cherokee316's Blog

I have a question, why the hell does it take so long for the police to ask for the publics help in some cases, especially missing person and robberies,and now we have a case of some pervert fondling boys at a local Wal-Mart from July.I know that they have to make sure it's just not a case of a runaway,but when it's weeks and in some cases months is ridiculous especially in cases where the person is disabled or needs medicine,not to mention violent crimes like robberies and in the afore mentioned case of a sexual predator.

Bank customer shoots man in attempted robbery

A bank customer shot another man who apparently was attempting to rob him about 9 a.m. today, police said.

The alleged robber, who was wounded in the head, this afternoon is in stable condition, police said.

A man and a woman, described as an older couple, were using the ATM at the Bank of America at North Oak Trafficway and Barry Road, police said, when a man approached with a gun and robbed them.

A couple was stopped at the ATM.

The robber was walking away when the male victim got out of the car with his gun and yelled for him to stop, said Sgt. Chris Lantz of the department’s robbery unit.

The robber turned around and pointed his gun at the man, Lantz said. The robbery victim fired his gun, hitting the robber in the head, he said.

At the scene investigators earlier today investigators were collecting evidence from a dark sedan parked next to the ATM machine. An object that looked like a hand gun was lying on the pavement. Nearby were apparent blood stains.

The couple and witnesses were interviewed by police.

The man had a permit to carry a concealed gun, Lantz said. Under the circumstances, Lantz said, that would not matter, because he could legally carry the weapon in his car.

It is unusual where a robbery victim defends themselves with a fire arm.

“You don’t see that very often,” Lantz said.

Police ask that anyone who witnessed the incident call the TIPS Hotline, 816-474-TIPS (816) 474-8477.

nation and world Chinese buried Korean War POW Officials admit for the first time that a captured U.S. soldier was moved into Chinese territory. By Robert Burns
The Associated Press Article Last Updated: 06/19/2008 11:42:48 PM MDT
The Pentagon was told about the fate of Army Sgt. Richard G. Desautels in 2003 after the Chinese said they found a record in classified archives. ( The Associated Press )

WASHINGTON — After decades of denials, the Chinese have acknowledged burying an American prisoner of war in China, telling the U.S. that a teenage soldier captured in the Korean War died a week after he "became mentally ill," according to documents provided to The Associated Press.

China had long insisted that all POW questions were answered at the conclusion of the war in 1953 and that no Americans were moved to Chinese territory from North Korea.

The little-known case of Army Sgt. Richard G. Desautels, of Shoreham, Vt., opens another chapter in this story and raises the possibility that new details concerning the fate of other POWs might eventually surface.

Chinese authorities gave Pentagon officials intriguing details about Desautels in a March 2003 meeting in Beijing, saying they had found "a complete record of 9-10 pages" in classified archives.

Until now, this new information had been kept quiet; a Pentagon spokesman said it was intended only for Desautels' family members.

The details were provided to Desautels' brother, Rolland, who passed them to a POW-MIA advocacy group, the National Alliance of Families, which gave them to AP.

In a telephone interview Thursday, the brother said he did not follow up on the information he got in 2003 because he did not believe it. He was not aware that it marked the first time China had acknowledged taking a U.S. POW from North Korea into Chinese territory or burying an American there.

The revelation raises the possibility that wartime Chinese records could shed light on the fate of other U.S. captives who were known to be held in Chinese-run POW camps but did not return when the fighting ended in 1953.

And it appears to undercut the Pentagon's public stance that China returned all POWs it held inside China. The Pentagon has focused more on the related issue of China's management of POW camps inside North Korea during the war, which Chinese troops entered in the fall of 1950 on North Korea's side.

Larry Greer, a spokesman for the POW-MIA office at the Pentagon, said Thursday that he did not know whether U.S. officials received additional information after the March 2003 meeting.

Mexico pursues appeal to stay executions in US By ARTHUR MAX, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 52 minutes ago



THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Mexico made an emergency appeal to the U.N.'s highest court Thursday to block the execution of its citizens on death row in the U.S.

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Mexico's chief advocate Juan Manuel Gomez-Robledo said the U.S. was "in breach of its international obligations" by disregarding a 2004 judgment by the U.N.'s International Court of Justice, which ruled Mexicans were denied the right to consular advice after their arrests, as guaranteed by an international treaty.

The court, informally known as the World Court, has ruled that the Mexicans were entitled to "review and reconsideration" of their trials and sentences to determine whether the violation of the 1963 Vienna Convention affected their cases.

