She thought about going through her closet to find clothes to donate, but that did not seem like enough. She went to the high school, where there was a shelter for the victims, but things seemed a little disorganized. So she decided to do a “roadblock,” collecting money in buckets from passing motorists.

"It was kind of like an epiphany, you know,” she said. “I've done fundraising all my life with my father.”

She recalled that one year she and her father participated in 18 roadblocks. Her last one with her father, a tavern owner, was in 1996. He had Lou Gehrig's disease, she said, and could not hold a bucket in his hand. He held the rope handle in his teeth.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-tornadoes-volunteer-20120303,0,2907795.story

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Mar 3, 2012

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California

Nearly Half of Oakland's Community Policing Officers Reassigned

Chief admits cops now working on mayor's "100-block" plan

Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan acknowledged Friday that the city has significantly altered a taxpayer-mandated community policing program to support Mayor Jean Quan's new public safety initiative.

Jordan said the department has temporarily reassigned 22 problem-solving officers to crime-fighting teams as part of the mayor's 100-block plan, which focuses law enforcement and social service efforts on the city's most violent neighborhoods.

The officers' salaries are funded by Measure Y, a parcel tax voters approved in 2004 that generates approximately $20 million annually. The money not only pays for the officers, who work with residents on neighborhood beats to address a variety of probems, from burglaries to blight, but it also supports crime-prevention programs.

The chief's public acknowledgement comes after The Bay Citizen reported that many residents had complained about the reassignments. In "a message to the community" issued Friday, Jordan said that residents had raised the issue "so often" at community meetings that he "felt it necessary to address it."

"As Chief, it is my responsibility to provide you with the most effective public safety service possible," Jordan wrote. "In an environment where serious, violent crime has become unacceptably routine, it is imperative that we impact this level of violence by making the most of our existing resources in an effective and responsible manner."

The redeployment has angered community policing advocates and some wealthier residents, who say the city is using their money to pay for a plan that does not help them. Measure Y generates about $20 million annually.

http://www.baycitizen.org/policing/story/nearly-half-oakland-community-policing/print/

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Mar 2, 2012

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California physician assistant wins $168 million in harassment suit

Ani Chopourian told of sexually inappropriate conduct, bullying and retaliation at a Sacramento hospital. The award is believed to be the largest for a single victim of workplace harassment in U.S. history.

Ani Chopourian lost track of how many complaints she filed during the two years she worked as a physician assistant at Sacramento's Mercy General Hospital.

There were at least 18, she recalled, many having to do with the bullying surgeon who once stabbed her with a needle and broke the ribs of an anesthetized heart patient in a fit of rage. Another surgeon, she said, would greet her each morning with "I'm horny" and slap her bottom. Yet another called her "stupid chick" in the operating room and made disparaging remarks about her Armenian heritage, asking if she had joined Al Qaeda.

Managers from Mercy General, a unit of Catholic Healthcare West, told a Sacramento trial court that it was Chopourian who was guilty of professional misconduct, which was why they fired her and tried to deny her unemployment benefits.

But in a stunning rebuke of the hospital's side of the story, a jury Wednesday awarded Chopourian $168 million in damages, believed to be the largest judgment for a single victim of workplace harassment in U.S. history.

"They were just shocked by the whole workplace environment," said Lawrance Bohm, Chopourian's attorney during the three-week trial in which witness after witness depicted a culture of vulgarity and arrogance they said humiliated female employees and put patients at risk.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-harassment-award-20120302,0,4107083,print.story

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Malloy challenges Secure Communities

As of Thursday afternoon, no Connecticut immigrants had been detained through Secure Communities, a federal deportation program that was implemented statewide on Feb. 22. Still, Gov. Dannel Malloy's administration is taking measures that could curb the program's efforts in the state.

