Personal Data Will Be Cross-Checked With Terrorism Watch Lists; Risk Profiles to Be Stored for Years The federal government disclosed details yesterday of a border-security program to screen all people who enter and leave the United States, create a terrorism risk profile of each individual and retain that information for up to 40 years. The details, released in a notice published yesterday in the Federal Register, open a new window on the government's broad and often controversial data-collection effort directed at American and foreign travelers, which was implemented after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. [continues 940 words]
Davidson County Sheriff's Office deputies found more than $540,000 in cash hidden in a car traveling south on Interstate 85 Monday. This is the third-largest cash seizure from a traffic stop in the county since 2004. The driver, who was identified only as a New York resident, told officers he was driving a friend's car and was unaware of the cash and the hidden compartment, according to a sheriff's office report. Around 11:45 a.m. deputies with the Interstate Criminal Enforcement Unit stopped the full-sized Mercury sedan for a routine traffic violation. While interviewing the driver, officers said they became suspicious and brought in a K-9 unit to search the car. After further investigation, deputies found a hidden compartment in the rear area under the car where the cash was hidden. [continues 296 words]
The longtime sheriff of Henry County, Va., and 12 former and current deputies have been charged with participating in a drug-trafficking ring in the rural county on the North Carolina border, Drug Enforcement Agency officials said yesterday. Harold F. Cassell, 68, who has been sheriff since 1992, was alerted to the illegal activity but did nothing to stop it, instead making false statements and aiding in money laundering to cover it up, federal officials said. Twenty people, including sworn officers, employees and associates of officers, dealt in illegal drugs, including cocaine, crack, steroids, ketamine and hundreds of pounds of marijuana, over a five-year period beginning in 1998, federal officials said. Participants in the conspiracy also trafficked in seized weapons, including a machine gun, according to a 48-count indictment returned Wednesday in Abingdon and unsealed yesterday. [continues 487 words]
Federal investigators began to suspect that the Sheriff's Department in Henry County, Va., was involved in illegal drug trafficking in 2005, when drug enforcement officials in Philadelphia intercepted a mail package containing the illicit date rape drug Ketamine to a house owned by a sergeant with the department. The package was mailed to William Randall Reed, a private citizen who told federal investigators that he had been the middleman in a scheme to buy and sell drugs with the help of members of the Henry County Sheriff's Department and others. [continues 547 words]
A skyrocketing prison population, spiraling drug crime and juvenile crime rates come under fire in a major study of Chicago-area crime and criminal justice published today. Chicago Metropolis 2020, a business-backed think tank, warns most of the 40,000 prisoners released in Illinois this year are "ill-equipped" for life outside prison. "More than half will likely end up back in prison within three years if present trends continue," the group's 2006 Crime and Justice Index warns. A shortage of rehabilitation programs for inmates, the large distances between downstate prisons and prisoners' Chicago-area roots and a massive increase in parolees help account for the high reoffending rate, the report said. [continues 122 words]
Police's Policy Of Seizing Criminals' Cars Draws Criticism A $10 bag of marijuana cost Jacquelyn Sweet nearly $1,000, with half of that earmarked for the Bradenton Police Department. Sweet, arrested earlier this month on a misdemeanor possession charge, instantly and unwillingly joined a growing list of residents who have had their vehicles seized as part of a little-known city ordinance. A 21-year-old waitress who attends St. Petersburg College, Sweet lost her car, handed over hundreds of dollars to a towing company and found out the hard way that local cities have the right to take cars for even the smallest of crimes. [continues 1032 words]
MEMPHIS -- A Drug Enforcement Administration agent has been indicted on charges of tipping off a former high school classmate who was a target in a drug trafficking investigation. Tommie Purifoy II worked out of the agency's Miami field office and turned himself in to authorities there, authorities said Wednesday. He has been suspended without pay. Purifoy is originally from West Memphis, Ark., and was a police officer in Memphis from 2001 to 2004. He was in Memphis on personal business on Aug. 21 and stopped by the local DEA office during a wiretap operation, according to the indictment. [continues 206 words]
