Mexico judge orders immediate release of jailed U.S. Marine veteran

<div>A Mexican judge has ordered the immediate release of a jailed U.S. Marine veteran who spent eight months behind bars for crossing the border with loaded guns.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>“It is with an overwhelming and humbling feeling of relief that we confirm that Andrew was released today after spending 214 days in Mexican Jail.”</b></blockquote><blockquote><b>Family statement</b></blockquote></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Family spokesman Jonathan Franks told The Associated Press on Friday that the judge decided to release retired Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzU5IcGwVW-QogtvbV3K2qf0Z2oQSZOluKE6-XI80cpPtiEzABHc9CjK56Ih5lF5q6rVI6Rrd2Vf-krxYX_jXUHHMLOD1B8eNQHGY3NPJLaEkMJ0s9iEiSKSSeg4qt_qbiCQwKxPVkOxY/s1600/107.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzU5IcGwVW-QogtvbV3K2qf0Z2oQSZOluKE6-XI80cpPtiEzABHc9CjK56Ih5lF5q6rVI6Rrd2Vf-krxYX_jXUHHMLOD1B8eNQHGY3NPJLaEkMJ0s9iEiSKSSeg4qt_qbiCQwKxPVkOxY/s1600/107.jpg" width="320" /></a>Franks said the judge released him without making a determination on the charge against him.</div><div><br /></div><div>The family issued the following statement: "It is with an overwhelming and humbling feeling of relief that we confirm that Andrew was released today after spending 214 days in Mexican Jail."</div><div><br /></div><div>The 26-year-old Florida man said he got lost on a California freeway ramp that sent him across the border with no way to turn back. His long detention brought calls for his freedom from U.S. politicians, veterans groups and social media campaigns.</div><div><br /></div><div>In Mexico, possession of weapons restricted for use by the Army is a federal crime, and the country has been tightening up its border checks to stop the flow of US weapons that have been used by drug cartels.</div><div><br /></div><div>His attorney, Fernando Benitez, says Tahmooressi carries loaded guns with him because his weapons, which were bought legally in the U.S., make him feel safer. He is often distracted, which could have contributed to him becoming lost, Benitez said.</div><div><br /></div><div>Still, Mexican prosecutors say Tahmooressi broke the law, and they have denied claims by his attorney that he was held for about eight hours without a translator before authorities notified the U.S. Consulate.</div><div><br /></div><div>But a psychiatrist hired by Mexican prosecutors to examine the Afghanistan veteran agreed with the defense that he should get PTSD treatment in the United States, noting in a Sept. 30 report that Tahmooressi, who now serves in the Marine reserve, feels like he is constantly in danger.</div><div><br /></div><div>Tahmooressi did not admit wrongdoing, and he still maintains his innocence, his attorney said.</div><div><br /></div><div>His mother, Jill Tahmooressi, has said her son's time in a Mexican jail has been worse than his two tours in Afghanistan.</div><div><br /></div><div>Tahmooressi left Florida for San Diego in January to get help after dropping out of college, unable to concentrate or sleep, his mother said.</div>

Mexico judge orders immediate release of jailed U.S. Marine veteran

A Mexican judge has ordered the immediate release of a jailed U.S. Marine veteran who spent eight months behind bars for crossing the border...

'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' star arrested in Idaho

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" actor Nicholas Brendon has been arrested in Idaho on multiple charges, including resisting arrest, according to a police report.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHxtpQOyB_j4NriU96n1OCT-O8H3qkpjZ8ur3cJ9L9YO-ShTLhB0qWhFW1SOz1Od01jGfxa4rTGo2r6RtS8lPZNlQ1cBdRP5Ww1pVyIN6KxshYn5xMUfgSOkYXApcdkW73NCNCJ4dz5tU/s1600/26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHxtpQOyB_j4NriU96n1OCT-O8H3qkpjZ8ur3cJ9L9YO-ShTLhB0qWhFW1SOz1Od01jGfxa4rTGo2r6RtS8lPZNlQ1cBdRP5Ww1pVyIN6KxshYn5xMUfgSOkYXApcdkW73NCNCJ4dz5tU/s1600/26.jpg" width="320" /></a>Brendon, 43, starred on the hit show as Xander Harris, along with Sarah Michelle Gellar, who played the series' title role over seven seasons.<br /><br />According to an Ada County, Idaho police report, Brendon was charged with malicious injury to property and resisting or obstructing Boise police officers on Friday night.<br /><div><br /></div><div><div>Media reports said Brendon was in town to attend a comics convention and got into a drunken dispute with hotel staff and broke a decorative item.</div><div><br /></div><div>Police took him into custody when he tried to leave the scene, the reports said.</div><div><br /></div><div>Brendon has also starred on "Criminal Minds" and "Private Practice," among other television series.</div></div>