Under Secure Communities, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials check police fingerprints of criminal suspects against ICE databases in an effort to deport criminals residing in the country illegally. If ICE officials believe a suspect may be undocumented, they can issue a detainment request that the state hold the individual in custody so that ICE can determine whether to initiate deportation proceedings. Mike Lawlor, the state's undersecretary for criminal justice and policy planning, said state administrators are currently drafting a “checklist” that will be used to determine the cases in which the state will comply with ICE's detainment requests and when the requests will be ignored. He said the checklist will be a set of specific criteria to ensure that ICE is only able to deport dangerous convicts and not those who are guilty of minor crimes.

Two days prior to Secure Communities' implementation, Malloy, who has openly criticized the program, hinted at the checklist when he released a statement through his office that said state law enforcement would decide whether to honor deportation requests on a “case-by-case basis.”

“ICE says Secure Communities will focus on deporting serious offenders, so our goal is to take the way the program has been advertised and reduce that to a checklist,” Lawlor said. “If you meet the criteria, law enforcement will detain you, and if not, you will be released.”

http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2012/mar/02/malloy-challenges-secure-communities/?print

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Mayor, Police Chief Announce March on Crime Initiative

HOUSTON, TX - Mayor Annise Parker and Houston Police Chief Charles A. McClelland, Jr. announced the department's 28th annual “March on Crime/Lucha Contra El Crimen.” For the entire month of March, the Houston Police Department will highlight education initiatives to address property crimes such as burglaries of motor vehicles (BMVs) and burglaries of residences and businesses.

“HPD is a community policing department and this is just one of the initiatives that reinforces that,” said Chief McClelland. “There is no more effective strategy than someone educating themselves and protecting themselves and their property,” he added. Crime prevention starts with citizens, said Mayor Parker.

“The Houston Police Department is not the frontline in preventing crime,” said Mayor Parker. “The frontline in preventing crime is individuals doing the right thing. It is neighborhoods coming together to coordinate their activities, to communicate with each other and then work with the police,” she added.

Community policing does not just happen in March, HPD officers work to educate community members all year long. “We focus on crime every single day, every single month,” said Chief McClelland. “But this is a good opportunity for us to reinforce all of these things.”

Following Thursday's media briefing, officers from HPD's North Patrol Division distributed theft reduction report cards on motorists' windshields at the Houston Community College at 1000 Pinemont. The officers gave students a passing or failing grade depending upon whether the offices found vehicle doors unlocked, windows opened or cracked and if valuables were left in plain view.

For more crime safety information, visit the HPD website at www.houstonpolice.org and click on the “Keep Houston Safe” logo.

http://www.thecypresstimes.com/printFriendly.cfm?articleID=56879

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Deputy Attorney General James Cole Speaks at High Level Hemispheric Meeting Against Transnational Organized Crime

Mr. President, Madame Attorney General, Madame Minister, Mr. Secretary General, distinguished attorneys general and guests.

It is a distinct pleasure to be in Mexico City at today's Hemispheric Meeting and to have the unique opportunity to speak with you – our shared partners in the Americas and Spain – about transnational organized crime, undoubtedly a global menace that we must work together to defeat. Organized criminals have adapted rapidly to the new, globalized world. They are, in fact, helping to shape that world, and not in a good direction. Our peoples, our governments, must prove equally adaptable if we are to prevail. The steps that the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. government as a whole, and our partners around the world are taking to address the threat cannot be overstated.

For many decades the fight against organized crime has been one of the highest enforcement priorities of the Department of Justice. Many dedicated agents and prosecutors over the past 80 years have devoted their careers to the battle against the families of La Cosa Nostra, Italian-American crime groups that at one time existed in most major cities in the United States. More recently, agents and prosecutors have brought an equal level of dedication to the fight against the narco-trafficking cartels, who have been and remain some of the most sophisticated and dangerous transnational organized crime groups in the world.

