Archive for the 'legal' Category
Source: LA Times
Two council members want to expand on a state law to make it more difficult for people convicted of certain misdemeanors to own weapons.
Just a few weeks after the Los Angeles City Council approved a batch of new gun and ammunition ordinances tightening restrictions on ammunition vendors, council members Jack Weiss and Janice Hahn are proposing a new law that would make it more difficult for individuals convicted of certain misdemeanors to own guns.
The proposal, which Weiss and Hahn plan to introduce as early as today’s council meeting, would expand on a state law that bars possession of a gun for 10 years if convicted of certain crimes, including assault, illegal weapons sales or threatening a public official or a witness.
L.A. County Sheriff’s Department reloads…L.A. council tightens gun, ammunition laws
Weiss, a candidate for city attorney in the March 3 primary election, has made gun control one of his top campaign issues.
Weiss and Hahn’s measure would add other offenses to the list, including carrying a concealed weapon, possession of an assault weapon, burglary and misdemeanor gang crimes.
Noting that there have been 138 victims of gun violence in L.A. this year, Weiss said it was “time for more aggressive and more creative measures to stop the killing.”
Hahn said the measure was intended to target gangs.
“People who commit these types of crimes have already demonstrated bad judgment, and this ordinance gives us one more tool to keep guns out of their hands and off the streets of Los Angeles,” she said.
The proposal would require council approval and legal review by the city attorney’s office before it is drafted as an ordinance.
US veterans sue CIA for alleged drug and mind control experiments
Author: goldironPlaintiffs seek to force the government to contact all the subjects of the testing
It was 1968, and Frank Rochelle was 20 years old and fresh out of Army boot camp when he saw notices posted around his base in Virginia asking for volunteers to test uniforms and equipment.
That might be a good break after the harsh weeks of boot camp, he thought, and signed up.
Instead of equipment testing, though, the Onslow county, North Carolina, native found himself in a bizarre, CIA-funded drug testing and mind-control programme, according to a lawsuit that he and five other veterans and Vietnam Veterans of America filed last week. The suit was filed in federal court in San Francisco against the US department of defence and the CIA.
The plaintiffs seek to force the government to contact all the subjects of the experiments and give them proper healthcare.
The experiments have been the subject of congressional hearings, and in 2003 the US department of veterans affairs released a pamphlet that said nearly 7,000 soldiers had been involved and more than 250 chemicals used on them, including hallucinogens such as LSD and PCP as well as biological and chemical agents.
Lasting from 1950 to 1975, the experiments took place at Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland. According to the lawsuit, some of the volunteers were even implanted with electrical devices in an effort to control their behaviour.
Rochelle, 60, who has come back to live in Onslow county, said in an interview that there were about two dozen volunteers when he was taken to Edgewood. Once there, they were asked to volunteer a second time, for drug testing. They were told that the experiments were harmless and that their health would be carefully monitored, not just during the tests but afterward, too.
The doctors running the experiments, though, couldn’t have known the drugs were safe, because safety was one of the things they were trying to find out, Rochelle said.
“We volunteered, yes, but we were not fully aware of the dangers,” he said. “None of us knew the kind of drugs they gave us, or the after-effects they’d have.”
Rochelle said he was given just one breath of a chemical in aerosol form that kept him drugged for two and a half days, struggling with visions. He said he saw animals coming out of the walls and his freckles moving like bugs under his skin. At one point, he tried to cut the freckles out with a razor.
Not all the men in his group tested drugs. But he said even those who just tested equipment were mistreated.
“Their idea of testing a gas mask was to give you a faulty one and put you in a gas chamber,” he said. “It was just diabolical.”
The tests lasted about two months. Later, Rochelle was sent to Vietnam.
Now he’s rated 60% disabled by the veterans affairs department, he said, and has struggled to keep his civilian job working on US marine bases. He has breathing problems, and his short-term memory is so bad that he once left his son at a gas station.
Among other problems, he said, his doctor diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder and said it came from the drug experiment. He has trouble sleeping and still sometimes has visions from the drug, he said.
A big goal of the lawsuit, Rochelle said, is to get the word out to the thousands of soldiers who were tested. Some may have forgotten all about the tests and not know that’s why they now have health problems.
Blackwater Worldwide Changes Its Name to Xe; Same Mercenaries, but Now with More “Aviation Support”
Author: goldironSource: Cryptogon
Blackwater has probably been used for U.S. Government narcotics trafficking operations before, but it looks like that is going to be a major component of their business going forward.
Note the phrase “aviation support” in the story below. Aviation support is synonymous with narcotics trafficking. If you read, Compromised: Clinton, Bush and the CIA, this will all make much more sense.