'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' star arrested in Idaho

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" actor Nicholas Brendon has been arrested in Idaho on multiple charges, including resisting arrest, acco...

Kentucky police say boy remains in hospital after sexual assault

A Kentucky teenager remains hospitalized but his condition is improving after he was sodomized by a group of male acquaintances at a party, an attack that was captured on cell phone video, police said on Friday.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi967IWrYHqaA_2uj0T0wZPZx2MHODaVBJ8PPwPpa_rOrxZp9AEQwSe4mMw32kOMYr7vgwP62jQVP0R0pzd4ZQa909SLVEwOXY7O9xm-IqfS6coc4TvXjiwWTXbb34vw0il8rMDYkSrjZc/s1600/Miller.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi967IWrYHqaA_2uj0T0wZPZx2MHODaVBJ8PPwPpa_rOrxZp9AEQwSe4mMw32kOMYr7vgwP62jQVP0R0pzd4ZQa909SLVEwOXY7O9xm-IqfS6coc4TvXjiwWTXbb34vw0il8rMDYkSrjZc/s1600/Miller.jpg" width="240" /></a>Tyler Perry, 19, Dayton Ross Jones, 20, and Samuel Miller, 18, were charged with first-degree sodomy, promoting a sexual performance by a minor and use of a minor in a sexual performance, said Chris Miller, spokesman for the Christian County Sheriff’s Office.<br /><br />The men, along with two juveniles, are accused of assaulting the boy on Sunday at a party in Hopkinsville, about 75 miles northwest of Nashville, and capturing the incident on video that was shared on cell phones. Authorities said they do not know if the incident was shared online.<br /><br />The unidentified 15-year-old boy, who was critically injured in the assault, remains in a Clarksville hospital but is improving, Miller said.<br /><br />Perry was also charged with tampering with physical evidence, while Jones and Miller also face charges of distribution of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor, authorities said.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMDhdGTsCB9jcF_i3qo-grKuPIcsHM8E9YvOK0A4EO6iiDlxQmL7Mowv9nXcwHZ39i2JAYfwATbLcXTz544hEXyGcof747joy30ueVCtdpbsLyhg-rHhxsW1gGZeQws7LEububUyLttTk/s1600/256.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMDhdGTsCB9jcF_i3qo-grKuPIcsHM8E9YvOK0A4EO6iiDlxQmL7Mowv9nXcwHZ39i2JAYfwATbLcXTz544hEXyGcof747joy30ueVCtdpbsLyhg-rHhxsW1gGZeQws7LEububUyLttTk/s1600/256.jpg" /></a>Two 17-year-old juveniles have also been charged in the incident, authorities said.<br /><br />Perry, Jones and Miller are being held on $1 million bond, each, according to the Christian County Jail. The juveniles are being processed separately.<br /><br />Jones has been dismissed from the Arkansas State University golf team, pending the investigation, local media reported.

Kentucky police say boy remains in hospital after sexual assault

A Kentucky teenager remains hospitalized but his condition is improving after he was sodomized by a group of male acquaintances at a party, ...

