Archive for the 'motorcycles' Category
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.”
Judge Says Trooper’s Stop Was Improper
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A state trooper attempted on Wednesday to defend himself against charges that he made an improper traffic stop.
Video: Witnesses Testify In Motorcycle Stop
Trooper Jimmy Knowles came face-to-face with his accuser, and one witness came from as far away as Atlanta to testify in the hearing.
Andru Evans and Eddie Jennings both testified in traffic court that they told Knowles that he had pulled over the wrong person for speeding in October.
“I’m coming out of my truck, and I’m yelling him, telling, ‘You got the wrong guy. You got the wrong guy,’” testified Jennings.
The men were in separate vehicles traveling on Interstate 40 in Wilson County in October. Both said they remember seeing another biker, Rick Laude, on his motorcycle with his girlfriend going the speed limit with traffic.
Somewhere around mile marker 217, two other motorcycles zoomed by going at least 133 miles per hour. Not long after that, the witnesses said they saw blue lights and Knowles stopping Laude.
The trooper’s in-car video showed Laude with his hands up and Knowles pulling him from his bike. What was not on the video were the witnesses pleading with Knowles, telling him he had the wrong motorcycle rider.
“There were two separate cars where people were hollering out of their window, ‘You have the wrong guy,’ It was two bikes, not two people,” said Evans.
In court on Tuesday, Knowles admitted he made a mistake in believing Laude was part of the group of speeders, but stuck by his belief that Laude was reckless in driving on the shoulder of the interstate.
In the end, the judge ruled the October stop was improper and threw out the charges against Laude.
Knowles expressed regret but stuck by his claim that Laude was driving recklessly.
“I seen him pass on the shoulder. I made an honest mistake of pulling him over, thinking he was part of the pursuit,” said Knowles.
Knowles said he never struck Laude, but said he pulled the man from the bike because he believed he was ignoring his commands to get off the motorcycle.
He said he has been a trooper for seven years, and his record doesn’t reflect any past problems of this nature.
An internal investigation by the Tennessee Highway Patrol has recommended that Knowles be suspended for five days without pay. The suspension is going through the appeals process.
Laconia council mulls extra day for Bike Week vendors
Saying it represents a “goodwill gesture” as well as an opportunity to bring in some extra licensing revenues, the City Council is supporting the idea of letting vendors sell their wares one day before the official start of Bike Week 2009.
Following a meeting of the council’s Finance Committee Monday, City Manager Eileen Cabanel was directed to draft an ordinance that, following a public hearing, could be in place for the rally, which this year runs from June 13-21.
For $100 extra, a vendor would be able to start doing business as of a time to be determined on June 12. A regular Bike Week licensing permit costs $450.
The rationale behind the early vending fee is that the vendors are already here, that they want to sell and that locals are eager to buy before the activities really start rolling, said Councilors Armand Bolduc and Bob Hamel.
The city’s public safety heads say the extended vending wouldn’t change the way they already did business on the Friday before the rally, but both Police Chief Mike Moyer and Fire Chief Ken Erickson expressed concern about the “slippery slope” of Bike Week stretching beyond its current nine days.
While its was agreed that food vendors might also want to begin doing business as their t-shirt or leathers-selling brethren, the chiefs and the committee members were adamant that they would not support the early opening of three beer tents.
Moyer, in conversations he had with rally promoter Charlie St. Clair of the Laconia Motorcycle Week Association, estimated that the earlier vending could see the city make up to an additional $1,200 this year. Erickson speculated that up to 30 vendors might take advantage of the extra selling opportunity.
However many vendors do show up, said Bolduc, who represents the city on the LMWA board of directors, that’s better than seeing those vendors and potential customers go to another venue outside of Laconia.
“Let’s try this for a year and see what happens,” Hamel said. “I think we can get a fair amount of people open.”
With the city of Myrtle Beach, S.C. canceling its two motorcycle rallies this year, “we could have a huge influx of vendors and visitors,” Hamel added, suggesting that vendors could be allowed to sell from 2 p.m. until Midnight on Bike Week Eve.