Also note the mention of West Africa as a venue for increased Blackwater/Xe activity. In this context, see: Global Cocaine Trade Moves to Africa:
West Africa is an unlikely center for the international cocaine trade. It is not a producer of the drug nor is it a consumer, as the vast majority of its people are very poor.
Yet a startling 50 tons of cocaine is transported through West Africa each year, according to the latest United Nations estimates. The value of this illicit trade dwarfs entire economies and has the potential to corrupt the region’s fragile states, which are just pulling out of decades of bitter civil wars.
In the past Africa has been a treasure trove looted by covetous colonialists, voracious rebels and kleptocratic rulers — over the last 300 years think slaves, ivory, gold, diamonds, tin and coltan. Now it is a transit point and storeroom for the cocaine trade.
“Drug money is perverting the weak economies in the region,†says Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. The wholesale value in European streets of cocaine passing through West Africa is $2 billion, he says.
South American cartels used to transport cocaine to the big U.S. market via the Caribbean. But dwindling American consumption, stricter control of the West Indies drugs route, growing cocaine use in Europe and weak law enforcement in West Africa have conspired to bring the drug to the region. It is the path of least resistance.
Grown and processed in South America, the refined cocaine is transported by boat or plane across the Atlantic: The shortest line of latitude brings the cargo straight to West Africa. From there the cartels move the drugs onwards to Europe, along the way paying off West African officials in order to be able to operate freely.
So, we have Blackwater/Xe increasing “aviation support” activities in two of the hottest narcotics trafficking hubs in the world. Coincidences.
Blackwater/Xe/ or whatever those crooks are calling themselves this week, are probably going to be performing the same role as Barry and the Boys did at Mena, Arkansas in the 1980s. Running contractors and cutouts, training drug pilots, retrofitting aircraft, and actually carrying out narcotics trafficking operations. Soup to nuts.
In other words, same shit, different decade.
Via: AP:
Blackwater Worldwide is still protecting U.S. diplomats in Iraq, but executives at the beleaguered security firm are taking their biggest step yet to put that work and the ugly reputation it earned the company behind them.
Blackwater said Friday it will no longer operate under the name that came to be known worldwide as a caustic moniker for private security, dropping the tarnished brand for a disarming and simple identity: Xe, which is pronounced like the letter “z.”
It’s a rare surrender for a company that cherished a brand name inspired by the dark-water swamps of northeastern North Carolina, one that survived another rebranding effort about a year ago, following a deadly shooting in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square. The decision to give it up underscores how badly the Moyock-based company’s brand was damaged by that incident and other security work in Iraq.
“They have established themselves as the bad guys,” said Katy Helvenston, who sued the company following her son’s death during a mission in Fallujah while working for Blackwater in 2004. “They’ve established such a horrible reputation. Why else would they change their name?”
Blackwater acknowledged last year in an interview with the The Associated Press the damage to its reputation had persuaded the company to focus on lines of business other than private security contracting.
The issue came to a head last month, when the State Department said it would not rehire Blackwater to protect its diplomats in Iraq after its current contract with the company expires in May. The company has one other major security contract, details of which are classified.
“It’s not a direct result of a loss of (that) contract, but certainly that is an aspect of our work that we feel we were defined by,” said spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell.
The company is also replacing its bear paw logo with a sleeker black-and-white graphic based on letters that make up the company’s new name. In a note to employees, president Gary Jackson said the name change reflects the company’s new focus, and he indicated Xe would not actively pursue new security business.
“This company will continue to provide personnel protective services for high-threat environments when needed by the U.S. government, but its primary mission will be operating our training facilities around the world,” Jackson said.
It has expanded other businesses such as aviation support, recently building a fleet of 76 aircraft that it has deployed to such hotspots as West Africa and Afghanistan. The company got its start in training and continues to build up that business. Last year, some 25,000 civilians, law enforcement and military personnel attended a Blackwater class.
The company’s changes aren’t entirely voluntary. The 2007 shooting in Nisoor Square involving Blackwater guards left at least a dozen Iraqi civilians dead, infuriated politicians in Baghdad and Washington, triggered congressional hearings and increased calls that the company be banned from Iraq.
Late last year, prosecutors charged five of the company’s contractors — but not Blackwater itself — with manslaughter and weapons violations. In January, Iraqi officials said they would not give the company a license to operate. The State Department responded by informing Blackwater it would not renew a contract that comprises a third of the company’s nearly $1 billion in annual revenue.
“It would hurt us,” company CEO Erik Prince said in an interview before losing the State Department deal. “It would not be a mortal blow, but it would hurt us.”