President Bush accepted the judgment and asked state courts to review the cases.

Texas refused, and the issue went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled last March by a 6-3 vote that Bush lacked the authority to compel state courts to comply with the judgment from The Hague. The Vienna Convention cannot be binding on the states unless Congress enacts legislation enforcing it as federal law, the Supreme Court said.

Mexico asked the World Court for an "interpretation" of its earlier ruling to clarify what it meant when it asked the U.S. to "review and reconsider" the cases of the condemned prisoners, and in the meantime to order the halt of the execution timetable.

Gomez-Robledo said that without urgent action now, five Mexican nationals "will be executed before the conclusion of these proceedings."

U.S. representatives were due to respond later Thursday before the 13-member tribunal.

Sandra Babcock, representing Mexico, said the World Court's decision four years ago referred to 51 Mexican nationals. Since then, 33 had sought reviews of their cases in state courts.

Only one request was granted, Babcock said. A second inmate accepted a life sentence in exchange for waiving his claim for a review.

"All other efforts to enforce the judgment have failed," she said.

Mexico listed five of its citizens slated to die. The first, on Aug. 5, is Jose Medellin, 33, condemned in the gang rape and murder of two teenage girls 15 years ago.

Texas authorities have said Medellin's case has been reviewed by state and federal courts and that he had been given the same right as any American citizen.

But Mexico said in its appeal to the World Court that the U.S. obligation to follow international law also applies to individual states. "The United States cannot invoke municipal law as justification for failure to perform its international legal obligations," it said.

The International Court of Justice is the U.N.'s judicial arm for resolving legal disputes among member states. Its decisions are binding and not subject to appeal, and only rarely have they been defied. Though it has no power of enforcement, the court can report any failure to abide by its decisions to the Security Council.

Posted on Sat, May. 24, 2008 Clinton apologizes for RFK assassination remark By DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press Writer

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton quickly apologized Friday after citing the June 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in defending her decision to keep running for the Democratic presidential nomination despite increasingly long odds.

"I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation and in particular the Kennedy family was in any way offensive. I certainly had no intention of that whatsoever," the former first lady said.

The episode occurred as Clinton campaigned in advance of the June 3 South Dakota primary.

Responding to a question from the Sioux Falls Argus Leader editorial board about calls for her to drop out of the race, she said: "My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. You know I just, I don't understand it," she said, dismissing the idea of abandoning the race.

Clinton said she didn't understand why, given this history, some Democrats were calling for her to quit.

Her remark about an assassination during a primary campaign drew a quick response from aides to Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama.

"Senator Clinton's statement before the Argus Leader editorial board was unfortunate and has no place in this campaign," said Obama spokesman Bill Burton.

Clinton spokesman Mo Elleithee said the senator was only referring to her husband and Kennedy "as historical examples of the nominating process going well into the summer and any reading into it beyond that would be inaccurate and outrageous."

She has said much the same thing before. In a March interview with Time magazine, she said: "Primary contests used to last a lot longer. We all remember the great tragedy of Bobby Kennedy being assassinated in June in L.A. My husband didn't wrap up the nomination in 1992 until June, also in California. Having a primary contest go through June is nothing particularly unusual."

Within a couple hours of the South Dakota remarks drawing attention, Clinton decided to make a personal apology.

"I was discussing the Democratic primary history and in the course of that discussion mentioned the campaigns of both my husband and Senator (Robert) Kennedy waged in California in June in 1992 and 1968 and I was referencing those to make the point that we have had nomination primary contests that go into June. That's a historic fact," she said.

"The Kennedys have been much on my mind the last days because of Senator Kennedy," she added, referring to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's recent diagnosis of a brain tumor. "I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation and in particular the Kennedy family was in any way offensive. I certainly had no intention of that whatsoever.

"My view is that we have to look to the past to our leaders who have inspired us, give us a lot to live up to, and I'm honored to hold Senator Kennedy's seat in the United States Senate from the state of New York and have the highest regard for the Kennedy family," she said.

A close Obama ally in the Senate, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, said he accepted her explanation.

"I know Hillary Clinton, and the last thing in the world she'd ever want is to wish misfortune on anybody. She and Barack are friends," Durbin said. "It was ... a careless remark and we'll leave it at that."

In the same editorial board meeting, Clinton said "it is unprecedented in history" for political activists to urge a candidate to withdraw when his or her chances of winning the nomination appear remote. In fact, such events have happened several times.