DENVER - Legalizing small amounts of marijuana in Colorado will lead to increased drug trafficking in the state, law enforcement officials said Wednesday. That, at least, was the message Pueblo Police Chief James Billings Jr. and other ranking officers from across the state conveyed at an anti-Amendment 44 press conference on the west steps of the Colorado Capitol Building. Because the initiative on this year's ballot would allow Coloradans to possess less than an ounce of marijuana - but would still leave it illegal to grow, purchase or sell - means people would have to break the law in order to possess the weed. [continues 579 words]
FORT PIERCE - Most of the people committing crimes within the Weed & Seed target area live outside of the program's enforcement parameters, according to reports released Tuesday. Of the 4,130 people arrested since the program started three years ago, about two-thirds, or 2,757 people, live outside the target area, acting Fort Pierce Police Chief Sean Baldwin said in a news release. The remaining 1,373 people live within the target area bounded by Orange Avenue on the south, 17th Street on the east, Juanita Avenue on the north and 33rd Street on the west. [continues 196 words]
Event Seeks to Raise Awareness About the Evils of The Drug. About 250 people -- many of them entire families -- gathered Saturday in Fresno's Tower District for a march and rally against methamphetamine. The highly addictive drug was named recently the No. 1 drug problem in a survey of sheriffs in 48% of counties polled nationwide. "I like to call it the silent killer," the Rev. Bruce Hood, pastor of Feed My Sheep Ministries in Fresno, told reporters as he waited for the march to start. "It's the silent killer because, unlike gang members with guns who go 'bang, bang,' you don't hear any 'bang, bangs' when this drug is destroying lives and communities." [continues 369 words]
BRADENTON -- For years, the Bradenton Police Department has quietly, without judicial review, confiscated hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and property from people they arrested for drug possession and other crimes. The police bypass the courts and confiscate money and property on the spot through a department-created form called the "Contraband Forfeiture Agreement." By signing it, a person agrees to relinquish their property to the police and waive any rights they have to try to get it back through the courts. [continues 1161 words]
Compromise Bill From Legislature Nullified by Ruling A divided Oregon Supreme Court decided Thursday to uphold restrictions that voters approved on police seizures of property and cash connected with illegal activity. Voters barred police agencies from using civil lawsuits to seize and sell property unless it was tied to a criminal conviction of the property owner. The measure also directed proceeds from such sales to drug treatment rather than police operations. Police initiated 1,526 seizures in 2000, but after the measure passed, only 389 in 2001. [continues 671 words]
A Guilty-As-Sin Stoner Beats the Rap, but the Sheriff Won't Discuss the One That Got Away. May 2004, Doug Woods packed up his 1982 Volkswagen Vanagon and, with his trusty pooch Sadie riding shotgun, headed home to Boulder, Colo. He'd spent the previous six months with friends and family in Fremont, Calif., after his mother succumbed to pancreatic cancer. Before hitting the road, though, the 40-year-old bohemian scored a half-ounce of top-shelf bud from a California grower--for a steal, he boasts. [continues 3246 words]
A ballot initiative that aims to make marijuana crimes the single lowest priority for Missoula County authorities - pegged below even jaywalking on the hierarchy of enforcement - has met heavy opposition from adversaries who argue the drug would become more available to young people. But proponents of the measure, dubbed Initiative 2, have accrued an authoritative advocate who recently showed his support in Missoula. Norm Stamper's credentials are impressive. A 34-year veteran police officer with a Ph.D. in behavioral psychology, Stamper served as chief of the Seattle Police Department from 1994 until 2000, and made international headlines during the WTO-related demonstrations, which he says weren't his proudest moments. [continues 1183 words]