Man dies in Border Patrol custody in Texas

Federal authorities say a drug suspect has died while in custody at a U.S. Border Patrol facility in Texas.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK9uCuDfEmgwfrq63KTdgm2jxTkAyonleAFm_wP4qtdSfWqn8S9EACgqIwMTHAU1U6FF_6Eosh1l79vu9BHnfHkpr9yxwO7DTnQ_MulAebj_pixIs-jPQLXjP51I2BXLO-Fp3HHGFBJH4/s1600/ies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK9uCuDfEmgwfrq63KTdgm2jxTkAyonleAFm_wP4qtdSfWqn8S9EACgqIwMTHAU1U6FF_6Eosh1l79vu9BHnfHkpr9yxwO7DTnQ_MulAebj_pixIs-jPQLXjP51I2BXLO-Fp3HHGFBJH4/s1600/ies.jpg" /></a>U.S. Customs and Border Protection says the 36-year-old man was found unresponsive Friday in a holding cell at a Border Patrol checkpoint between Carlsbad, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas.<br /><br />Authorities say agents performed CPR on the man before he was transported to an El Paso hospital where he died.<br /><br />They say he was in custody for drug possession.<br /><br />U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Office of Internal Affairs is investigating.

Man dies in Border Patrol custody in Texas

Federal authorities say a drug suspect has died while in custody at a U.S. Border Patrol facility in Texas. U.S. Customs and Border Protecti...

A Chicago police detective fired for posing with man wearing antlers

A Chicago police detective has been fired based on a decade-old photo in which he and disgraced former police Officer Jerome Finnigan are seen holding rifles and kneeling next to an African-American man lying on his stomach with deer antlers on his head, according to the Chicago Police Board.<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNMGovkdBJmy7epploPxPkwLBknTF-nBaw96sGtXN3mLJvzd1evSY3hkkj5RU5YbtDwKsYS04TnuMjuQ_wwJBvUT9jqZeV5cddRlZ5C9LLmguuZ5Ei_p1CucS4uCDzgUmnAXbumSATfJs/s1600/P-USA.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNMGovkdBJmy7epploPxPkwLBknTF-nBaw96sGtXN3mLJvzd1evSY3hkkj5RU5YbtDwKsYS04TnuMjuQ_wwJBvUT9jqZeV5cddRlZ5C9LLmguuZ5Ei_p1CucS4uCDzgUmnAXbumSATfJs/s1600/P-USA.png" /></a>The board, which considers discipline against officers, voted 5-4 at its meeting Thursday night to fire Detective Timothy McDermott, said Max Caproni, executive director of the panel. The photo was taken sometime between Oct. 14, 1999, and July 2, 2003, according to the charges filed against McDermott by Superintendent Garry McCarthy, who recommended that he be fired.<br /><br />An attorney for McDermott vowed an appeal to Cook County Circuit Court on several fronts Friday.<br /><br />Daniel Herbert said the city failed to present evidence of who took the photo or exactly where or when it was taken - or even who the African-American man shown in it is. The city did not present the original photo, a Polaroid, as evidence but rather a snapshot of it, he said.<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">"All they had was a photo of a photo," Herbert said.</blockquote><br />During the period when the photo was taken, McDermott was assigned to the Special Operations Section, a notorious unit that was disbanded after it was revealed that members had engaged in numerous crimes and civil rights violations from 2002 to 2006. Finnigan, considered the ringleader of the crew, is serving a 12-year federal sentence on SOS-related charges.<br /><br />McDermott, who was not implicated in the SOS scandal, was charged with violating four department rules and was found guilty of three violations: bringing discredit on the department, disrespecting or maltreating a person on or off duty and unlawful or unnecessary use or display of a weapon, according to the board's decision.<br /><br />Herbert said McDermott has only a vague recollection of the incident, saying he "jumped" into the photo at the last minute without "consciously thinking of what he was doing." In the image, McDermott's hand is on the man's throat.<br /><br />He said "it was a split-second decision," Herbert said, adding that McDermott regrets being part of the image.<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>"He is a wonderful guy ... and an excellent police officer," Herbert said.</b></blockquote><br /><h4>Herbert conceded that the "ugly image" was part of the decision to fire but said he also believes the links to SOS played a role. "He was fired because this photo involved Jerry Finnigan, who was arguably the most notorious criminal Chicago police officer ever," he said.</h4><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_ORbYyvmGoZa3x_BIBY3h-sOQ1tMQW3xwZuTqDPx5_xQNLTDN63Id7iV86rqDwDCauwOK568KUCh6qE8VRs_vcjkYL2v6YgBtNjqwRhwTiRq2xaxSq3RUu95xXqm0lRo-GQHANcPrmgE/s1600/0sequester.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_ORbYyvmGoZa3x_BIBY3h-sOQ1tMQW3xwZuTqDPx5_xQNLTDN63Id7iV86rqDwDCauwOK568KUCh6qE8VRs_vcjkYL2v6YgBtNjqwRhwTiRq2xaxSq3RUu95xXqm0lRo-GQHANcPrmgE/s1600/0sequester.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />McDermott has been suspended without pay since the charges were filed last spring. The department's Bureau of Internal Affairs acted swiftly upon learning of the photo, a spokesman said. Herbert said the photo was turned over by the FBI, which investigated SOS.