Erickson expressed surprise that “we’re not shortening this thing,” later explaining that to keep costs down for the city and also for vendors, the rally could be shorter than it is now. The extra several hours that a vendor gets to sell his merchandise at Bike Week will not mean significantly more income for the vendor, Erickson said.
Hamel suggested that the council hold a public hearing on the vending changes and Cabanel agreed, noting that some residents of The Weirs already “complain very loudly” that the rally is too long.
Joe Driscoll, of the Weirs Action Committee, said if the council allows the early vending,” this would be seen very much as a good will gesture” by property owners and vendors while also helping to keep Bike Week money in Laconia.
Driscoll went so far as to suggest that the vendors be able to open up on Friday for free. He discounted Cabanel’s concern that if Laconia allows earlier vending, competing venues in other communities would do the same. Driscoll said most Bike Week visitors don’t show up much sooner than the Friday before the start of the rally.
Police Agencies in Texas Stealing Property from People Who Haven’t Even Been Charged with Criminal Activity
Author: goldironSource: Express News
TENAHA — A two-decade-old state law that grants authorities the power to seize property used in crimes is wielded by some agencies against people who never are charged with — much less convicted of — criminal activity.
Law enforcement authorities in this East Texas town of 1,000 people seized property from at least 140 motorists between 2006 and 2008, and, to date, filed criminal charges against fewer than half, according to a review of court documents by the San Antonio Express-News.
Virtually anything of value was up for grabs: cash, cell phones, personal jewelry, a pair of sneakers, and often, the very car that was being driven through town.
Some affidavits filed by officers relied on the presence of seemingly innocuous property as the only evidence that a crime had occurred.
Linda Dorman, an Akron, Ohio, great-grandmother had $4,000 in cash taken from her by local authorities when she was stopped while driving through town after visiting Houston in April 2007. Court records make no mention that anything illegal was found in her van. She’s still hoping for the return of what she calls “her life savings.”
Dorman’s attorney, David Guillory, calls the roadside stops and seizures in Tenaha “highway piracy,” undertaken by a couple of law enforcement officers whose agencies get to keep most of what was seized.
Guillory is suing officials in Tenaha and Shelby County on behalf of Dorman and nine other clients whose property was confiscated. All were African-Americans driving either rentals or vehicles with out-of-state plates.
Guillory alleges in the lawsuit that while his clients were detained, they were presented with an ultimatum: waive your rights to your property in exchange for a promise to be released and not be criminally charged.
He said most did as Dorman did, signing the waiver to avoid jail.
The state’s asset seizure law doesn’t require that law enforcement agencies file criminal charges in civil forfeiture cases. It requires only a preponderance of evidence that the property was used in the commission of certain crimes, such as drug crimes, or bought with proceeds of those crimes.
That’s a lesser burden than is required in a criminal case. And it allows police departments and prosecutors to divvy up what they get from such seizures — what critics say is a built-in incentive for unscrupulous, underfinanced law enforcement agencies to illegally strip motorists of their property.
Some lawmakers, fed up with calls from irate constituents, say enough is enough. Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, said the state’s asset forfeiture law is being abused by enough jurisdictions across the state that he wants to rewrite major sections of it this year.
“The idea that people lose their property but are never charged and never get it back, that’s theft as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, believes some law enforcement agencies in his cash-strapped district in the Rio Grande Valley have become so dependent on the profitable seizures that they routinely misapply the state’s civil forfeiture law.
“In a lot of cases, they’re more focused on trying to find the money than in trying to find the drugs,” he said.
That means law enforcement agencies in the Valley tend to target vehicles heading south into Mexico rather than northbound cars, Hinojosa said, because the southbound vehicles are more likely to be transporting cash — the profits from the drug trade — as opposed to just the drugs.
In 2008, three years after stripping a man of $10,032 in cash as he drove south along U.S. 281 to buy a headstone for his dying aunt, Jim Wells County officials returned the man’s money — and the county then paid him $110,000 in damages as part of a settlement. Attorney Malcolm Greenstein said criminal charges never were filed against his client, Javier Gonzalez, nor any of the dozens of people whose records he reviewed. People were given the option of going to jail or signing a waiver, Greenstein said. Like Gonzalez, most signed the waiver.