Name: Captain Allen Veil Age: 46 Hometown: Yerington Occupation: Law Enforcement: Field Services Commander, Lyon County Sheriff's Office Family: Daughters Veronica, 21, and Erica, 18, both attend the University of Nevada; son Clint, 13, eighth-grader in Yerington; parents John and Mona of Yerington; three brothers, all live in Yerington. Political Background: This is my first campaign for an elected office. What is Lyon County's most pressing law enforcement issue, and what do you intend to do to address it? [continues 876 words]
In 41 states, people accused or convicted of crimes have the legal right to rewrite history. They can have their criminal records expunged, and in theory that means that all traces of their encounters with the justice system will disappear. But enormous commercial databases are fast undoing the societal bargain of expungement, one that used to give people who had committed minor crimes a clean slate and a fresh start. Most states seal at least some records of juvenile offenses. Many states also allow adults arrested for or convicted of minor crimes like possessing marijuana, shoplifting or disorderly conduct to ask a judge, sometimes after a certain amount of time has passed without further trouble, to expunge their records. If the judge agrees, the records are destroyed or sealed. [continues 1203 words]
PONTIAC - Comments by a councilman referring to the criminal element in some neighborhoods as "terrorists" demonize young black men, instead of leading to safer streets, says local activist Quincy Stewart. Stewart called a news conference Thursday at City Hall to refute Joe Hansen's comments, as well as the City Council's plans to ask for funds from the United States Department of Homeland Security to contend with local crime. "I don't want to minimize the effects of crime on anyone, but we have to be careful of this sociopathic mentality of the war on drugs and crime. Our black men are targeted by injecting the word terrorism with youth. It suggests they are evil, menacing .. therefore, you can treat them any way you want to," said Stewart, a teacher at Pontiac Academy for Excellence. He pointed out that when major acts of violence such as the Oklahoma City bombing by Timothy McVeigh or the recent school shootings by white men occurred, the perpetrators weren't deemed terrorists, but mentally unstable. [continues 596 words]
A Cop Is Dead, an Innocent Man May Be on Death Row, and Drug Warriors Keep Knocking Down Doors. Editor's note: Since the publication of this article, a judge of the Pearl River County Circuit Court has ruled that Cory Maye received incompetent legal representation during his sentencing phase, and has ordered a new sentencing hearing. As of September 21, 2006, Cory Maye has been removed from death row. Cory Maye had settled into a chair in front of the television and was drifting off to sleep. [continues 7608 words]
110 Arrests Linked to 9 City Officers in Robbery Probe Top Cook County prosecutors have ordered their staff to drop any case that nine special operations officers had a significant role in handling, which could nullify the arrests of 110 people charged in gun, drug, burglary and violence cases, according to a memo circulated in the Cook County state's attorney's office earlier this month. In addition to cases handled by four Chicago police officers charged with robberies and kidnappings, the memo also directs prosecutors to drop cases handled by five other officers in the special operations unit. [continues 698 words]
CHICAGO -- Top Cook County prosecutors have ordered their staff to drop any case that nine special-operations police officers had a significant role in handling, which could nullify the arrests of 110 people charged in gun, drug, burglary and violence cases, according to a memo circulated this month in the Cook County state's attorney's office. Four of the Chicago police officers have been charged with robberies and kidnappings. Prosecutors have alleged they falsely arrested many people. [continues 253 words]
Need to know where your neighborhood meth dealer lives? I think not. But the current trend in law enforcement thinks so. Six states including New York are considering joining Tennessee, Illinois, Montana and Minnesota in enacting a methamphetamine offender registry. These registries will publicly display information about methamphetamine users, makers and dealers that have been convicted of their crimes. In validating their clarion call for registries, law enforcement officials across the country have complained that the toxic materials found from clandestine meth labs have poisoned communities and destroyed property. [continues 511 words]
