NEWARK — A year after legislation took effect to curb the growing prison population, the sweeping sentencing reform was neither the boon its proponents anticipated nor the bust some judges and jail administrators feared.

House Bill 86, which took effect on Sept. 30, 2011, promised to reduce the prison population by 3,500 and save taxpayers up to $46.2 million by fiscal year 2015. More than a year into its reforms, prison officials are underwhelmed somewhat by reductions in population, said Linda Janes, chief of staff with the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

“We certainly have seen some impact thus far, but not quite what we anticipated,” Janes said.

The legislation had a number of cost-cutting provisions, including raising dollar-amount thresholds for theft offenses; encouraging probation or local incarceration for first-time offenders and those who don't pay child support; and capping some third-degree felonies at three years instead of five. It costs about $68.14 to house an inmate in prison for a day, Janes said.

Ohio judges have reduced the average number of people sent to prison by more than 100 offenders each month compared to the year before House Bill 86 took effect, according to Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction data.

http://www.coshoctontribune.com/article/20121125/NEWS01/311250040/Ohio-prison-reductions-from-reforms-slow-steady?nclick_check=1

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Nov 24, 2012

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After Sandy's deluge, mold and dust are the threats

From his perch on top of his father's house in Breezy Point, N.Y., Ken Court can see an array of health disasters in the making.

“There are asbestos roofs that have collapsed near the ocean,” says Court, a 52-year-old roofer. “There is a lot of dust. You see people walking around with masks on. You use the hand cleaners all day long.”

Breezy Point sits at the tip of the peninsula jutting into the waters south of Brooklyn where Jamaica Bay, New York Bay and the Atlantic Ocean come together. Much of the close-knit, blue-collar neighborhood was destroyed when Superstorm Sandy hit three weeks ago – swamped in the storm surge, roofs ripped by flailing winds or burned to the ground in a six-alarm fire that took out block after block of homes.

Now it's one of the last places left without power or clean water, with no ETA on when either will be restored. And as Court works day in and day out to clean up the mess, he sees long-term trouble wherever he looks.

http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/25/15341592-after-sandys-deluge-mold-and-dust-are-the-threats?lite

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Nov 23, 2012

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Consumer group posts annual report on toy safety

U.S. PIRG's "Trouble in Toyland" report points out several popular toys that may pose safety risks to children.

Days before the annual mob scene that is Black Friday, a consumer advocacy group urged parents to take a closer look at the Christmas toys they're gearing up to buy.

Several popular products may pose safety risks to children, according to the 27th annual "Trouble in Toyland" report from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, which visited toy chains, malls and dollar stores this fall looking for potentially dangerous playthings.

Among the findings that caused concern: plastic play food sold at Wal-Mart and Toys-R-Us that could constitute a choking hazard; balloons from a dollar store marketed to 1-year-olds, even though experts recommend that balloons be restricted to children older than age 8; and a Dora the Explorer guitar at Target that may pose a hearing risk with prolonged exposure.

One action figure violated federal legal lead standards of 100 parts per million, according to the group. Powerful small magnets classified as "finger fidget" toys raised concerns as well because of the risk of internal injuries if eaten. Several products with small parts weren't properly labeled with warning notices.

But overall, U.S. PIRG concluded that new laws — including the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 — had "made great strides in toy safety." Investigators did not find any toys that exceeded federal limits on phthalates.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-toy-safety-20121121,0,3024883.story

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Nov 22, 2012

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Light sentences throw Ohio anarchist bridge-bomb case for a loop

Lighter-than-expected sentences handed down Tuesday for three men convicted of trying to bomb an Ohio bridge has a fourth defendant rethinking his plea deal with the government.

On April 30 -- on the eve of major leftist rallies in Chicago and elsewhere around the U.S. to protest corporations and the government -- five men affiliated with the Occupy movement tried to use an FBI-supplied dummy bomb to blow up a highway bridge in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Prosecutors called it a dangerous anarchist plot that had to be severely punished to deter any would-be imitators.

The defense said a government-paid confidential informant manipulated five impressionable, down-on-their-luck men into an attack they never would have attempted without his help.