Three months ago, Republican hopeful Mike Huckabee angered Sen. John McCain by lingering in the GOP race after McCain's nomination seemed all but assured. "Of course I would like for him to withdraw today," McCain said at the time. A McCain campaign memo, which was leaked to the media, said the campaign was being forced to spend money in upcoming primary states merely to avoid being embarrassed by the underfunded Huckabee.

Clinton also said her campaign has had no discussions with Obama's aides about her possibly becoming his vice presidential pick.

"It is flatly untrue and it is not anything I'm entertaining. It is nothing I have planned and it is nothing I am prepared to engage in. I am still vigorously campaigning."

The Obama campaign also dismissed reports that there were talks going on between the two campaigns about putting Clinton on the ticket.

Obama has an almost 200-delegate lead over Clinton and is just 56 delegates short of the number needed to clinch the nomination, making Clinton's goal of catching him more difficult by the day. The primaries end June 3.

Clinton spent the day campaigning in South Dakota, which holds one of two June 3 primaries. At stake are 15 delegates.

Recent reports suggested she may be discussing ways to end her campaign by being offered the vice presidential slot underneath Obama, but she rejected that and said she suspected the talk was coming from Obama aides.

"I would look to the camp of my opponent for the source of these stories," she said. "People have been trying to push me out of this ever since Iowa."

Two of those recent reports, however, were attributed by CNN and The New York Times to supporters of Clinton.

Meanwhile, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a staunch Clinton supporter, said Friday that she believes that if Obama becomes the nominee he should select Clinton as his running mate.

"I think as this race has emerged each one of them has garnered a different constituency and different states, and therefore when you put the two of them together it forms, I believe, the strongest ticket," she told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

"Women feel very strongly about Hillary and African-Americans feel very strongly about Barack, and the election results show that, and the young versus old, the higher educated versus the working person. ... All these things are sort of separated out into one or the other so there is a logic in combining the two constituencies."

Associated Press writer Erica Werner, Charles Babington and Laurie Kellman in Washington contributed to this report.

Man wins $340,000 in bottled fly lawsuit
winsdor star ^ | 4 26 05 | Chris Thompson

Posted on Wednesday, April 27, 2005 12:51:32 PM by freepatriot32

A Windsor hairstylist who suffered "recognizable psychological injury" after discovering a dead fly in a bottle of Culligan water has been awarded more than $340,000 in damages.

Waddah (Martin) Mustapha, who operates two outlets of Martin's Coiffure and Spa at the Radisson Hotel and Casino Windsor, claimed "nervous shock, emotional distress and resulting anxiety, depression and physical and psychological conditions" arising from a breach of contract with Culligan.

"It's long overdue," Mustapha said of the settlement.

On Nov. 21, 2001 Mustapha and his wife Lynn, who was seven months pregnant, were preparing a new bottle of Culligan water to put in their dispenser when she saw something dark in the bottle. Both looked closely and saw legs and wings and realized it was a dead fly.

Lynn Mustapha vomited immediately and Martin vomited later in the evening.

Justice John Brockenshire heard that after discovering the fly Mustapha "could not get the fly in the bottle out of his mind."

Mustapha told court he would have nightmares about falling into a ditch face down in water and he could not sleep more than four hours a night.

LOST SENSE OF HUMOUR

He also testified that he lost his sense of humour and became argumentative and edgy.

Mustapha did not see a doctor until January 2002 and told the doctor that his salon clients were "asking what was wrong with him and whether he was OK."

The doctor prescribed anti-depressants to help him relax and sleep.

He was also prescribed stool softeners for constipation which Mustapha attributed to the fact that he used to drink eight glasses of water a day and now drank none.

Since the incident, Mustapha said he was unable to get the image of the fly out of his mind, and often pictured flies walking on animal feces or rotten food and then being in his bottled water.

Prior to the fly incident Mustapha would shower daily, singing while doing so.

Afterward Mustapha would stand in the bathroom contemplating whether to shower or not and would often just get dressed and leave or wipe a cloth under his arms before applying deodorant.

Following therapy Mustapha was able to stick his head under the water so it would not touch his face and later had therapy where he would stand in the dry shower in a bathing suit.

After the incident Mustapha began drinking coffee made with only warm milk and instant coffee but after therapy was able to drink coffee made in the traditional manner.

Mustapha was unable to resume drinking water by itself.

Mustapha's lawyer Pat Ducharme said the case is unique in Canada.

"I found precedence that had to do with people who consumed elements but never a case where someone had seen something in a bottle and developed a severe depression," said Ducharme.