But even as we continue to vigorously investigate and prosecute these criminal groups, we are aware that the landscape of organized crime has been shifting. The advance of globalization and the internet, while hugely beneficial to people everywhere, has also created unparalleled opportunities for criminals to expand their operations and use the facilities of global communication and commerce to carry out their criminal activities across national borders.

http://www.justice.gov/iso/opa/dag/speeches/2012/dag-speech-120301.html

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* Remarks as prepared for delivery

Good afternoon. I am indeed honored to be here, and gratified to be back in San Francisco.

A few weeks ago, there was a story in The New York Times about a woman who was taking a break from work. She was watching YouTube videos on her iPhone when a man walked up, pointed a gun at her, grabbed the phone, and ran.

A New York City police officer responded to the call and told her not to worry, that he would find her phone. He grabbed his own phone, opened the “Find My iPhone” app, and typed in the victim's Apple ID. In seconds, a phone icon popped up, showing that the subject was near 8th Avenue and 51st Street. The officer and his partner headed that way.

As they pulled up, the officer pushed a button on his phone, and they began to hear a pinging noise some 20 feet away. The officer hit “Play” once more, and they followed the pinging to its source, which turned out to be in the man's sock. The Times reporter pointed out that had the subject been tech savvy, he might have known how to disable the iCloud setting and stop the trace.

If only every case could be solved so easily, and in less than 30 minutes.

http://www.fbi.gov/news/speeches/combating-threats-in-the-cyber-world-outsmarting-terrorists-hackers-and-spies

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Mar 1, 2012

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Violent past for Ohio shooting suspect

On Wednesday, new information came to light about the 17-year-old investigators say killed three students and wounded two others when a judge released records from TJ Lane's juvenile court files.

Those documents show that in 2009 Lane was charged with assaulting his uncle, John Breuning. Authorities said "TJ also jumped on John ... put him in a choke hold."

Other court documents show a troubled family life. His father, Thomas J. Lane Jr., was charged with domestic violence, assault, kidnapping and theft and served time in jail.

And mother Sarah A. Nolan was charged with domestic violence in 1995 and convicted of disorderly conduct.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57388330/violent-past-for-ohio-shooting-suspect/

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Council Members Push NYPD Reform to Curb Stop-and-Frisk Practice

A coalition of City Council members and advocates led by Councilman Jumaane Williams of Brooklyn introduced Wednesday a package of police reform bills the group says will bring greater accountability to the NYPD.

The elected officials and advocates who stood outside City Hall on Wednesday form a group called Communities United For Police Reform, which intends to make police reform a major issue in the upcoming mayoral election.

The coalition took aim at the NYPD's stop-and-frisk practices, which reached a record high in 2011 when police conducted more than 684,000 stops. Eighty-seven percent of people stopped were either black or Latino.

"We represent the communities that stop-and-frisk and police accountability are huge issues in," Williams said, "and what we're telling you is, these tools are being abused in our community, and they're not working."

Last year, stop and frisks led to the confiscation of 819 guns, which amounts to about one tenth of one percent of all stop-and-frisks the department conducted in 2011.

http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/wnyc-news-blog/2012/feb/29/council-members-tout-legislation-aimed-nypd-accountability/#

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Connecticut

New Haven sees second murder free month

Wednesday marked the end of New Haven's second-straight month without a homicide, an interval not seen since summer 2009.

The number of violent crimes is down citywide by more than 20 percent compared to this time last year, according to data from the New Haven Police Department. But city and police officials said it is still too early to tell what role, if any, the community policing strategies implemented in the past three months by NHPD Chief Dean Esserman have played in the drop.

“We've implemented many strategic changes, and there are more cops walking the beat, so I think it would be unwise to specifically attribute [the drop in violent crime] to any one thing,” NHPD spokesman David Hartman said. “What we do know is that we have a new chief, a new direction, and have zero homicides to date this year.”

While Hartman said the statistics so far this year are promising, he stressed that “statistics are simply statistics” and rarely provide an insightful look into the city's crime situation. Since the statistics can change instantly, it would be “arrogant or foolish” to declare the department's community policing efforts successful yet, he added.