Blackwater has rebranded before, introducing a new name — Blackwater Worldwide — and slight changes to its logo about a year ago. But Friday’s announcement cuts ties entirely with a name created in 1997 when Prince and some of his former Navy SEAL colleagues launched the company.
Xe will cover the parent brand for the two-dozen subsidiaries, and none of those subsidiaries will retain the word “Blackwater” in their names.
Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky, chair of the Intelligence Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and a longtime Blackwater critic, said the new name won’t change the fact that its actions have resulted in the deaths of innocent civilians.
“Blackwater’s notorious reputation will outlast its name,” she said.
Source: Now Public
Police opened fire on an unarmed couple during a routine traffic stop late Tuesday night because one officer “thought he was shot,” a high-ranking Salinas Police Department official said Thursday.
“He saw what he perceived as a threat and thought he was shot, and based on that both officers discharged their firearms,” said Dino Bardoni, commander of investigations.
No one was hurt in the 11:24 p.m. incident at North Sanborn Road and Freedom Parkway, but the couple’s SUV was riddled with bullet holes and its rear window was shattered.
Police are releasing few details about the incident or case and have characterized it as a “priority investigation,” Bardoni said.
It’s the fourth officer-involved shooting in the city in the past seven months, two of which were fatal.
Interim Police Chief Daniel Ortega refused to discuss the most recent case, referring all questions to Bardoni.
Bardoni said the incident began when one officer stopped the vehicle because one of its license plate lights was not working. He was joined shortly thereafter by a second officer.
Bardoni said the primary officer was in the midst of contacting the vehicle’s occupants, a driver and passenger, when the problem began.
“He was walking up to them, nothing out of the ordinary,” Bardoni said, when there was the perception of a threat and the officer thought he’d been shot.
Police later determined that the couple was unarmed.
Neither of the vehicle’s occupants was arrested or cited.
The couple, Adrianna Velasquez and Julio Fernandez, could not be reached for comment.
Bardoni declined to identify the officers or to confirm or deny that one of them is the same officer who was involved in the tragic shooting death last year of Maria Irma Del La Torre, 45, of Salinas.
She was shot and killed when officers mistook a knitting needle for an ice pick and said she lunged at them. De La Torre was taking medication for epileptic seizures at the time of her death.
Contact Jack Foley at jfoley@thecalifornian.com
California DMV considering facial recognition
Proposed $63M facial recognition contract would help flag applicants applying for fraudulent licenses
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San Jose Mercury News (CA)
via NewsEdge Corporation
Feb. 4–SACRAMENTO — Even as cost-conscious Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger looks to trim state spending every way he can, officials at the Department of Motor Vehicles are planning to spend tens of millions of dollars on new driver’s license technology.
And privacy advocates say finances are the least of the plan’s problems.
The proposed $63 million contract includes facial recognition software that would allow the DMV to quickly compare an applicant’s new photo against other photos in the agency’s database in an effort to deter identity theft. The system could eventually include as many as 25 million images of drivers statewide.
Similar software is used in Oregon, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado and Georgia. California DMV officials say that by flagging applicants who already have a license under a different name, the software has led to a reduction in fraudulent licenses and identification cards by as much as 10 percent in those states.
But the five-year contract, which is being fast-tracked and could be approved as early as next month, is drawing objections from privacy advocates who fear state and local authorities could use the biometric technology to monitor the movements of “innocent people” — for instance, spectators at a sporting event or an anti-war rally.
“What this would allow law enforcement to do is scan a crowd of folks, check that image against the database and have their names and addresses,” said Valerie Smalls
Navarro of the American Civil Liberties Union in Sacramento.
The ACLU is fighting the proposal with a handful of other groups, including Consumers Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Consumer Federation of California, which says the plan poses “massive threats” to personal privacy.
“We see this as sort of creeping Big Brother government, an invasion of people’s privacy,” said Richard Holober, executive director of the San Mateo-based Consumer Federation of California.
The DMV says privacy concerns are overblown because, under its interpretation of state law, police departments don’t have “open access” to the current database that contains drivers’ information.
When police need to track down a license holder’s address or driving record, said Dennis Clear, a DMV assistant director for legislation, they must request it from the department. Similarly, police would have to ask in order to check a suspect’s picture against the new database. The database is protected, he said, “and that’s not going to change.”
If anything, Clear said, the new system will significantly improve privacy. “We believe this new contract is in the best interest of the citizens; it is in the best interest of all of us.”
But the proposal also is eliciting criticism for the hasty manner in which it’s being driven through the state’s bureaucracy — using an expedited process for select budget items that can be funded without the scrutiny of public hearings.