Conference Looks At Racial Progress More than 100 black judges from across the country filled a downtown hotel banquet room Saturday to discuss "Modern Day Civil Rights Issues." Panelists from Harvard and The Ohio State University law schools, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Equal Justice Society and Saul Green, the collaborative agreement monitor who tracks reform efforts by the Cincinnati Police Department, said the issues today are much they same as they were years ago. "It's ironic to call it modern day because some of the issues are very old," said Charles J. Ogletree Jr., director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School. [continues 347 words]
Long before Billy Cole became Beckley's chief of police, he was a high school football standout with dreams of becoming a coach. Little did he know that one day he would find himself coaching a team through an endless battle against one of the most formidable opponents on earth -- crime. From his own experience as a policeman, he knew the Beckley Police Department team would take its fair share of hits. As a detective, he investigated the murder of fellow officer Sgt. David Lilly in 1975. He just never expected his team to take another blow like that. Now, as the force recovers from the shooting death of one of its own, this 41-year veteran of the department he now runs eagerly awaits answers from the ongoing State Police investigation into the death of Cpl. Chuck Smith, 29, who was shot last month while carrying out an impromptu undercover drug buy. [continues 1286 words]
FAIRFIELD - A black Cincinnati couple claiming to be victims of racial profiling has filed a complaint against a Fairfield police officer, prompting an internal investigation. Tony Betts told city council Tuesday night he and his wife were humiliated after their sport utility vehicle was searched by a drug dog on Dixie Highway "My wife and I were derogated, embarrassed, humiliated and our most basic civil liberties violated and treated as if we were common criminals, drug (dealers), or narcotics distributors without justification or cause," Betts said. [continues 208 words]
Some college students have lost financial aid due to drug convictions. Some against the policy argue it is ineffective and that students are not properly made aware of repercussions ahead of time. Chris Lippke had reviewed the financial aid policy before completing his FAFSA application for his freshman year. But when he was charged with a misdemeanor for possession of marijuana in 2003, Lippke was forced to drop all classes and take a year's leave from school. "I wasn't fully aware what it all meant," he said. "I'd looked through the rulebook and was aware of a zero-tolerance policy, but didn't know the fine print," he said. "The classes were gone, the money for that semester was gone -- and it all had to come out-of-pocket." [continues 950 words]
Richard DeRosier I have spoken with many county residents during my campaign and am confident we share the same concerns for the future of Lake County. We want safer communities in which to live and raise our families. We want deputies to respond in a timely manner and follow through with each and every case. We want to rid our communities of drug use and the devastation it causes. We want all this done in a cost effective manner. I have dedicated my career to fighting the drug problem that is causing such devastation to our county. Drug abuse training and education will continue to be a top priority. I am the narcotics investigator for a reason and currently head the multi-agency North Shore Drug Response Team. I will support the creation of a drug court program as another option to help rehabilitate drug offenders. I will also lobby state and federally for increased funding. [continues 601 words]
The 2 Agencies Unveil Sweeping Changes Aimed at Curbing a Spike in Violent Crime. Orange County's two largest police agencies announced sweeping changes Tuesday to combat soaring violent crime that has led to a record murder rate in the city and an alarming number of deaths in the county. Within weeks, the Orlando Police Department will reorganize its 700 officers to target street-level drug dealers and criminals most responsible for this year's record 37 murders. Meanwhile, Sheriff Kevin Beary will call in federal agencies and pull some of his 1,348 deputies from other duties to run down criminals in Pine Hills and along South Orange Blossom Trail, where most of the county's murders have taken place. With about four months to go this year, Orange has registered 39 murders, 10 fewer than all of last year. In addition, there has been a 20 percent jump in overall violent crimes from 2005. [continues 806 words]