In the end, U.S. District Court Judge David D. Dowd Jr. split the difference: He agreed to strengthen three defendants' sentences with a terror enhancement, but then handed down terms Tuesday in Akron significantly lighter than what federal prosecutors had sought.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-sentences-ohio-bridge-bombing-20121121,0,6014108.story

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Nov 21, 2012

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Los Angeles

News of terror plot in the Inland Empire develops, information continues to surface

The men, from throughout the Inland Empire, had plotted for months to join al-Qaida in Afghanistan and planned to carry out terrorist acts on government facilities and kill members of the armed forces overseas, according to a criminal complaint filed by the FBI.

The trio had hoped to join another man - Sohiel Omar Kabir, 34, of Pomona - who had already traveled to Afghanistan and was arranging contacts with the terrorist organizations. Kabir, an Afghanistan native, served in the U.S. Air Force from 2000 to 2001.

Ralph Deleon, 23, of Ontario and a native of the Philippines; Miguel Alejandro Santana Vidriales, 21, of Upland; and Arifeen David Gojali, 21, of Riverside were arrested Friday in Chino. They appeared Monday in Riverside federal court for a status hearing.

The men had planned to "provide material support to terrorists and (were) making arrangements to join al-Qaida or the Taliban in Afghanistan to kill U.S. soldiers and target U.S. interests overseas," said Bill Lewis, assistant director of the FBI's Los Angeles field office.

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_22033178/inland-empire-terror-plot-thickens-information-continues-surface

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Washington, DC

New bill would oversee government access to your email

Federal law enforcement agencies soon may have their hands tied when it comes to accessing your email and other personal data if a new bill currently making its way through Congress becomes law.

Laws governing the privacy of your emails were drafted in the mid-1980s, long before AOL and Gmail. But efforts to update those rules have some fearing the government's fingers will be flipping through their digital mail.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has drafted a substitute bill for the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which was originally written in 1986 long before things like electronic archiving and cloud storage. The update, which will be under review next Thursday, modernizes rules for police seeking to obtain private email for investigative purposes -- rules that had been surprisingly lax.

“Technology [today] is fundamentally different than anything thought of in the 80s,” said Alan Butler, an advisory counsel member with the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “The standard amount of storage was much smaller when the bill was originally written,” he told FoxNews.com.

'The statute has not undergone a significant revision since it was enacted in 1986 -- light years ago in Internet time.'

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2012/11/21/e-mail-privacy-debate-over-senate-communications-bill/

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Akaska

Staffing declines stall city's community policing plans

Members of the Anchorage police are trying to do their jobs with 34 fewer sworn officers than were on the payroll in 2009, limiting progress of a plan to increase community policing.

The number of officers peaked at 408 in January of 2009, according to information provided by Chief Mark Mew. That includes recruits in training. The numbers have been pared down since then through lean city budgets promoted by Mayor Dan Sullivan since he took office four years ago. In mid-October, the department had 374 officers.

If you discount the recruits until they're fully operational -- which Sullivan says is the best way to look at the statistics -- the number of officers peaked in January of 2010 at 380 and was at 365 at the end of September.

Either way, the declining numbers of officers come at a time when the department's long-term goal is to shift to a more community-based policing approach that calls for adding to the force: assigning officers regularly to the same parts of town and having them participate in community events and neighborhood meetings to learn about and help solve problems.

http://www.adn.com/2012/11/03/2681799/staffing-declines-stall-citys.html

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From the FBI

Making the Ultimate Sacrifice - Report on Law Enforcement Officer Deaths Released

Tragically, during 2011, 72 law enforcement officers from around the nation were killed in the line of duty, while another 53 officers died in accidents while performing their duties. And 54,774 officers were assaulted in the line of duty…all according to our just-released annual report Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted, 2011 .

Here's a look at some of the data collected for this report:

• While the 72 officers killed in the line of duty came from city, university and college, county, state, tribal, and federal agencies, the majority (50) were employed by city police departments.
  
  
• The average age of the officers feloniously killed was 38, while their average length of service was 12 years. Forty-nine of these officers were slain while on assigned vehicle patrol.
  
  
• Most of the 72 officers slain were killed with firearms, and 51 of these officers were wearing body armor at the time of their murders.
  
  
• Of the 53 officers who died accidentally, 39 were killed as a result of vehicle-related accidents.
  
  
• The rate of officer assaults in 2011 was 10.2 per 100 sworn officers.