Hartman could not immediately supply detailed statistics of New Haven crime in February, but in January, the violent crime rate was 28.7 percent below the rate in January 2011. This figure includes a 29.9 percent drop in robberies and a 16.7 percent decrease in assaults.

http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2012/mar/01/new-haven-sees-second-murder-free-month/

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Feb 29, 2012

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Partial 9/11 remains cremated, dumped in landfill, Pentagon says

A report says unidentifiable fragments were disposed of by a contractor used by the military's key mortuary, already criticized over its mishandling of remains.

Partial remains of some people killed in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were cremated and dumped in a landfill, according to a Pentagon report released Tuesday that raised new concerns about the military facility handling most of America's war dead.

Officials at the Dover Air Force Base mortuary in Delaware gave a biomedical waste disposal contractor unidentified human remains recovered after a hijacked passenger jet was flown into the Pentagon, killing 184 people, and another hijacked plane crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pa., killing 40 more.

The contractor incinerated the remains and disposed of them in a landfill, the Pentagon report said. Neither the contractor nor the location of the landfill was identified in the report, and it wasn't immediately clear how many sets of remains were handled in this manner. Nor was it clear whether the remains were of Sept. 11 victims, hijackers or both.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-dover-mortuary-20120229,0,7045861,print.story

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Doctor charged in nation's largest healthcare fraud scam

Dr. Jacques Roy of Texas is accused of bilking Medicare of nearly $375 million by recruiting homeless and other fake patients to sign for care that wasn't provided.

Federal law enforcement officials announced charges in the largest healthcare fraud scam in the nation's history, indicting a Dallas-area physician for purportedly bilking Medicare of nearly $375 million after he reportedly sent out "recruiters" to round up patients and get them to sign for treatments he never provided.

The Medicare billings piled up by Dr. Jacques Roy grew so large over the last five years that the situation left outside experts wondering Tuesday why it took prosecutors so long to notice.

"To get that kind of money, you'd need to be treating a million people," said Andrew Selesnick, a Los Angeles lawyer who represents physicians. "You'd have to have 30 locations and tons of people going through them."

The arrest of the Canadian-born doctor, a physician for nearly 30 years, comes at a time when healthcare fraud is sharply increasing, with fewer people able to afford doctor visits and Medicare and other government programs paying less in reimbursements.

http://www.latimes.com/health/la-na-medicare-fraud-20120229,0,4583045,print.story

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Slaves helped build U.S. Capitol: The irony is officially noted

A slave-quarried block of sandstone that once was part of the Capitol was dedicated in the Capitol Visitor Center's Emancipation Hall.

“For too long, the sacrifice of men and women who built this temple of democracy were overlooked; their toil forgotten; their story ignored or denied, and their voices silenced in the pages of history,'' House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco said at the ceremony. "Yet today, we join together to strive to right this wrong of our past, to honor the sacrifice of these laborers, to lay down a marker of gratitude and respect for those who built the walls of the Capitol.''

Legislation also has been introduced calling for the design and placement in the visitors center of an "unknown slave" statue, to further recognize the contributions of slaves in building the Capitol.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-capitol-slaves-20120228,0,957869.story

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Ohio school shooting suspect identified, heads to court today

T.J. Lane, the teenager being held as the gunman in the deadly Ohio school shooting, is scheduled to have a proceeding in juvenile court on Tuesday afternoon, according to lawyers familiar with the case.

The appearance is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Eastern time in Geauga County Juvenile Court. Lane has been in custody since Monday's shooting spree at Chardon High School, which has claimed two students' lives. The usual procedure is for a teenage suspect to be treated as a juvenile until a decision is made by prosecutors on whether to charge him or her as an adult, one attorney said.

Lane, 17, is being represented by family attorney Robert Farinacci, who identified his client in a statement released to the media overnight, before the second victim died.