Editor's Note: Remarks appear as prepared in advance and differ slightly from those delivered. Washington Square Salt Lake City, Utah August 30, 2006 A patriot is a person who loves his or her country. Who among you loves your country so much that you have come here today to raise your voice out of deep concern for our nation - and for our world? And who among you loves your country so much that you insist that our nation's leaders tell us the truth? [continues 3316 words]
RACINE COUNTY - The Racine County Sheriff's Department has received an award from the Wisconsin Narcotics Officers Association. The I-94 Community Oriented Policing Unit received the Urban Drug Unit of the Year award at the association's annual banquet, held Aug. 24 in Green Bay. The I-94 COPS Unit was recognized for "exemplary work in detecting persons transporting controlled substances, weapons and cash," while preventing the drugs from reaching the streets. To date, the I-94 COPS Unit has seized 66.35 pounds of marijuana, 34 kilograms of cocaine, 156 grams of heroin, 436 grams of ecstasy, 365 pills of various substances and $432,265 in cash. The estimated street value of the seized substances is more than $3.6 million. The I-94 COPS Unit has also made 135 felony arrests, served over 1,500 warrants and issued approximately 33,000 traffic citations. [end]
New state laws aimed at reducing the number of illegal methamphetamine labs seem to be working, but they have not put much of a dent in the sale and use of the highly addictive drug. New figures on the number of meth labs in the state show a significant drop in the past year. Burnett County Sheriff Dean Roland attributes that to the states new laws regulating the sale of the ingredients used to make meth. A meth enforcement expert at the University of Wisconsin Law School says fewer labs means fewer children affected by the toxic process of making the drug and reduced risk to police who have to clean up the labs once they bust them. [continues 229 words]
One week it's prostitutes. The next week it's underage drinking. Week three might see burglars or drug dealers. With an increased force and a new transport van, Lee County sheriff's deputies in Bonita Springs are making arrests and handing out citations by the handful by increasing the amount of undercover stings in the city. In the past two months, there have been stings for prostitution, vehicle insurance, selling alcohol to minors and drug dealing. In each case a handful of people were arrested or cited. [continues 289 words]
After A Welcome Decline, Cities Such As Philadelphia, Above, Are Seeing A Resurgence Of Violent Crime. NEW YORK The United States is losing the war in Iraq; more specifically, Philadelphia is. This war is at home, in the city's 12th Police District, where shootings have almost doubled over the past year, and residents have spray-painted "IRAQ" in huge letters on abandoned buildings to mark the devastation. It is a story being repeated up and down the East Coast and across the nation. In Boston, where the homicide rate is soaring, Analicia Perry, a 20-year-old mother, was shot and killed several weeks ago while visiting the street shrine marking the site of her brother's death on the same date four years earlier. Recently, Orlando's homicide count for this year reached 37, surpassing the city's previous annual high of 36 in 1982. And in Washington, D.C., where 14 people were killed in the first 12 days of July, Police Chief Charles Ramsey declared a state of emergency. [continues 1965 words]
FREEPORT - Crack cocaine, the scourge of urban ghettos, has made its presence felt in Stephenson County. Arrests are on the rise and multiple policing agencies are conducting stings regularly to stamp out what police call the most prevalent drug in Freeport. Cocaine arrests have steadily risen in Stephenson County since 2001, according to Freeport Assistant Chief of Police Robert Smith. Forty arrests were made in 2005, compared to 17 in 2002. And so far in 2006, there are already 30 arrests on the books. Many of those arrests are for the more inexpensive version of the drug - crack cocaine. [continues 985 words]
Recently released state figures show a heartening drop in methamphetamine labs in the state - part of a national trend that could cut down on deadly explosions and help the environment. But that progress in the fight against the dangerous, addictive drug leaves state Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager and the three other candidates for her job to debate another issue: how to fight the out-of-state trafficking of the drug that now accounts for almost all of the meth seized in Wisconsin. [continues 936 words]