Cash-poor Tenaha
Supporters tout the state’s forfeiture law, when used right, as an essential law enforcement tool, allowing state and local departments the ability to go after criminals — using the crooks’ money. Law enforcement agencies last year captured tens of millions of dollars from such seizures statewide, according to records from Whitmire’s office.
But in Tenaha, a town of chicken farms that hugs the Louisiana border, critics say being a black out-of-towner passing through with anything of value is seen as evidence of a crime.
Tenaha Mayor George Bowers, 80, defended the seizures, saying they allowed a cash-poor city the means to add a second police car in a two-policeman town and help pay for a new police station.
“It’s always helpful to have any kind of income to expand your police force,” Bowers said.
Local police, he said, must take aggressive action to stem the narcotics trade that flows through town via U.S. 59 — drugs heading north, cash going south.
“No doubt about it. (U.S. 59) is a thoroughfare that a lot of no-good people travel on. They take the drugs and sell it and take the money and go right back into Mexico,” said Bowers, who’s been Tenaha’s mayor 54 years.
Bowers said he’d defer questions about whether innocent people were being stripped of their property to Shelby County District Attorney Lynda Russell.
Russell couldn’t be reached for comment, and her attorney declined comment.
Randy Whatley, a local constable who himself deposited more than $115,000 into the county’s seizure account for fiscal year 2007 (state records show $45,000 eventually was returned to its owners), also couldn’t be reached for comment.
Russell, Whatley and Bowers are among a half-dozen officials named in Guillory’s lawsuit.
Waiving rights
Harris County District Attorney Patricia Lykos said the state’s forfeiture law, which last year put millions in the coffers of local law enforcement agencies, including hers, takes some of the profit out of crime.
“These ill-gotten gains are used to further the aims of law enforcement and public safety,” she said. “It’s kind of poetic justice, isn’t it?” Lykos said she believes the law, if followed, provides residents with adequate safeguards. Rarely, she said, do seizures take place locally without the filing of criminal charges.
She added that the most perfect law in the world could be sullied by the individuals carrying it out.
“It goes to the integrity of the people enforcing the law,” Lykos said.
An official with Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed’s office did not return a call for comment.
Several now-former district attorneys in Texas already have landed in hot water over their use, or misuse, of their forfeiture accounts. Before his primary defeat last year, then-Montgomery County District Attorney Michael McDougal acknowledged spending hundreds from the fund on alcohol for a community event, and thousands more on staff parties and donations to charities.
The law stipulates that seized money be used for law enforcement purposes but doesn’t specify what those are.
Key lawmakers say more oversight is needed everywhere in the process. The apparent practice in Tenaha of presenting waivers just after people’s property is seized raises troubling questions about how the law is applied there.
The Shelby County district attorney made legal agreements with some individuals that her office wouldn’t file criminal charges so long as the property owner waived all rights to the valuables.
“In exchange for (respondent) signing the agreed order of forfeiture, the Shelby County district attorney’s office agrees to reject charges of money laundering pending at this time,” read one waiver, dated April 10, 2007.
The property owners named in the waiver had just signed over $7,342 in cash, their 1994 Chevrolet Suburban, a cell phone, a Blackberry and a stone necklace. The law forbids a peace officer at the time of seizure to “request, require or in any manner induce any person ….. to execute a document purporting to waive the person’s interest in or rights to the property.”
In Monroe, La., Jason Clemons, an unemployed 36-year-old, says he’d desperately like to reclaim the $3,500 in cash authorities in Tenaha seized from him when the car in which he was a passenger was stopped in 2007 and a marijuana roach was found in the ashtray.
A judge threw out a money laundering charge against him a while back, but his attorneys told him it’s too late to reclaim his money. “If you ask me, they’re running a scam from the district attorney’s office to the police,” Clemons said. “I’m in a real good bind. It’d be nice to see that money.”
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.
S.C. becomes focal point to track funds for gangs, narcotics
South Carolina’s political and military leaders fear that U.S. street gangs are conspiring with international terrorists, an alarming scenario they said highlights the need for a specialized unit that targets major drug runners and their bankrollers.
And they want the South Carolina National Guard to run the federally-funded pilot program.