Our Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA) report is intended to provide law enforcement agencies with detailed descriptions of circumstances leading to officer fatalities. This data can then be incorporated into police training programs to help officers stay safe during similar situations.

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Nov 20, 2012

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Los Angeles

Feds arrest four Inland Empire men in terrorism plot

Four Inland Empire men were arrested Monday in connection to a terrorist plot that was foiled by federal officials.

Sohiel Omar Kabir, 34, an Afghanistan native and former resident of Pomona; Ralph Deleon, 23, of Ontario and a native of the Philippines; Miguel Alejandro Santana Vidriales 21, of Upland; and Arifeen David Gojali, 21, of Riverside, a United States citizen, were arrested with plotting to join Al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan in hopes of killing Americans.

According to the complaint that was filed in U.S. District Court in the Central District of California, the four conspired to provide material support to terrorists in preparation for or in carrying out acts of terrorism.

The charges in the criminal complaint are conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim, or injure persons and damage property in a foreign country, killing and attempting to kill officers and employees of the United States, killing nationals of the United States, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction outside the United States; and bombing places of public use and government facilities.

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_22031157/feds-arrest-four-inland-empire-men-terrorism-plot

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New York City

Police Hunt Serial Killer of Brooklyn Shopkeepers

Authorities are searching for a possible serial killer who has gunned down three Brooklyn business owners since the summer, and police believe the victims could have been targeted because they were Middle Eastern.

Detectives who specialize in hate crimes and FBI analysts who specialize in behavioral analysis have joined the case, authorities said.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Monday that police are trying to identify a tall, balding man with a mustache who was seen on surveillance video wearing an overcoat and carrying a black duffel bag near the scene of the latest shooting. NBC 4 New York has learned that the same man was also seen on video near the second shooting in August.

Authorities say two other possible witnesses seen on video have been questioned and released. The latest victim, 78-year-old Rahmatollah Vahidipour, a Jewish man from Iran, was killed in his women's clothing boutique on Flatbush Avenue Friday.

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Serial-Killer-Brooklyn-Store-Shopkeeper-Clothing-New-York-City-Police-180124891.html

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Ohio

3 of 5 defendants face sentencing in northeast Ohio in unsuccessful bridge bombing plot

AKRON, Ohio — Three men who pleaded guilty in an unsuccessful plot to bomb a highway bridge in Ohio face sentencing before a judge who agreed with prosecutors that they should be punished as terrorists.

Alleged ringleader Douglas Wright, 26, could face more than 30 years in prison. Guidelines call for shorter sentences for the other two men.

U.S. District Judge David Dowd scheduled sentencing Tuesday morning for Wright, of Indianapolis; Connor Stevens, 20, of Berea in suburban Cleveland; and Brandon Baxter, 20, of Lakewood, also in suburban Cleveland.

A fourth defendant will be sentenced on Wednesday and a fifth is undergoing a psychiatric exam.

Stevens, Baxter and Wright pleaded guilty to conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction, knowingly attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to damage property with explosives. There was no plea deal that would have reduced their sentences.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/3-of-5-defendants-face-sentencing-in-northeast-ohio-in-unsuccessful-bridge-bombing-plot.html

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Nov 19, 2012

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Special team offers aid to emergency helpers

Trained ears open to police, fire crews

It's hardest when the victims are children. Monday, there were three of them – crowded into the back seat of a car – with their grandmother and uncle. All five were dead. It was the kind of crime scene no police officer or firefighter wants to visit.

“Nobody who was on Harvest woke up that morning thinking they were going to respond to that call,” said John Lewton, a trauma intervention counselor and owner of Workplace Resources. “Some people, if they would have known, would have called off sick. And I don't blame them.”

It didn't take long for the first police and fire crews on scene at 5142 Harvest Lane on Monday to know, generally, what they were dealing with.

Two hoses were stretched from the exhaust of a running truck, parked inside the garage, pumping toxic fumes into the rear passenger window of the blue Honda Civic where the children – Paige Hayes, 10, Logan Hayes, 7, and Madalyn Hayes, 5 – and the adults – Sandy Ford, 56, and Andy Ford, 32 – sat. All died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

http://www.toledoblade.com/Police-Fire/2012/11/19/Special-team-offers-aid-to-emergency-helpers.html

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