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Dec 1, 2013

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HIV no longer considered death sentence

Justin Goforth was just a 26-year-old nursing student when he had unprotected sex with another man and, as a result, got the diagnosis that changed his life.

"I started to feel like I had the flu -- aches, pains, chills, fever, swollen lymph nodes, that kind of thing -- and so I went to my doctor ... we did a viral load test, which was rare back then ... and he called me and said, you know, it came back (HIV) positive."

It was 1992. Goforth's doctor immediately sent him to the National Institutes of Health, where research was being done, but treatment options were, at the time, still few.

Patients were being treated with AZT, the first drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1987 to treat HIV/AIDS in the United States -- by then known for its serious, even life-threatening side effects.

The reality of the diagnosis set in.

"I was so sick," Goforth says. "I was sitting silently and crying because of my circumstance ... and the nurse came over and was trying to console me, I believe, and said ... 'Because you were just infected, you may have, you know, six or eight years before you die.'

"I think she was trying to cheer me up," he says. "Didn't work very well, but that's just a good commentary on where we were at the time"

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/01/health/hiv-today/?hpt=he_c1

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California

Commentary

Transformation of Community Policing Into Military Policing Sanctions Government Violence

What goes around comes around . . . and around, and around.

Last month, the day after I left Santa Rosa, Calif., a 13-year-old boy carrying a toy replica of an AK-47 was shot and killed on the outskirts of that town by a Sonoma County deputy sheriff with a reputation for being trigger-happy. The officer had ordered the boy to drop the “gun,” then in a matter of two or three seconds opened fire, giving him no chance to comply.

This is not an isolated incident, which is why it's yet one more tragedy I can't get out of my mind — one more logical consequence of the simplistic militarism and mission creep that's eating us alive. This is gun culture running unchecked from boyhood to manhood, permeating national policy both geopolitically and domestically. This is the trivialization of peace. It results in the ongoing murder of the innocent, both at home and abroad, at the hands of government as well as criminals and terrorists.

“That's America, we say, as news of the latest massacre breaks,” Henry Porter wrote in September in the U.K. Observer. The massacre of the moment was lone gunman Aaron Alexis' slaying of 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard.

“But what,” Porter asked, “if we no longer thought of this as just a problem for America and, instead, viewed it as an international humanitarian crisis — a quasi civil war, if you like, that calls for outside intervention?”

This begins to get at the American lunacy, its out-of-control certainty that authorized violence has things under control. We need some kind of outside intervention. I fear the death of Andy Lopez in Santa Rosa won't bring about the fundamental changes we need, any more than the tragedies that preceded it. We lack systems capable of holistic assessment of our problems; we lack systems that are not part of the problem.

http://truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/18341-transformation-of-community-policing-into-military-policing-sanctions-government-violence

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Massachusetts

Opinion

Immigrants need licenses, not detention

Immigration reform is dead — or maybe not, depending on whom you talk to.

Yet, in a refreshing response to Washington political sclerosis, some Massachusetts lawmakers are following the lead of a handful of states that have recently implemented measures to fill the void left by the ghost of immigration reform.

Two very different bills are in play at the State House, but both draw on the fundamental, yet controversial, premise that undocumented immigrants are a fact of life and require sensible policies, rather than purely exclusionary or hostile treatment. This is the same notion that animated the recent nationwide immigration debate — the growing awareness that longstanding denial about undocumented immigrants is getting the country nowhere.

One widely supported Massachusetts reform is a rebuttal to the Secure Communities program, which has the unintended consequence of making many communities less secure. Secure Communities gives federal immigration officials the authority to insinuate themselves into local police enforcement. This is the program mostly responsible for the highest rate of deportations ever in the country — 400,000 a year. Since Massachusetts officially implemented it last May, and immigrant communities became aware that the local police at times have become an extension of federal enforcement, Secure Communities has cast a pall in community policing.