“The family wanted me to convey to the citizens of Geauga County and northeastern Ohio that the family is devastated by this most recent event,” Farinacci said. “They want to give their most heartfelt and sincere condolences to the family of the young man who passed and their continuing prayers are with all those who were injured."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-ohio-shooter-named-20120228,0,5909788,print.story

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Third student dies after shooting in suburban Ohio

A third student wounded in Monday's shooting spree at a high school in suburban Ohio has died, hospital officials said Tuesday.

Two students remain hospitalized in serious or critical condition.

Demetrius Hewlin, the third student to die, was among five students shot Monday morning when a teenage gunman opened fire inside the Chardon High School cafeteria. The town is about 30 miles east of Cleveland.

Hewlin's family issued a statement praising their son and asking for privacy.

“We are very saddened by the loss of our son and others in our Chardon community,” the statement read.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-third-student-dies-20120228,0,7862080,print.story

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Victory, and defeat, in the war on drugs

Colombian cartels settled a pay dispute with Mexican smugglers, and that made Mexican organized crime what it is today — bigger, richer and much more dangerous

If the often-frustrating 40-year war on drugs has taught us anything, it is that even success can have dangerous downsides. Here's an example I came across in researching a book on the downfall of the Cali cartel.

It all started in the summer of 1989, in the northeast San Fernando Valley. But first some background:

Throughout the 1980s, Mexican smugglers were traditionally paid as couriers for hire by the Colombian cartels. They transported cocaine across the U.S. border for commissions that started as low as 20% of a load's wholesale value. As the flow of drugs increased, so did pressure to raise that commission to 30%, then 35%, 40% and more, until the Colombians said: " No mas ." No more.

The go-to guy in Mexico for both of Colombia's cartel giants — Pablo Escobar's Medellin organization and his fast-growing Cali rivals — was Amado Carrillo Fuentes in the Tex-Mex border town of Juarez. He was a flashy, vain and hard-drinking crime boss who already had amassed a small fortune moving marijuana across the border.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rempel-drug-wars-20120229,0,7783945,print.story

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Airport X-ray machines are safe for passengers, report says

In drawing his conclusion, Carlton Mann, an assistant inspector general, cited previous scientific findings.

They include a Johns Hopkins University assessment in August 2010 that said a passenger would have to be screened 47 times a day for a year to exceed yearly limits of radiation set by the American National Standards Institute.

The Transportation Security Administration has maintained that the X-ray, or "backscatter," machines are safe since it began deploying them in March 2010.

Currently, there are 247 backscatter machines at 39 airports. The rest of the 630 full-body scanners at 150 airports use millimeter-wave technology, which isn't under scrutiny.

http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/story/2012-02-28/Airport-X-ray-machines-are-safe-for-passengers-report-says/53292660/1

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California

Walnut Creek police reorganization: More police downtown, less traffic enforcement

WALNUT CREEK -- A reorganization of the city's police department will mean no more dedicated traffic cops, scaled back school outreach and more officers assigned to downtown.

The reorganization, announced Tuesday, is necessary in the short term to better serve the entire community, Chief of Police Joel Bryden said.

"We are trying to be creative with the resources we have and make sure our critical needs are being addressed," Bryden said.

A community policing team will be refocused on the downtown, allowing the city to continue the stepped-up enforcement of the past few weeks after a string of highly publicized violent incidents downtown.

"With a downtown this vibrant and lively, we need to put our resources where they are most needed," he said.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/bay-area-news/ci_20062941

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Feb 28 2012

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Seattle mayor declares 'public safety emergency'

Nobody's ready to start talking about the "mean streets" of Seattle. But an alarming spike in street violence in this usually mellow city has everyone running scared. Mayor Mike McGinn, calling the increase a “public safety emergency,” pledged Monday to beef up police patrols and urged citizens to help combat lawlessness in their neighborhoods.