A Chicago police detective fired for posing with man wearing antlers

A Chicago police detective has been fired based on a decade-old photo in which he and disgraced former police Officer Jerome Finnigan are se...

Facebook unfriends federal drug agency

Facebook wants assurances from the Drug Enforcement Administration that it's not operating any more fake profile pages as part of ongoing investigations.<br /><br />Facebook's chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, said in a letter Friday to DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart that law enforcement agencies need to follow the same rules about being truthful on Facebook as civilian users. Those rules include a ban on lying about who you are.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicHZ7V5rIL2OEcpIb1q7PvEAucPIsZMuyDTM2MS9HFHlLJYT6cs7lnZjcZm5LE2F6yC6Wqd_a7r6IV6jW1NsTfZXqmjM24BjQofiqkCyrretR9xNlI9V6opZSwYAfwjur0WeoNZj5SFmo/s1600/facebook.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicHZ7V5rIL2OEcpIb1q7PvEAucPIsZMuyDTM2MS9HFHlLJYT6cs7lnZjcZm5LE2F6yC6Wqd_a7r6IV6jW1NsTfZXqmjM24BjQofiqkCyrretR9xNlI9V6opZSwYAfwjur0WeoNZj5SFmo/s1600/facebook.jpg" width="320" /></a>Sullivan's letter was in response to a New York woman's federal lawsuit claiming that a DEA agent created a fake online persona using her name and photographs stored on her cellphone.<br /><br />In court filings, Sondra Arquiett said her pictures were retrieved from her cellphone after she was arrested in July 2010 on drug charges and her cellphone seized. Arquiett said the fake page was being used by DEA agent Timothy Sinnigen to interact with "dangerous individuals he was investigating." Arquiett is asking for $250,000 in damages.<br /><br />"Facebook has long made clear that law enforcement authorities are subject to these policies," Sullivan wrote. "We regard DEA's conduct to be a knowing and serious breach of Facebook's terms and policies."<br /><br />Facebook also wants the DEA to confirm that it has stopped using any other fake profile pages it may have created.<br /><br />"The department has launched a review into the incident at issue in this case," Justice Department spokesman Brian Fallon said in response to a request for comment. "That review is ongoing, but to our knowledge, this is not a widespread practice among our federal law enforcement agencies."<br /><br />The Justice Department initially defended the practice, arguing in an August court filing that while Arquiett didn't directly authorize Sinnigen to create the fake account, she "implicitly consented by granting access to the information stored in her cellphone and by consenting to the use of that information to aid in ... ongoing criminal investigations."<br /><br />Last week the agency announced it would review whether the Facebook guise went too far.<br /><br />The case was scheduled to go to trial this week, but court records show it has been sent to mediation.

Facebook unfriends federal drug agency

Facebook wants assurances from the Drug Enforcement Administration that it's not operating any more fake profile pages as part of ongoin...