Immigrants' fear of the police breeds less cooperation and less public safety. A recent national report confirms Latino immigrants are less likely to contact police because of their involvement in immigration enforcement: More than 4 in 10 Latinos are less likely to report a crime.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2013/12/01/immigrants-mass-need-licenses-not-detention/f713lARy7FAr87m1TC5hGP/story.html

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Nov 30, 2013

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North Korea

Report: Accused of spying, American held in North Korea issues 'apology'

(CNN) -- An 85-year-old American man detained in North Korea has apologized for his actions, including for killing troops and civilians during the Korean War, North Korea's state-run news agency reported Saturday.

KCNA released a statement it claimed was from Merrill Newman -- a Palo Alto, California man who, his family says, has been held in North Korea for more than 30 days.

"After I killed so many civilians and (North Korean) soldiers and destroyed strategic objects in the DPRK during the Korean War, I committed indelible offensive acts against the DPRK government and Korean people," Newman said, according to the "apology" reported by KCNA.

His statement ends: "If I go back to (the) USA, I will tell the true features of the DPRK and the life the Korean people are leading."

In addition to this statement, KCNA ran a story alleging Newman came to North Korea with a tourist group in October and afterward "perpetrated acts of infringing upon the dignity and sovereignty of the DPRK and slandering its socialist system."

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/29/world/asia/north-korea-american-detained/

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Connecticut

Newtown killer's father 'broken,' family stigmatized

Adam Lanza's aunt asks, "Was there something more we could have done? Did we miss the signs?"

Adam Lanza's father remains "broken" and family members are "shaken to the core" and stigmatized a year after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, his aunt has told a British newspaper.

"Peter has only spoken about it to a very, very small number of people, including my husband, Michael, his brother, as they are very close," Lanza's sister-in-law, Marsha, told the Daily Mail from her home in Crystal Lake, Ill. "'Peter is a changed man. He's broken. How can you ever begin to try and deal with that? It's just impossible."

Dec. 14 marks the first anniversary of Adam Lanza's spree. He first killed his mother, Nancy, in her bed, and then slaughtered 20 first-graders and six educators at the school in Newtown, Conn., before taking his own life.

Investigators said the antisocial 20-year-old was obsessed with violent video games and mass murders. He was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, an autism-spectrum disorder not associated with violence.

Peter and Nancy Lanza divorced in 2001, but he had regular contact with Adam until their relationship deteriorated. He last spoke with his son in 2010.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/29/newtown-adam-lanza-family/3785405/

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Pennsylvania

In North Philly, community policing is at heart of crime reduction

IT WAS ABOUT 8 o'clock Tuesday night, and the chilly, rain-soaked streets of North Philadelphia's 39th Police District were nearly empty as Officer Michael Levin's Crown Vic crept across the blacktop.

But Levin, who usually works in bicycle patrol when weather and circumstances permit, was on the street anyway, keeping a watchful eye on the swaths of North Philadelphia, Nicetown, Germantown and East Falls that make up the district headquartered at 22nd Street and Hunting Park Avenue.

On this night, Levin, 28, a seven-year veteran who's spent all those years in the 39th, reflected on community policing - a strategy favored by Capt. Michael Craighead, who took command of the district about a year ago.

"Bike patrol is really good for community relations. People come up and thank you. It's a real good deterrent presence," Levin said. "The community needs us and we need them."

Police statistics show that shootings in the 39th District have dropped about 40 percent over last year. The district has had 63 shootings, compared with 106 in the same period last year.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20131201_In_North_Philly__community_policing_is_at_heart_of_crime_reduction.html

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Nov 29, 2013

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California jail violence rises on reforms

County jails that account for the vast majority of local inmates in California have seen a marked increase in violence since they began housing thousands of offenders who previously would have gone to state prisons.

Many of the 10 counties that account for 70 percent of California's total jail population have experienced a surge in the number of inmate fights and attacks on jail employees, according to assault records requested by The Associated Press.

The spike corresponds to a law championed by Gov. Jerry Brown in which lower-level offenders are sentenced to county jails instead of state prisons. Some jails have seen violence dip, but the trend is toward more assaults since the law took effect on Oct. 1, 2011.