U.S. Reps. Joe Wilson and Henry Brown, both Republicans, have asked U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to back the creation of a military unit that would bridge a perceived security gap between the international drug trade and the war on terror.
“The National Guard has the capacity and the authority to play a unique role in our nation’s counter-narcotics mission,” Wilson told The Post and Courier. “The counter-narcotics pilot program would specifically target the illicit finance generated by the narcotics industry here at home and abroad which is used to fund terrorist operations around the world.”
Proponents said a successful program in South Carolina could serve as a national model and that several factors make the state a strategic location to set up shop:
–The state boasts an abundance of major military installations and resources that already serve key national security roles, including Charleston Air Force Base and its fleet of C-17s, Charleston’s port and the Navy brig, which has housed terrorism suspects.
–Organized gangs with international ties already are operating in the state. One of these organizations, the notorious Mara Salvatrucha-13 (MS-13), has possible links to hostile groups in Afghanistan and the Middle East, according to Wilson and Brown.
–Wilson cites a new report by the Congressional Research Service on the emerging international threat posed by the MS-13 and 18th Street gangs. The report states that “alarms have been sounded in some circles that international terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda could exploit alien and narcotics smuggling networks controlled by these gangs to infiltrate the United States.”
–The state National Guard already is working in some counter-narcotics programs, and its citizen soldiers are accustomed to collaborating in drug investigations with state and local law enforcement.
But questions remain. Among them: How strong is the evidence linking terrorists, gangs and drug-trafficking? How would this new program square with existing federal, state and local drug enforcement efforts? And is South Carolina the best place for this mission?
The gang connection
Gang activity in South Carolina has increased steadily over the past decade as these criminal organizations have spilled from urban centers into rural and suburban nooks across the nation in search of new territory and customers.
In 2004, the state Law Enforcement Division had identified 84 groups in South Carolina that fit a general definition of a gang: an organized group of five or more people who adopt a common name and engage in crime. By 2007, that figure had ballooned to 325 identified gangs, authorities said.
The number of crimes attributed to gangs has mushroomed as well. In 2007, gangs were linked to more than 950 crimes in South Carolina, including drug trafficking. By comparison, 370 gang-related crimes were reported statewide in 2001, according to SLED.
Many of these groups are what police describe as “hybrid gangs,” small, independent groups connected by turf or friendship. But highly organized gangs with cross-border connections also are present — gangs such as MS-13, Surenos, 18th Street and the Mexican Mafia.
“The number of Hispanic gangs is drastically growing,” said Special Agent Nicole Bryan, SLED’s coordinator on gangs in the Midlands. “As the Hispanic community has grown, Hispanic gangs have increased as part of that growth.”
Across the country, MS-13 and other gangs increasingly have become involved in narcotic trafficking at the wholesale level. They’ve cultivated connections with Mexican drug cartels and other power criminal organizations to gain access to international suppliers and large- volume shipments, according to the National Drug Intelligence Center. These affiliations have increased the availability of illegal drugs and the profits flowing out of the country.
The revenue stream is huge, with traffickers employing myriad of methods to launder and smuggle drug money to foreign destinations. The drug intelligence center estimates that Mexican and Colombian drug traffickers generate and launder as much as $39 billion in wholesale profits annually, much of which is smuggled out of the United States along the Mexican border.
Over the years, South Carolina has emerged as a key distribution point in this narcotics pipeline, serving as a smuggling route for drugs from California, Florida, Georgia, New York, Texas and Mexico. South Carolina’s location along Interstates 95 and 85, between New York and Florida, makes it ideal for drug runners shipping marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin along the Eastern Seaboard, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
“Project 9496″
The pilot program would target this stealthy underworld of drugs and money. The new unit is shrouded in secrecy, with scant details of its origin, funding and status. The Pentagon refers to the program as “Project 9496.”
Col. Pete Brooks, director of public affairs for the S.C. National Guard, said it’s too early to talk about the effort in detail. “We are not even out of the blocks yet. This whole new mission is at the ‘good idea’ stage and is not funded.”