He said the case was successful because of the number of doctors who examined Mustapha.

SEVERE DEPRESSION

"All of them came to the same conclusion that he was suffering from a severe depression because of seeing the fly in the bottle," said Ducharme.

Another contributing factor was that a psychiatrist hired by Culligan examined Mustapha for 10 minutes and deemed his claims bogus, Ducharme said, an assertion that Brockenshire rejected.

Culligan's water distributed in Windsor comes from a plant in Woodstock.

The company testified that it has extensive filtering and purification systems but that flies could enter the so-called "clean room" and enter a bottle before or during its filling.

"I am prepared to accept that the odds against this happening are very high," Brockenshire wrote in his decision.

"However, it should not have happened at all."

Culligan operates water purification companies in more than 90 countries.

The company has 30 days to appeal the decision.

After the incident Mustapha's business at the Radisson, where he spent the majority of his time, suffered greatly.

Mustapha was awarded $80,000 in general damages, past and future special damages of $24,174.58 and past and future economic damages of $237,600.

citation profile medal of honor battlescape video resources PROFILEBiography Unit History Photo Album MySpace Army News

Spc. Ross Andrew McGinnis will receive the Medal of Honor posthumously during a White House ceremony June 2, 2008.

The Story of PFC Ross A. McGinnis 1st Platoon, C Company, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division (attached to 2nd BCT, 2ID)

Parents: Tom and Romayne McGinnis
Siblings: Becky Gorman and Katie McGinnis
Hometown: Knox, Pennsylvania

Enlisted: Delayed Entry Program June 14, 2004 at the Pittsburgh MEPS. Completed initial entry training at Fort Benning, Georgia

Assignments: 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment (Schweinfurt, Germany)

Deployments: Operation Iraqi Freedom

Spc. McGinnis’ dedication to duty and love for his fellow Soldiers were embodied in a statement issued by his parents shortly after his death:

“Ross did not become our hero by dying to save his fellow Soldiers from a grenade. He was a hero to us long before he died, because he was willing to risk his life to protect the ideals of freedom and justice that America represents. He has been recommended for the Medal of Honor… That is not why he gave his life. The lives of four men who were his Army brothers outweighed the value of his one life. It was just a matter of simple kindergarten arithmetic. Four means more than one. It didn’t matter to Ross that he could have escaped the situation without a scratch. Nobody would have questioned such a reflex reaction. What mattered to him were the four men placed in his care on a moment’s notice. One moment he was responsible for defending the rear of a convoy from enemy fire; the next moment he held the lives of four of his friends in his hands. The choice for Ross was simple, but simple does not mean easy. His straightforward answer to a simple but difficult choice should stand as a shining example for the rest of us. We all face simple choices, but how often do we choose to make a sacrifice to get the right answer? The right choice sometimes requires honor.”

Ross Andrew McGinnis was born June 14, 1987 in Meadville, PA. His family moved to Knox, northeast of Pittsburgh, when he was three. There he attended Clarion County public schools, and was a member of the Boy Scouts as a boy. Growing up he played basketball and soccer through the YMCA, and Little League baseball. Ross was a member of the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Knox, and a 2005 graduate of Keystone Junior-Senior High School.

Ross’s interests included video games and mountain biking. He was also a car enthusiast, and took classes at the Clarion County Career Center in automotive technology. He also worked part-time at McDonald’s after school.

His mother, Romayne, said Ross wanted to be a Soldier early in life. When asked to draw a picture of what he wanted to be when he grew up, Ross McGinnis, the kindergartner, drew a picture of a Soldier.

On his 17th birthday, June 14, 2004, Ross went to the Army recruiting station and joined through the delayed entry program.

After initial entry training at Fort Benning, Georgia, McGinnis was assigned to 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment in Schweinfurt, Germany. According to fellow Soldiers, he loved Soldiering and took his job seriously, but he also loved to make people laugh. One fellow Soldier commented that every time McGinnis left a room, he left the Soldiers in it laughing.

The unit deployed to Eastern Baghdad in August 2006, where sectarian violence was rampant. Ross was serving as an M2 .50 caliber machine gunner in 1st Platoon, C Company, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment is support of operations against insurgents in Adhamiyah, Iraq.

