THREE detectives were slashed with a knife and then attacked by a pitbull dog when they went to carry out a drug search at a house in Co Louth yesterday morning. The incident happened in the rural townland of Sandpit, between Termonfeckin and Drogheda, at around 10am. Gardai from Ardee station arrived at a property with a search warrant. Sources said that a man, originally from Dublin, lashed out at the three men with a number of knives when he answered the front door. [continues 307 words]
You might call it a nascent civil rights movement in response to the new Jim Crow. About 150 people gathered Saturday morning at St. Peter Baptist Church in Glen Allen to discuss mass incarceration, the war on drugs and their effect on the black community. The Virginia Alliance Against Mass Incarceration has scheduled forums Wednesday in Richmond's East End. "The endgame is just public awareness through the community and churches," with the hoped-for result of influencing legislation in the General Assembly, said Jesse Frierson, executive director of the alliance. [continues 718 words]
His political career has gone to pot, up in smoke, down the toilet. Pick your own Cheech and Chong metaphor. Stephen B. Johnson has no choice but to resign from the Richmond School Board after being caught Tuesday at a Richmond International Airport security checkpoint with three marijuana cigarettes. The disclosure of Tuesday's in cident came three months after the revelation that Johnson had sought dates on a pornographic Web site where men cruise for sex. Perhaps an elected official can survive that two-fer in Berkeley, Calif. But even someone as productive and popular as Johnson knew this wasn't going to fly. [continues 397 words]
What happens here stays here. That was the message conveyed to 15-year-old Shebony Carrington by some people who read her heartfelt essay on life in Fairfield Court. To many Times-Dispatch readers, Shebony's description of life in the housing project in Richmond's East End was both tear-inducing and inspira tional for her ability to hold fast to dreams despite her bleak surroundings. She wrote about the drunks, the drug dealers and the people afraid to sit on their porches "because of the shooting and the crazy people around the neighborhood." [continues 476 words]
The Richmond City Council will pore over its cash-strapped budget in search of money for the city's juvenile and adult drug courts. The council heard drug court advocates and participants request help yesterday during an informal meeting in the council chamber. Drug court participant Gene Willis had a ready reply when Councilwoman Reva Trammell asked why the council should find money in its budget for the drug court. "Because it's a life-saving program," he replied. [continues 317 words]
Before three graduates of the Richmond Adult Drug Treatment Court received congratulatory hugs and handshakes, they heard this parable from substance abuse clinician Madeline Berry: A farmer owned an old mule who fell into a well. The farmer heard the mule's entreaties for help but decided neither the mule nor the well was worth saving. So he began filling the well with dirt. As each shovelful plopped on his back, the mule shook off the dirt and took a step up. Fighting panic, the animal kept shaking off dirt and stepping up. Eventually, he climbed out of the well. [continues 433 words]
Before the General Assembly kills the Richmond Adult Drug Court program, perhaps it should hear from people like Maureen Pullian. "Drug Court may not mean anything to you, but to me it's given me another chance at life," Pullian wrote. "See if it was not for Drug Court, I just may have been dead." Richmond Adult Drug Court, which is housed in a suite above the food court at the Sixth Street Marketplace, may fall victim to a cash-strapped state budget. [continues 422 words]
Three weeks removed from her seven-year prison nightmare, Kemba Smith told an audience observing the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday that freedom is not free. "We must remember, freedom is not a gift, but an achievement," said Smith, the former Glen Allen debutante and Hermitage High School graduate who spoke at yesterday's Living the Dream Mass Meeting at the Ashe Center. The celebration featured videotaped remarks by Coretta Scott King, widow of the slain civil rights leader. She thanked Gov. Jim Gilmore for his role in making King's day a distinct Virginia holiday no longer shared with Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. [continues 393 words]
I have been reading your articles concerning the number of drug offenders and other offenders that the Denver Police force is hiring these days. I think I speak for all the citizens of Denver when I say that we only want sober, morally upstanding people breaking into our homes in the middle of the night and killing us on the flimsiest of evidence. Paul Scott Williams, Denver [end]
I have been reading your articles concerning the number of drug offenders and other offenders that the Denver Police force is hiring these days. I think I speak for all the citizens of Denver when I say that we only want sober, morally upstanding people breaking into our homes in the middle of the night and killing us on the flimsiest of evidence. [end]