Biometric Device May Have the Answer At airport security checkpoints in Knoxville, Tenn. this summer, scores of departing passengers were chosen to step behind a curtain, sit in a metallic oval booth and don headphones. With one hand inserted into a sensor that monitors physical responses, the travelers used the other hand to answer questions on a touch screen about their plans. A machine measured biometric responses -- blood pressure, pulse and sweat levels -- that then were analyzed by software. The idea was to ferret out U.S. officials who were carrying out carefully constructed but make-believe terrorist missions. [continues 1226 words]
Tulsa Police Forced to Reassess Priorities Federal grants to the Tulsa Police Department are drying up, forcing cuts to special projects including those that pay overtime costs for monitoring sex offenders and for meth-lab cleanups. Since 2002 -- the earliest year for which records could be located -- grants to Tulsa police from the U.S. Department of Justice have fallen from about $952,000 to about $373,000 in 2006, said Cpl. Art Surratt, the Police Department's grants coordinator. The grants, now called Justice Assistance Block Grants, totaled as much as $3 million one year, Chief Dave Been said. [continues 825 words]
Drugs, Money And The Law LUMBERTON -- The Robeson County district attorney says he has no vendetta against the county Sheriff's Office or its former leader -- Glenn Maynor. But Johnson Britt acknowledges that a rift between the two offices has simmered at least since 1998. That year, Britt had to dismiss 235 drug charges against 66 people because a key witness -- a former drug enforcement deputy -- could not be found to testify. Maynor, then the sheriff, publicly blamed Britt for not trying hard enough to find the missing lawman. [continues 1838 words]
The NYPD disproportionately targets poor, black and Hispanic neighborhoods when enforcing marijuana smoking-in-public laws, according to a hotly debated new study. The results of the study, funded by the Marijuana Policy Project and the National Institute on Drug Abuse, are published in the new issue of Harm Reduction Journal, an open-access online journal published by BioMed Central. The NYPD says that this type of enforcement goes along with its focus on where the heaviest crime patterns exist and is part of the department's successful quality-of-life policing strategy. [continues 195 words]
Several law enforcement agencies and residents in Lee County will take part in tonight's National Night Out Against Crime. The goal of the campaign is to heighten crime and drug prevention awareness, generate support for anti-crime programs, strengthen police-community partnerships and send a message to criminals that neighborhoods are fighting back. More than 34 million people took part in last year's campaign that brought together more than 10,000 communities from all 50 states, U.S. territories, Canadian cities and military bases worldwide. [continues 404 words]
CONEMAUGH TOWNSHIP - Police Chief Howard Jackson says that rural communities pose unique challenges to local departments as the ever-increasing cost of providing service threatens to outstrip what a tax base can afford for police. "You have to think of expansion. The larger the department, the more services you can provide," Jackson says from the newly remodeled interview room of the township police department. Jackson, an earnest-looking officer with black wire rimmed glasses and thinning black hair, looks more like an academic than a chief of police. [continues 698 words]
West Palm Beach -- Residents of the Northwood neighborhoods enjoy the quaint and unassuming feel of their communities. Some, however, say that what was once an up-and-coming area has slid back into blight and is riddled with crime. "When I came here 30 years ago Pinewood Avenue was beautiful," resident Pearl El said. "Now it feels to me like I'm in a hole." Residents want accountability. And Saturday they demanded it from city officials. "I'm interested in collaboration," said El, one of more than 50 residents who gathered Saturday at the United Methodist Church of Northwood. At the meeting, top city officials, including Mayor Lois Frankel, listened to residents plead for better policing and stricter code enforcement. Members and residents of the Northend Coalition of Neighborhoods meet often to address community issues. But the chance to push for answers from police, sanitation and code enforcement officials only comes once a year. [continues 370 words]
Back in the early 1960s, I often sneaked into Mexico at the San Diego-Tijuana border. Too young to cross legally, I'd coil up in the trunk of Charlie Romero's '54 Merc. My buddies and I would head straight for the notorious Blue Fox to guzzle Carta Blancas, shoot Cuervo Gold and take in the "adult entertainment" acts. It wasn't something I'd necessarily want my kid doing, but there was a certain innocence to it: tasting freedom, partaking of forbidden adult pleasures. The frontera of Mexico was a fun, safe place to visit. [continues 978 words]