According to the official report, on the afternoon of Dec. 4, 2006, McGinnis’ platoon was on mounted patrol in Adhamiyah to restrict enemy movement and quell sectarian violence. During the course of the patrol, an unidentified insurgent positioned on a rooftop nearby threw a fragmentation grenade into the Humvee. Without hesitation or regard for his own life, McGinnis threw his back over the grenade, pinning it between his body and the Humvee’s radio mount. McGinnis absorbed all lethal fragments and the concussive effects of the grenade with his own body. McGinnis, who was a private first class at the time, was posthumously promoted to specialist. Spc. McGinnis’s heroic actions and tragic death are detailed in the battlescape section of this website and in his Medal of Honor Citation.

Army Decorations: Medal of Honor (to be presented to Tom and Romayne McGinnis at a June 2, 2008 White House Ceremony), Silver Star (awarded for valor exhibited during the events of Dec. 4, 2006, pending processing and approval of Medal of Honor), Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, and Combat Infantryman Badge.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/05/14/photos.rock
etman/index.html

Austin man ticketed for using cell phone during flight An associate said the man forgot to turn his phone off and received a message that his father was in dire health.

By Miguel Liscano
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Dallas police ticketed a Southwest Airlines passenger Monday morning after he refused to stop talking on his cell phone during a flight from Austin to Dallas, an airline spokeswoman said.

Flight attendants asked Joe David Jones, 50, president of Austin environmental technology company Skyonic Corp., to put away his phone after they noticed him using it during the flight's descent, Southwest spokeswoman Brandy King said.

An associate of Jones said he refused because Jones had received a message that his father was in dire health.

Police were called to meet flight 958 at Love Field when it landed, King said. Jones was ticketed on a disorderly conduct charge, a class C misdemeanor that carries up to a $500 fine, a Dallas police spokeswoman said.

Federal Aviation Administration regulations bar cell phone use on planes because it could interfere with the flight's navigation system, King said. She said airlines can be fined at least $25,000 for allowing cell phone use during flights.

"He was clear on the regulation; he just chose not to abide by the request," King said.

Jones had forgotten to turn off his phone during takeoff and received the message about his father as the plane moved closer to Dallas, said Mark Clayton, Skyonic's vice president of corporate relations.

"His father's heart had stopped," Clayton said. "The cardiac unit requested a call immediately to discuss decisions regarding his father's immediate care.

"So Mr. Jones attempted to call them back. And it took several tries.

"He expresses regret for the inconvenience that it caused the airline and its passengers, but he felt compelled because of the life and death nature of it to make that call."

According to a police report, Jones was on his cell phone for about 20 minutes at the end of the flight.

The report said Jones, when asked to turn his phone off, responded with an obscenity.

Clayton said Jones did not mention what was said by him and the flight attendants during the incident.

Jones was unavailable for comment Monday because he was on his way to be with his father, Clayton said.

Skyonic specializes in cleaning emissions from coal-fired power plants, Clayton said.

mliscano@statesman.com; 445-3629

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Iowan student arrested for throwing M&Ms at police by cynthia yoo | May 12, 2008 at 03:53 pm | 163 views | 3 comments M&M_2 by Daniel Y. Go
15 hrs ago | 110 views
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Sean McGuire, a college student in Iowa, was arrested on Sunday for throwing M&Ms at a police officer at a local convenience store.

A college student whose friend was being questioned in a hit and run found himself charged with assaulting an officer with a curious choice of weapons: M&Ms.

Sean McGuire was arrested early Sunday at a convenience store after Drake University security guards noticed the colored candies falling on the ground around the officer. When the officer turned around, an M&M hit his shoulder, according to a police report.

McGuire claimed he threw the candy because he was "sticking up for his friend," who apparently was the man suspected in the accident, the report states.

McGuire, of Glenview, Ill., was released from jail Sunday after posting $1,000 bond.

Government Report Answers Who Lives, Who Dies in Flu Pandemic Last Edited: Monday, 05 May 2008, 9:43 PM CDT Created: Monday, 05 May 2008, 5:44 AM CDT or just enabling jstl so that we can just write ${bean.property} and jsp takes care of the new lines. -->
05/05/2008  -- 

Should doctors be allowed to play God?

In the case of a flu pandemic — yes, say government officials in a new report.

Doctors know some patients needing lifesaving care won't get it in a flu pandemic or other disaster. The gut-wrenching dilemma will be deciding who to let die.

Who will die in the event of a pandemic? The very old, seriously hurt, severely burned and those with severe dementia, according to an influential group of physicians.

The group has drafted a grimly specific list of recommendations for which patients wouldn't be treated.

The suggested list was compiled by a task force whose members come from prestigious universities, medical groups, the military and government agencies. They include the Department of Homeland Security, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services.