But a Jan. 14 letter from Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard J. Douglas to the National Guard Bureau indicates the pilot program already is approved. The letter states that the South Carolina Counter Narco-Terrorism Pilot Program is to be run and funded separately from an existing network of states’ National Guard counter-drug units.
Brooks said the pilot program would expand the South Carolina Guard’s anti-drug unit, which employs 40 full-time employees and hires about a dozen temporary workers each summer to help destroy marijuana crops.
The program receives about $1.6 million in federal money each year in support of the drug eradication efforts of SLED and local police agencies. How the two agencies would partner under the pilot program is unclear because SLED considers it only “an idea at this point,” according to a statement the agency issued in response to questions from the newspaper. Exactly how much the program would cost also remains unclear.
The letters of support from Brown and Wilson suggest that Gov. Mark Sanford also is pushing for the new mission. But Sanford’s press secretary, Joel Sawyer, said the governor was unaware of the proposal until The Post and Courier inquired about it.
After discussing the plans with state Guard officials, however, Sanford thinks the program is “an intriguing idea,” Sawyer said.
Still, the program’s status and future remains unclear. The National Guard Bureau said federal seed money was set aside only to study the program’s feasibility. The agency couldn’t provide a figure.
Tracking the money
Efforts to choke off terrorist financing began in earnest after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, with then President George W. Bush announcing two weeks later a “major thrust of our war on terrorism … a strike on the financial foundation of the global terror network.”
Within months, the U.S. government froze the assets of dozens of alleged terrorists, banks and nonprofit groups.
Investigators learned that al-Qaida financiers used everything from electronic transfers to camels to move money and fund their operations. Making matters even more challenging was the existence of the hawala system, a centuries-old money loan and transfer system that is based on the honor system among brokers across the world.
Unlike traditional banking systems, which leave trails of paper and records, hawalas typically don’t keep records of individual transactions.
But financing experts and government officials have said tracking down terrorism financiers has suffered in recent years. A report last year by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force said international efforts have had limited success and that the United States and other countries need to create new counter-terrorism techniques.
Reports by the Government Accountability Office in the past two years have said the nation needs an “integrated strategy to coordinate the delivery of counter-terrorism financing training.” A Pentagon report in 2007 called for “one over-arching organization” devoted to international terrorism financing.
John Cassara, a former CIA officer and U.S. Treasury Department agent, said the military in recent years has become more focused on narco-terrorists and their paymasters. He said that this emphasis is a natural outgrowth of the military’s efforts in Afghanistan, where most of the world’s opium is produced.
“We’ve seen over the years how the Taliban has used it to bankroll their operations,” said Cassara, author of “Hide & Seek - Intelligence, Law Enforcement and the Stalled War on Terror Finance.” “The classic line is that if you take away the money, there’s no terrorism. The military realizes this.”
But Cassara said he hasn’t seen any solid evidence showing connections between Latin American gangs and Central Asian and Middle Eastern terrorism. “Could it happen? Absolutely. Does it happen? Frankly I don’t know,” he said, adding that organized criminal gangs are “opportunists, and they will naturally reach out to organizations that can facilitate their operations.”
A recent assessment from the National Drug Intelligence Center reached a similar conclusion, saying such connections are possible but not supported by evidence. The report identified U.S. prison gangs that have spread outside the bars as having the most potential for relationships with terrorists.
While government officials know of no concrete connection between gangs selling drugs in the United States and Middle East terrorist groups, authorities have long known that terrorist organizations in South America, especially in Colombia, fuel much of their activity with drug money. And authorities say they have watched with growing concern as Nigerian criminal groups increasingly have brought drugs, some of it from the Middle East, into this country, including the Southeast.
Motorcyclist treks across state to push tax change
By James Shea
Times-News Staff Writer
Published: Saturday, February 7, 2009 at 4:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, February 6, 2009 at 10:23 p.m.
Mike McLean is riding for a cause. The Henderson County resident, along
with a few other motorcycle enthusiasts, is riding from Horse Shoe to
Cornelius today, hoping to raise awareness for the fair tax proposal.
The fair tax would eliminate the income tax, including Medicare and
Social Security, and replace it with a single sales tax. The idea is to
get away from the complicated tax structure and the Internal Revenue
Service and focus all tax on consumption.