The state Department of Finance, which allocates the DMV’s budget, is processing the contract proposal through a so-called Section 11 application, which in many cases allows for a speedy, 30-day approval. The state would be able to sign the contract after Feb. 14, unless the Legislature intervenes before then, and the biometric features could be in place as early as 2010.
The current contract to manufacture driver’s licenses expires in June. Under that contract, the state pays 65 cents for each license. The new contract will push the price to $1.40 per card, which amounts to $63 million in a five-year period, Clear said.
“We feel it’s worth it as an investment because, frankly, the system we have today is wearing out,” Clear said. “We have cameras that are no longer functioning, we have hardware that is breaking down.”
State officials turned to the fast-track process — instead of waiting for the state budget to be approved in what has become an increasingly drawn-out process — because they say California desperately needs to improve security features on its licenses.
Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, perhaps the most outspoken lawmaker when it comes to privacy issues, is urging his colleagues to put the contract proposal before a public hearing, where DMV officials could provide more details about the facial recognition technology.
“There are at least four questions I want to ask,” Simitian said. They are: Does the technology work? How much does it cost? Does it make the public safer? How will privacy be protected?
“None of those questions should be avoided or evaded by doing an end around the process, which is really what’s being proposed here,” Simitian said.
Wednesday, he formally asked the Joint Legislative Budget Committee to reject the finance department’s fast-track application for the contract.
Committee spokesman John Ferrera said the committee is aware of the concerns raised by the application and is “giving the request consideration.”
South Dakota: State Takes no Blame for Creating Dangerous Intersection
Author: goldironSouth Dakota: State Takes no Blame for Creating Dangerous Intersection
South Dakota Supreme Court ruling absolves state officials from blame in maintaining dangerous conditions at intersections.
The South Dakota Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a ruling absolving the state from any liability in cases where it fails to warn motorists on roadways with an inherently dangerous design. On February 13, 2004 two families were driving at the “Four Corners” intersection of Highways 14, 34 and 63. These roads merge together on a sharp curve in a blind crossing without a stop or yield sign. The two cars collided nearly head-on, taking the lives of three and severely injuring four others. The surviving family members sued Darren Griese, in his official capacity as South Dakota Department of Transportation (DOT) Pierre Region Traffic Engineer.
The high court majority ruled that a state employee could not be held responsible for failing to maintain warning signs at the dangerous intersection because he was protected by sovereign immunity. The court reasoned that Griese had been operating as an expert with the discretion to post or not post signs as his personal judgment dictated. As long as no law required the posting of a sign, he was protected from any lawsuit.
“If the legislature or other policy maker has not demanded performance, the decision to act or not act is discretionary,” Chief Justice David Gilbertson wrote for the 5-2 majority. “One can only imagine the reaction of an average citizen if he or she… were ‘plucked off the street’ and informed it was now his or her legal duty to place ’substantial and conspicuous warning signs’ at any ’sharp turn, blind crossing or other point of danger…’ How much stronger would their reaction be when they realize that the failure to place a sign in every conceivable place would result in their being subjected to suit and criminal charge simply based on a plaintiff’s pleading disagreeing with the initial placement decision, and a jury being allowed to ‘Monday morning quarterback’ his or her conclusions…”
Justice Richard W. Sabers authored a scathing dissent that contended the duty to place signs at blind crossings was not only mandatory, it was a class one misdemeanor to fail to do so. The disagreement was so sharp that Gilbertson and Sabers took a number of personal jabs at each other. Sabers labeled the chief justice’s reasoning “preposterous” and cited past cases authored by Gilbertson that appeared to disagree with his present ruling. Gilbertson, in turn, cited cases where Sabers appeared to hold an opinion opposite to the one he now held. Sabers set the case up for challenge before the US Supreme Court by asserting that the majority’s decision violated the plaintiffs’ Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial on the material facts involved in the case.
“Incredibly, under the majority’s view, the highway department could arbitrarily, unreasonable and capriciously design the busiest, most dangerous intersection in South Dakota with inadequate signage or signage that goes out of repair, as here, and never be accountable, despite numerous injuries and deaths, year after year,” Sabers wrote.
A full copy of the decision is available in a 1.4mb PDF file at the source link below.
Source: 
Truman v. Griese (South Dakota Supreme Court, 2/11/2009)
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood Meets with State Transportation Leaders to Discuss Economic Recovery Spending
Author: goldironDOT 17-09
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Contact: Bill Adams
Tel.: (202) 366-4570
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood Meets with State Transportation Leaders to Discuss Economic Recovery Spending
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today met with leaders of state departments of transportation from across the country in preparation for final passage of the economic recovery bill.
