use by drivers is needed, for the safety of everyone on the road.

Troops' Cremated Remains Went To Landfill

Neighbourhood's efforts recognized with international policing award

Remembering Pearl Harbor, 70 years later

Biological weapons threat is growing, U.S. warns

Meeting with Lady Gaga on Inclusion and Equality for Our Young People

National Preparedness System Description Announced

Boy, 9, Suspended from School for Sexual Harassment After Calling Teacher 'Cute'

Community initiatives cut crime on Indian reservations

Racial gap found in traffic stops in Milwaukee

City's disparities are greater than other large metro police departments