“It is a fair tax, because you are in control of the amount of tax you
pay based on spending,” McLean said.
The sales tax rate would have to be 23 percent to replace the revenue to
the federal government, McLean said.
The tax has gained some momentum in recent years. Locally, former
Republican 11th Congressional District candidate Carl Mumpower of
Asheville supported the proposal, and McLean says 72 current members of
Congress support the fair tax.
A fair tax bill has been introduced into the Senate and House. In the
House, the bill is sponsored by Georgia Rep. John Linder and has 44
co-sponsors. The Senate version is sponsored by Georgia Sen. Saxby
Chambliss and has three co-sponsors.
“It does not change how government is run, but how taxes are collected,”
McLean said.
Others, however, are not convinced. Some economists argue that the tax
would radically transform the American economy. People would spend less
money, knowing a tax was collected each time something is purchased.
McLean has heard the argument but is not convinced. The fair tax, he
said, eliminates political influence on tax policy. Special interest
groups cannot influence who pays taxes and how much they pay because
taxes are only based on buying items.
“If you study it, there is no better alternative,” McLean said.
Saturday’s ride starts at Pigeon River Rustics in Horse Shoe at 9 a.m.
Motorcycle riders pay $15 to ride, and the money goes to support the
fair tax cause. The ride ends at a rally in Cornelius.
“It’s an educational event,” McLean said.
Saturday’s event begins a series of rides to promote the fair tax in
2008. Seven rides of varying distances are planned. The next event is
April 15 and starts in Horse Shoe and riders travel to Columbia, S.C,,
where former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is
scheduled to speak.
“Our whole idea is to move it to the grassroots level,” McLean said.
For more information, visit grassrootsfreedomride.com.
Money may aid new festival, enforcement
As spring draws closer, the picture of how the city of Myrtle Beach is spending its anti-motorcycle-rally money is coming into focus. Read the rest of this entry »
GHSA -State-by-State Survey Reveals Dramatic Highway Fatality Reduction
Author: goldiron40 States + D.C. Indicate Highway Deaths Down in 2008
WASHINGTON, DC — A survey from the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) reveals that deaths on our nation’s roadways declined significantly in 2008. Forty-four states and the District of Columbia provided preliminary data. Of those, 40 states and D.C. indicated a decline in fatalities, while four indicated an increase. Overall, the average decline was 10.7 percent.
Most surprising about the survey was that many states saw a percentage decline in fatalities higher than their percentage decline in Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT). Most states are not yet able to release an indication of VMT from 2008. Notably, however, of the 19 states that indicated a decline in fatalities and provided an estimate of VMT, 17 reported their fatality percentage decline was more than the percentage decline in VMT—in most cases double, triple or even quadruple the decline in VMT.
What does this all mean? GHSA Executive Director Barbara Harsha interprets the numbers to mean that a variety of factors may have contributed to the declines in 2008. Harsha says, “Clearly, the high gas prices in the first part of the year and the difficult economy in the second half caused people to drive less, thus reducing fatalities. However, there’s more occurring here than just economic factors.”
According to Harsha, state highway safety agencies report other factors may have contributed to the fatality reduction, including: gains in seat belt use, stronger state laws and increased enforcement of these laws. Harsha notes that multiple states have reported experiencing a reduction in driver speeds mainly because drivers want to improve their fuel efficiency. For example, the speed of the average Oregon driver was down more than 1 MPH in 2008. Harsha notes, “This may not sound like a lot, but reducing driver speeds means that more people are surviving crashes. Drivers may not slow down to save a life, but clearly they will slow down to save a buck.” Harsha expects more states will use the economic argument to urge drivers to slow down.
GHSA’s survey results mirror a December report from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). In that report, DOT noted that the federal government projects the number of people killed in traffic crashes to reach a new record low for 2008. Early DOT projections revealed a 10 percent drop in deaths for the first 10 months of 2008.
The GHSA survey was conducted during the week on January 26. States were asked for their percent increase/decrease in fatalities and VMT. Fatality data is preliminary and VMT is based on estimates. Fatality estimates generally were based on data from 12 months in 2008 while VMT estimates were based on 11 months of data.
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