“The upshot of these meetings is that we have thousands of worthwhile transportation projects that are ready to go. They’ve cleared all the hurdles and just need the funding,” said Secretary LaHood. “The U.S. Department of Transportation is ready to get the money out the door. We now need the Congress to pass a final bill.”
The meeting, which took place in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, came one day after the U.S. Senate approved the Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The House passed its version on January 28. Both bills now go to a House-Senate conference committee where the differences in the legislation will be resolved.
North Carolina Secretary of Transportation Eugene Conti, one of more than 40 state transportation heads at the meeting, said, “NCDOT, along with other transportation departments across the nation, has been working to identify projects that would both improve our transportation system and create needed jobs. This funding is key to helping us address the growing economic and infrastructure challenges we are currently facing.”
Secretary LaHood said the bills passed provide approximately $46 billion for transportation infrastructure, including up to $30 billion for highways, $12 billion for transit, $3.1 billion for passenger rail and $3 billion for airports. In addition, the Senate bill also includes $5.5 billion for a supplemental discretionary grant program. Eligible projects include highways and bridges, public transit, passenger and freight rail transportation and port infrastructure.
Secretary LaHood told participants that accountability would be one of his highest priorities and that his Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) team would be closely monitoring all aspects of the recovery funding.
The Secretary’s TIGER team is composed of officials from across the Department’s operating administrations and offices. The team is co-chaired by Lana Hurdle, deputy assistant secretary for budget and programs, and Joel Szabat, deputy assistant secretary for transportation policy.
Skin-baring might bring ticket, arrest
MYRTLE BEACH — Myrtle Beach leaders are considering a tougher indecent exposure law that would allow officers to issue tickets or make arrests the first time they see someone baring too much skin.
The Sun News of Myrtle Beach reports that the current so-called “thong ordinance” requires officers to issue a warning before issuing tickets. Myrtle Beach has banned thongs on the beach for 16 years.
City spokesman Mark Kruea says the tougher law is not in response to May motorcycle rallies along the Grand Strand, although he acknowledges the biker events bring an increase in illegally exposed skin.
The Myrtle Beach City Council will consider the new rules for the first time today.
Myrtle Beach Asks Atlantic Beach for Biker Ban
Atlantic Beach, SC - (AP) — Officials from Myrtle Beach want their counterparts in nearby Atlantic Beach to join them in getting rid of motorcycle rallies.
The Sun News of Myrtle Beach reports that leaders in Atlantic Beach say the annual rally that attracts black motorcyclists makes money for the town.
Councilman Donnell Thompson says he would consider banning the rally if Myrtle Beach helped his town with its financial problems.
Myrtle Beach passed 15 laws last year designed to get rid of two May motorcycle rallies — the Harley-Davidson spring rally that attracts mostly white riders, and the Atlantic Beach Bikefest.
Myrtle Beach City Manager Tom Leath detailed the new laws at the meeting, and said it is time to regain control of the Grand Strand.
Lee Rogers On Overnight America w/ Jon Grayson Discussing The FEMA Camp Bill
Below is an mp3 file of Lee Rogers as a guest on the syndicated CBS Radio show, Overnight America w/ Jon Grayson discussing HR 645 or the National Emergency Centers Act which authorizes existing facilities to be used as National Emergency facilities as well as the Homeland Security Secretary to build additional FEMA facilities on open and closed military bases.
Typical of the mainstream media, Jon attempts to debunk the significance of this legislation by ignoring obvious patterns of past behavior by the government in preserving and setting up detention facilities under the guise of illegal immigration, continuity of government and more. He also ignores the fact that the government does not follow the Constitution and is engaged in a myriad of criminal activity. For example, the John Yoo torture memo which was obviously unconstitutional and broke international law, was used to justify the torture of so called terrorists by the criminal Bush regime. The same type of thinking could easily be applied if HR 645 is passed into law.
Jon claims that the provision in the bill which authorizes the Department of Homeland Security to use these facilities for whatever purposes they deem to be necessary is irrelevant because it doesn’t authorize the government to break the law. Since when has the government followed the Constitution which is the supreme law of the land? They break the law all the time. The argument is null and void.
He also references the Wannsee Conference which was a meeting of high level Nazi officials to discuss the concentration camp plan for the Jews during World War II. It was a meeting whose contents were kept top secret throughout the war. Hitler never came out and told the people that he was building death camps, but like in America today he incrmentally and quietly built the infrastructure necessary to carry out what was codenamed the Final Solution. The point is, is that the plan was secret which he fails to mention.
goldiron