The proposed guidelines are designed to be a blueprint for hospitals "so that everybody will be thinking in the same way" when pandemic flu or another widespread health care disaster hits, said Dr. Asha Devereaux. She is a critical care specialist in San Diego and lead writer of the task force report.

The idea is to try to make sure that scarce resources — including ventilators, medicine and doctors and nurses — are used in a uniform, objective way, task force members said.

Their recommendations appear in a report appearing Monday in the May edition of Chest, the medical journal of the American College of Chest Physicians.

"If a mass casualty critical care event were to occur tomorrow, many people with clinical conditions that are survivable under usual health care system conditions may have to forgo life-sustaining interventions owing to deficiencies in supply or staffing," the report states.

To prepare, hospitals should designate a triage team with the Godlike task of deciding who will and who won't get lifesaving care, the task force wrote. Those out of luck are the people at high risk of death and a slim chance of long-term survival. But the recommendations get much more specific, and include:

— People older than 85.

— Those with severe trauma, which could include critical injuries from car crashes and shootings.

— Severely burned patients older than 60.

— Those with severe mental impairment, which could include advanced Alzheimer's disease.

— Those with a severe chronic disease, such as advanced heart failure, lung disease or poorly controlled diabetes.

Dr. Kevin Yeskey, director of the preparedness and emergency operations office at the Department of Health and Human Services, was on the task force. He said the report would be among many the agency reviews as part of preparedness efforts.

Public health law expert Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University called the report an important initiative but also "a political minefield and a legal minefield."

The recommendations would probably violate federal laws against age discrimination and disability discrimination, said Gostin, who was not on the task force.

If followed to a tee, such rules could exclude care for the poorest, most disadvantaged citizens who suffer disproportionately from chronic disease and disability, he said. While health care rationing will be necessary in a mass disaster, "there are some real ethical concerns here."

James Bentley, a senior vice president at American Hospital Association, said the report will give guidance to hospitals in shaping their own preparedness plans even if they don't follow all the suggestions.

He said the proposals resemble a battlefield approach in which limited health care resources are reserved for those most likely to survive.

Bentley said it's not the first time this type of approach has been recommended for a catastrophic pandemic, but that "this is the most detailed one I have seen from a professional group."

While the notion of rationing health care is unpleasant, the report could help the public understand that it will be necessary, Bentley said.

Devereaux said compiling the list "was emotionally difficult for everyone."

That's partly because members believe it's just a matter of time before such a health care disaster hits, she said.

"You never know," Devereaux said. "SARS took a lot of folks by surprise. We didn't even know it existed."

— The Associated Press

Posted on Tue, Apr. 29, 2008

Mexican gangs provide most U.S. `meth'
Franco Ordonez | McClatchy Newspapers
last updated: April 30, 2008 04:55:59 PM

MEXICO CITY — A U.S. crackdown on domestic methamphetamine labs has created opportunities for Mexican drug cartels and their "superlabs" to fill the void.

Law enforcement agencies now consider "meth" produced in Mexico to be the greatest drug menace in the Western United States and a growing concern across the southeast and mid-Atlantic states, according to a Department of Justice report released this year.

Mexican drug gangs now produce 80 percent of the methamphetamine consumed in the United States, and Mexican officials say the Mexican manufacturers have become adept at meeting the shifting demands of U.S. addicts.

"U.S. consumption patterns are changing," Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora recently told reporters. "You are getting new entrants into the market that are essentially not choosing cocaine any more, but meth."

In the first three weeks of April, U.S. officials confiscated more than $30 million worth of methamphetamine destined for distribution points in California, Washington, Dallas, Kansas City, and Atlanta, Ga.

"These seizures are just a reminder that this stuff is coming to your neighborhood," said Steve Robertson, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration special agent.

Last year, at the six border crossings from Mexico into California, Customs and Border Protection agents stopped more than 2,000 lbs of methamphetamine, worth approximately $220 million on the street.

Authorities say the ease with which meth can be manufactured in clandestine labs from readily available materials has allowed established gangs to take advantage of the growing demand for the drug.

In fact, the chemicals used to make methamphetamine are so common that the biggest bust linked to meth manufacturing in the Western Hemisphere last year wasn't of one of Mexico's powerful drug cartels, but of a relatively unknown Chinese businessman, Zhenli Ye Gon, who had $207 million in cash stashed in his Mexico City home.