Brown sought realignment of the state's penal system in response to federal court orders requiring the reduction of prison overcrowding as the main way of improving medical and mental health treatment for state inmates. But the change has shifted many of the same problems the state had experienced to local jails.

Nearly 2,000 more jail inmates were assaulted by other inmates in the first year after the realignment law took effect, up about one-third over the previous year, the figures compiled by the AP show. Attacks on jail employees increased by 165 during the same period.

http://www.dailynews.com/general-news/20131128/california-jail-violence-rises-on-reforms

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Ohio

Families of Timothy Russell, Malissa Williams sue Cleveland and police over chase, shooting

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The administrators of the estates of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams — who were killed after a car chase and shooting Nov. 29, 2012 , in which Cleveland police officers fired 137 shots at a mangled Chevy Malibu — sued the city, its police department and officers in federal court Thursday in a wrongful death lawsuit.

The suit in U.S. District Court in Cleveland claims officers used excessive force, supervisors failed to rein in officers during the chase and top administrators provided inadequate supervision and training to officers regarding the department's policies and practices.

Elizabeth Goodwin, the administrator for Williams' estate, and Debra Bodnar, the administrator for Russell's estate, are seeking an undetermined amount of money, plus reforms in the police department. Though the court was closed on Thanksgiving, attorneys filed the suit electronically.

The lawsuit identifies a number of city officials, including Mayor Frank Jackson, Police Chief Michael McGrath and Safety Director Martin Flask, and police officers involved in the chase and shooting. The lawsuit is the latest chapter in year-long legal saga that seeks to determine what took place when 60-some police cruisers chased Russell and Williams for more than 20 miles to the parking lot of Heritage Middle School in East Cleveland and the gunfire that followed. The suit says the pair did not have a gun with them during any part of the pursuit.

The civil complaint not only addresses the individual officers' conduct, but also the systemic failures of the police department.

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/11/families_of_timothy_russell_ma.html

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From the FBI

Latest Hate Crime Statistics -- Annual Report Shows Slight Decease

The FBI has just released its hate crime statistics report for 2012, and the numbers show that we as a nation still have a way to go toward alleviating these crimes that have such a devastating impact on communities.

For the 2012 time frame, law enforcement agencies reported 5,796 hate crime incidents involving 6,718 offenses, down from 2011 figures of 6,222 incidents involving 7,254 offenses. Also during 2012, there were 7,164 hate crime victims reported (which include individuals, businesses, institutions, and society as a whole), down from 7,713 in 2011.

The data contained in Hate Crime Statistics, 2012 is a subset of the information that law enforcement submits to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program . The full hate crime report can be viewed on our website.

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2013/november/annual-hate-crime-statistics-show-slight-decease/annual-hate-crime-statistics-show-slight-decease

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From the Department of Homeland Security

Working Together to Keep Shoppers Safe

Every day, malls around the country work closely with DHS, FBI and state and local law enforcement to keep shoppers safe. This year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is partnering with a number of communities across the state of New Hampshire as part of our If You See Something, Say Something™ campaign and displaying materials encouraging shoppers to report suspicious activity to local authorities.

At the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), homeland security begins with hometown security. We're all safer when everyone is alert and engaged, and that's what the Department's nationwide If You See Something, Say Something™ public awareness campaign is all about. Currently, DHS partners with a number of shopping centers, including the Mall of America , Walmart , Simon Property Group , and the Building Owners and Managers Association, to raise public awareness of indicators of terrorism and terrorism-related crime, and to emphasize the importance of reporting suspicious activity to the proper local law enforcement authorities.

DHS, in partnership with the FBI, regularly communicates with our partners in federal, state, and local government, as well as in the private sector, about the threats facing our Nation. As part of this ongoing engagement, DHS works with the retail and shopping center industries to enhance security and increase preparedness. DHS also participates in training exercises with our retail industry partners to establish readiness while providing support and resources to their ongoing security operations.

http://www.dhs.gov/blog/2013/11/27/working-together-keep-shoppers-safe

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