“This is an issue that requires more than just a police response,” McGinn said at a community meeting in the city's hard-hit Rainier Beach neighborhood, one of several hit by killings this year. Many of the nine slayings so far this year remain unsolved.

“I cannot emphasize enough that our response to crime and safety in our communities is dependent upon a very strong partnership between city government and the community,” he said. “Everyone who lives here, who works here, who shops here, and who comes here to enjoy what Seattle has to offer deserves to feel safe and secure.”

Seattle over the years has suffered the same kind of street violence, including gang activity, that plagues urban communities everywhere, but the numbers this year for a city of its size have been worrying.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-seattle-violence-20120227,0,3741339.story

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1 killed, 4 injured in Ohio school shooting

A teenager is in custody after the rampage near Cleveland.

A routine start to a school day, with breakfast in the cafeteria and students shuffling to class, turned into chaos and tragedy Monday when a gunman opened fire, killing one student and wounding four others at a suburban Ohio high school. A teenage suspect was arrested half a mile away.

The shooting began about 7:30 a.m. at Chardon High School, about 30 miles outside Cleveland. Students told reporters that the gunman appeared to be targeting specific classmates when he walked into the cafeteria and began firing a handgun. Victims were found in at least three areas, police said. Authorities did not identify the suspect because he is a juvenile. His motive was unclear.

Loud pops rang through the cafeteria and hallways and sent students scurrying for safety. One teacher reportedly grabbed a wounded student and pulled him to safety while others barricaded their rooms. Another finally forced the gunman to leave the building, officials said.

"Everybody just started running," Megan Hennessy, 17, told the Associated Press. She said she was in class when she heard the gunshots. "Everyone was running and screaming down the hallway."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-ohio-school-shooting-20120228,0,1282049,print.story

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Connecticut

A Community Cop Assumes National Post

As he was sworn in as president of the National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers, patrolman Shafiq Abdussabur floated plans to give fellow cops a new title: “tutor.”

Abdussabur made his remarks after he placed his hand on the Koran and was sworn in before 40 friends, family members, fellow officers, and officials including U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal.

The ceremony took place Saturday afternoon in a private room at the Greek Olive restaurant on Sargent Drive. It was hosted by the New Haven Guardians, a fraternal organization of Elm City African-American officers that Abdussabur helped to found in 2005.

That organization will greatly expand the number of officers working as tutors to kids in the neighborhood this summer, Abdussabur said.

“He's the face of community policing,” city street outreach worker Doug Bethea said at the swearing-in. “He's the most outstanding officer on the force, the one troubled kids trust the most.”

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/the_face_of_community_polic/id_44720

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Pennsylvania

Notable positives seen in area law enforcement

For starters, the quality of community policing is far superior to what it was when I launched a reportorial career in the mid-1960s. Cops today are better trained and better equipped. The level of education is higher. The overall professionalism is many notches above what you would have found 45 to 50 years ago.

"This is your gun, this is your badge. Go get 'em'' was sometimes the order after Mayor Blotzo hired cousin Fester. Some cops that I saw in action years ago put their lives in danger taking coins out of parking meters. No, Fester, don't walk in traffic while pushing the coin cart.

State police then and now received academy-level training. The challenge always has been finding the money for the number of state troopers necessary to do the major highway patrolling, major criminal investigations and also respond to the less serious issues in those towns without local police.

http://citizensvoice.com/news/notable-positives-seen-in-area-law-enforcement-1.1277949#axzz1ng3OSbL9

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Spike in gun violence means more police patrols, but community's help needed, too, says Seattle mayor

McGinn was speaking at a news conference at the Rainier Vista Boys & Girls Club, where Seattle City Councilmember Bruce Harrell said that people need to pay attention to things going on in their neighborhoods. He suggested block watch-type groups walking around their neighborhoods.

“This is our community. This is where we jog, this is where we exercise, this is where we barbecue. This is home to many of us,” Harrell said. ”I'm not afraid of a lot, but I'm afraid of a bullet.”