On April 17, federal agents in Arkansas announced the arrests of 65 people and seizure of more than 100 lbs of Mexican "ice," as a more concentrated form of methamphetamine is known, destined for Dallas, Memphis, Kansas City, and Des Moines.

On April 2, officials arrested 22 members of the Barragan family drug organization and seized nearly 90 pounds of methamphetamine, 50 firearms and more than a quarter million dollars in an operation that required 300 federal, state and local law enforcement agents and 14 months of planning.

Authorities said the Barragans — led by brothers Adiodato, Ulises and Herminio — had been smuggling hundreds of pounds of meth a month from their hometown of Arteaga in central Mexico to distribution points in California, Washington state, Wisconsin, and Georgia.

"Drug trafficking organizations based in Mexico do not confine themselves by our boundaries, borders or laws," Arnold Moorin, the DEA Special Agent in Charge in Seattle, said following the arrests.

The Barragan family worked hard to not get caught. They used multiple cell phones, arranged their drug exchanges in populated places such as supermarkets and hotels, and always rode in non-descript cars. They spoke in code, with "stamps" meaning money and "fish" or "pure cream" meaning methamphetamine. They stuck to family for the most important business matters. They used their own children for cover.

"Herminio expressed it's always safer to travel with family," DEA Special Agent Jeff Hayes wrote in an affidavit filed with the indictment.

But the smuggling operations are also low tech. One 24-year-old Tijuana man was caught with 45 lbs of methamphetamine, worth almost $900,000, when customs agents at San Ysidro, Calif., noticed his face was "flushed and his hands were shaking."

Another man, Ramon Lopez, 41, was arrested on April 8 trying to smuggle 53 lbs of meth through a crossing point at Calexico, Calif. He told federal officers he was to be paid $1,500 to deliver the drugs to a drop off point at the local Wal-Mart.

In a recent report, the National Drug Intelligence Center said that Mexican gangs have opened distribution points in North Carolina and Georgia to reach new markets along the East Coast.

Nashville, Dallas, and Fort Worth law enforcement agents also report that traffickers distribute meth locally through connections with Hispanic and African American gangs.

Meth "superlabs" have been opened throughout Mexico, but particularly in the states of Michoacan, Baja California, Colima, and Jalisco, officials said. There, "cooks" combine the volatile mixture of pseudoephedrine, taken from common cold medications, with ammonia and other toxic chemicals to make the crystalized white powder.

The drug can be swallowed, smoked, snorted, or injected. Sometimes called the "poor man's cocaine," methamphetamine is a powerful stimulant like cocaine that produces a "rush" and euphoria. The effects of methamphetamine last much longer than those from cocaine, yet it generally costs less.

It cost only 20 cents to produce a $20 worth of methamphetamine, officials said.

"The profits involved are immense" Special Agent Robertson said.

Methamphetamine-related admissions to publicly funded drug treatment facilities have surged to 149,415 in 2006 from 64,481 in 2000, according to the latest data available from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The National Drug Intelligence Center attributes the rise in addiction to the increasing prevalence of Mexican "ice," a more concentrated form of the drug that like crack cocaine is usually smoked.

(Ordonez reports for The Charlotte Observer.)

McClatchy Newspapers 2008

print email Digg it del.icio.us AIM Ohio judge to decide man's fate for sharing snack cake
The Associated Press

http://www.dispatch.com
A judge in southern Ohio must decide whether to send a man to prison for sharing a Little Debbie snack cake. The case involves 21-year-old Timothy Caudill, who last year was held in a residential community corrections program in Nelsonville for breaking into a bar.

While there, prosecutors said he bought the oatmeal creme pie from a vending machine and shared it with a fellow inmate who was on restriction and wasn't allowed access to snacks.

Prosecutors in Vinton County have asked Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Simmons to revoke Caudill's probation and put him in prison for nine months.

Caudill's attorney Claire Ball said that's outrageous. Ball says keeping Caudill out of a state prison would leave cell space for a more serious offender.


Information from: The Columbus Dispatch, http://www.dispatch.com

Boy Scout J.R. Bouterse does the right thing by turning in wallet with $800 Posted by Tom Rademacher | The Grand Rapids Press April 29, 2008 05:53AM Categories: Breaking News, Top Photos Press Photo/T.J. HamiltonBoy Scout John Robert Bouterse, 11, found a wallet belonging to Jessica Cutler, of Wayland, in the parking lot of Open Door Reformed Church in Dorr. He was honored by the Michigan State Police, the Gerald R. Ford council and Jessica Cutler.