WILMINGTON - A former Robeson County deputy pleaded guilty Wednesday to stealing about $160,000 during six traffic stops along Interstate 95. James Owen Hunt spent about $8,000 of that money to pave his driveway and about $16,000 on a pontoon boat, Assistant U.S. Attorney Erick Evenson said. Hunt, who is 39, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to conspiracy to commit money laundering. As part of his plea agreement, he will pay $150,000 in restitution and testify against other former deputies of the Robeson County Drug Enforcement Division. Hunt, who faces between 10 years and life in prison, will be sentenced later. [continues 795 words]
In the Race for Governor, Schwarzenegger and Angelides Have Abandoned Reform and Learned to Love the Powerful Prison Guards Union California can't afford to keep 56-year-old Beverly Henry in prison. But those who work there just won't let her go. Once a struggling Venice Beach drug addict, she was sent to prison in 1998 for 15 years for selling a $20 bag of heroin to an undercover officer in order to support her habit. Taxpayers know that drug treatment is cheaper than prison that's why they voted in Proposition 36 in 2000, which would send a case like hers to rehab instead but back when Henry got popped, the state lacked the minimum resources necessary to treat drug addiction, so Henry ended up in Chowchilla, at the Central California Women's Facility. [continues 2763 words]
Officers from around the state get hands-on training in 10-day course "Switch it up." "Switch -- it -- up." It's day nine in a 10-day course on fighting drugs, and Lexington Detective C. Robert Mercer doesn't like what he's seeing. His students -- police officers and detectives from throughout the state -- are taking way too long to break down the door of a fictitious drug dealer in Lexington. It's so well barricaded that the big guy with the battering ram is exhausted, and Mercer wants him to give the job to a more rested member of the team. [continues 1405 words]
Summerfest draws mostly from the Milwaukee area, but 59% of those taken into custody at the Big Gig are out-of-towners Though Summerfest draws music lovers from across the country, it's still primarily a Milwaukee-area event - except when it comes to who gets arrested. Of the 298 people arrested at Summerfest through Thursday, 177, or 59%, live outside the five-county Milwaukee metro area, according to Milwaukee police. "They may be a little more brazen than some of our local residents," said Lt. Anthony Smith, who runs the Summerfest command post. "People in Milwaukee have a little more familiarity with how we conduct things around here." [continues 530 words]
Baca To Push For Funding WASHINGTON - Congress is poised to shortchange California and other states that jail high numbers of criminal illegal immigrants, as Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca prepares to testify before a federal panel on the need for adequate funding. Legislation headed for the U.S. Senate includes $415 million nationwide for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, which states depend on to repay some of the incarceration costs. California spends more than $600 million annually on what it views as a federal responsibility. [continues 443 words]
Five years ago, Ben Masel was hauled off a train and jailed in Kansas City, Mo., for telling two young passengers they did not have to consent to a police search. The police in 2001 called it obstruction. This month Masel, through his attorney Jeff Scott Olson, is calling it a violation of his constitutional rights and is making it a federal case. The suit, filed June 12 in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, seeks punitive damages against the Kansas City police and demands a jury trial. [continues 280 words]
A three-month Reno Gazette-Journal investigation found that methamphetamine's grip on the Truckee Meadows has become a stranglehold. The "mom-and-pop" meth lab seems to be going the way of all mom-and-pop operations of the past: the gas station, the hardware store and the grocery. According to local law enforcement, whereas meth cooks once learned the recipe from family members or sold it for more drugs, Mexican-based drug-trafficking organizations now rule the meth trade in Nevada, producing pounds of high-quality crystal methamphetamine in superlabs in California and Mexico and slipping the drug across the border. [continues 1820 words]