Harrell said that he will start holding meetings for the city's Public Safety, Civil Rights, and Technology Committee in the community, the next one on March 7. He wants to hear ideas on how to address the growing street violence.

http://today.seattletimes.com/2012/02/seattle-mayor-more-police-patrols-in-response-to-increase-in-violent-crime/

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Feb 27, 2012

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Young killers serving life without parole may get chance at freedom

The Supreme Court, in a case involving two 14-year-olds, will consider whether such sentences are cruel and unusual. A California bill allowing parole for juvenile murderers will be addressed this week.

She started leaving home at 13, and soon she was gone for good. The streets drew her, the Barrio Pobre gang took her in.

She does not deny that at 16 she was there in Long Beach the night her boyfriend killed a younger girl in a gang dispute over a piece of jewelry.

Now she is 37, and though two decades have passed, Elizabeth Lozano still looks young — short, thin, with long black hair and expressive eyes. Even in her prison blues, she radiates youth, and she has won acclaim for reaching out to help teenagers in prison and others who are at risk of ending up there.

She was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of ever being released, one of at least 2,500 inmates nationwide who were convicted of murder as juveniles, with no chance of parole.

"You feel hopeless," she said, of having the jail door slammed shut on someone so young. "The smell, the noise. You feel like you are going to die in here."

But now the U.S. Supreme Court and state lawmakers in Sacramento may give some of these inmates another chance. The court will hear oral arguments March 20, in two cases involving 14-year-olds, on whether it is unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment to put young juvenile murderers in prison without hope of release.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-court-juveniles-20120226,0,7583931,print.story

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Fighting L.A.'s gangs with families

Officials say L.A. Deputy Mayor Guillermo Cespedes' effort, known as the Gang Reduction and Youth Development program, is working.

In a large conference room at City Hall East, more than 100 gang-intervention workers gathered last week to hear about a new approach to heading off gang violence and the destruction it causes. They had come to hear a family tell its story.

The mother did most of the talking, guided by a counselor. She was there with two of her children, a son and a daughter, and they'd been through the wringer. An older daughter had gotten in trouble, deeper and deeper. She'd neglected her schoolwork and fought back when her parents tried to discipline her. She ran away from home, got pregnant. "The road she was on," the mother said, "was not good."

As the mother and father became increasingly preoccupied with trying to set their older daughter straight, they had less time to spend with their younger children, and soon those two began to show signs of trouble as well. Their grades dropped; the boy's interest in sports flagged.

Gripped by the sense that they were losing control, the parents called for help. It came in the form of a local organization, whose counselor dove into the life of this young family, escorting the kids to school, arranging for tutors, counseling the parents. Slowly, life settled down. The son got glasses, started doing his homework and brought up his grades; the younger daughter joined a program for future executives and thrived.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-newton-column-gang-intervention-20120227,0,1828923,print.column

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On Guard Against WMD
Inside the Biological Countermeasures Unit, Part 2

Part 2 of an interview with Special Agent Edward You of the Biological Countermeasures Unit in the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Directorate.

Q: What other responsibilities do WMD coordinators have?

Mr. You: At the local level, WMD coordinators act as resources for our partners, and they also engage in threat assessments and investigations. Coordinators are dedicated professionals who have their own career path within the FBI, and they go through an extensive training and certification program. With regard to training, we have partnered with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide training locally, regionally, and internationally. We are able to educate the scientific community about threats and provide situational awareness about security issues that may not have been considered. In turn, the scientific community advises law enforcement about the current state of the field and assists us in identifying over-the-horizon risks. The life sciences field is advancing so rapidly that it is difficult to stay current. We rely on the expertise of our business and academic partners to ensure that our agency is addressing issues appropriately and effectively. Synthetic biology is a case in point.

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2012/february/wmd_022412/wmd_022412

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