DORR -- When 11-year-old Boy Scout J.R. Bouterse discovered a wallet containing more than $800 peeking out from a melting mound of snow and debris, he heard at least two voices.

One asked, "Should I keep it?" The other wondered, "Should I go tell?"

The latter won out, when "after only a glimpse of a second, I ran to go get the adults."

But J.R. also acted on another impulse in addition to the one that rules our consciences.

Empathy.

"I knew exactly," J.R. says., "how she felt."

"She" in this case is Jessica Cutler, the 20-year-old manager of a Burger King on M-40 near Allegan. It was five or six months ago that she cashed two weeks' salary and stashed it in her wallet, planning to buy herself an aquarium.

Things tanked, however, after leaving a Dorr-area church with boyfriend Gabriel Grevenstuk, 24. She found she had her purse, but no wallet. Frantic, the two searched the vehicle, church and parking lot. Bottom line? Go fish.

Press Photo/Rex LarsenBoy Scout John Robert Bouterse, 11, is interviewed by a television crew."I work hard for my money," said Cutler, who puts in as many as 60 hours a week. "I was freaking out. I didn't know where it could have gone. We re-traced our steps that day and the next day.

"It was a lot of money to lose. I'm on my own, with my own bills to pay. I was definitely devastated."

Enter J.R. Just over a week ago, he was exiting a Boy Scout meeting at the same church -- Open Door Reformed -- and was reveling in a spirited game of Capture the Flag atop plowed mounds of old snow and grime.

"I got caught and had to go to jail," he said, "and I saw this shiny thing like a rock. I went to put it in my rock collection, and thought, 'Boy, what a neat rock.'"

As J.R. neared his find, he started digging, and "it started getting bigger and bigger."

Suddenly, it wasn't a rock, but a wallet, "with cash and receipts falling out of it."

It is not that he couldn't use the money. J.R. has a mess of hobbies outside of rock collecting, with one or two of them requiring an occasional outlay of cash.

He is saving right now, for instance, to buy a CB radio and has about $120 of the $129 needed to get "the one with everything that I want on it."

He is also into go-karting and says that with $800, he could have upgraded to new tires and a more powerful engine.

That he is not $800 richer at Jessica Cutler's expense is a feather in their son's cap, says mom Michelle Bouterse, 41. "We're just so proud of him. We can't say enough."

Michelle describes J.R. -- short for John Robert -- as "extremely mature and intelligent," the oldest of five children born to her and husband Robert, 43. Both work in engineering, a career path that interests J.R., who is a fifth-grader at Wayland's Pine Street Elementary School.

To reward J.R., state police from the Wayland post threw a pizza party Monday night, not only for their law-abiding hero, but all 30 Boy Scouts belonging to Troop 90.

To top things off, J.R. was surprised to come face-to-face with Jessica Cutler, so she could personally thank him for the wallet, returned to her by a law enforcement official.

"I can't believe someone would find a wallet with that much money in it and not take some," Cutler said. "A lot of people maybe wouldn't have done that same thing. I'm just glad he found it, and not someone else."

And glad she should be.

Because just a month prior to finding Cutler's wallet at the church, J.R. Bouterse was not a quarter-mile from that site, observing his younger siblings engaged in an Easter Egg Hunt at a neighborhood park.

By the time he returned home, he was, in the words of his mother, "very upset with himself."

J.R. had lost the wallet given to him last Christmas, and inside it, the $45 he received March 27 for his 11th birthday. It remains lost today.

So now you know how he felt to find not a rock last week, but someone else's treasure.

Chilean town giving free Viagra to senior citizens The Associated Press

A working class suburb of Chile's capital began handing out free Viagra to senior citizens on Wednesday. Lo Prado Mayor Gonzalo Navarrete said he launched the program because "an active sexuality improves the overall quality of life."

About 1,500 residents of the working-class area are eligible to receive as many as four pills of the erectile dysfunction drug each month, the mayor said. They have to be at least 60 and be registered with the municipality's health service.

"A doctor will have to certify that they suffer from erectile dysfunction and that their condition would not put them in danger of suffering cardio-respiratory side effects," Navarrete told The Associated Press by telephone.

He said he has assured about US$10,000 (euro6,400) in financing for the program through the end of the year.

Some government insurance plans in the United States and elsewhere provide Viagra, but Lo Prado hands the 50mg pills out free, with no membership in any public or private insurance plan required.

Navarrete said some other mayors in the Santiago area, which includes 34 municipalities, have told him they plan similar programs.

Navarrete said he did not know how many pills had been distributed so far.