California mayor arrested in suspected DUI crash

The mayor of a California city was driving under the influence when he rear-ended a car and injured four cheerleaders, police said.<br /><br />Murrieta Mayor Alan Long, who was arrested on suspicion of DUI, was released Friday on $50,000 bail, according to The Riverside Press-Enterprise (http://bit.ly/1sXEonC).<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6eknHUkiKwu2j4ZTZz0VKC0odUOOLCEWvtKSfKkP_RZUTE26POoSinzgzr7gPIUV2_Cu4HvyuwCz6P-RjiQEPTSJGp4a9RCWhBHGEzFnHodrdA9p2LwszDH2I_SBN2dLMMXuFspTD1pc/s1600/BB9HH8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6eknHUkiKwu2j4ZTZz0VKC0odUOOLCEWvtKSfKkP_RZUTE26POoSinzgzr7gPIUV2_Cu4HvyuwCz6P-RjiQEPTSJGp4a9RCWhBHGEzFnHodrdA9p2LwszDH2I_SBN2dLMMXuFspTD1pc/s1600/BB9HH8.jpg" width="320" /></a>Long, who is also a battalion chief with the Anaheim Fire Department, failed a field sobriety test Thursday, but passed a breathalyzer test. Police are awaiting blood test results, police Lt. Julie Hoxmeier told the paper.<br /><br />Long, 44, plowed into the back of the car carrying cheerleaders from a pep rally as it was stopped at a light, police said.<br /><br />The girls, ranging in age from 14 to 17, were taken to the hospital with moderate to major injuries. Only one remains hospitalized.<br /><br />Long did not immediately return an email seeking comment. Calls to his office rang unanswered.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAm3lGLSU6an1UX1EouOfP6i72Pns4enUIhB83oUS3deAr9eR8GaQOoGz_TR9FPBAIuRS7CB5GveYJ0rcMv-gtqtrC492XPemacQDzcLSNJPDFAq9CdE_AqO6GsMxU6J08zDeI0XJpucg/s1600/BB9HCCs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAm3lGLSU6an1UX1EouOfP6i72Pns4enUIhB83oUS3deAr9eR8GaQOoGz_TR9FPBAIuRS7CB5GveYJ0rcMv-gtqtrC492XPemacQDzcLSNJPDFAq9CdE_AqO6GsMxU6J08zDeI0XJpucg/s1600/BB9HCCs.jpg" width="216" /></a><br />Long will remain on duty with the Anaheim Fire Department as the investigation proceeds, said Lt. Bob Dunn, an Anaheim police spokesman.<br /><br />Long made national news in July when he encouraged residents to oppose a federal government plan to process Central American immigrants at the U.S. Border Patrol facility in Murrieta.<br /><br />Buses transporting the immigrants to the facility were forced to turn around when protesters blocked the road.<br /><br />Information from: The Press-Enterprise, http://www.pe.com

California mayor arrested in suspected DUI crash

The mayor of a California city was driving under the influence when he rear-ended a car and injured four cheerleaders, police said. Murrieta...

System failed to avert battered child's slaying

<blockquote class="tr_bq">The family rented the ramshackle two-flat for nearly three years without neighbors realizing the raven-haired girl with dark eyes lived there. </blockquote><br /><b>No one recalled her ever playing outside,walking with friends to a nearby park or waiting for a school bus in the morning.</b><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAXe63HDug8bai3eTVs5W8N4bxzktl0T-qXM-h-3yHMq13X-uzRT5s472h-P9MIY2ZeDzE0LnnPXj_8nW6DgD8ahef2nnYgLd0tt8POsVAWKUJBc06EkPIFtLQ4TFyoHw7xXiU16GGTwM/s1600/5ore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAXe63HDug8bai3eTVs5W8N4bxzktl0T-qXM-h-3yHMq13X-uzRT5s472h-P9MIY2ZeDzE0LnnPXj_8nW6DgD8ahef2nnYgLd0tt8POsVAWKUJBc06EkPIFtLQ4TFyoHw7xXiU16GGTwM/s1600/5ore.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />It wasn't until Sept. 5, when emergency crews blanketed the Waukegan neighborhood to investigate her mother's 911 call about an unresponsive child, that details of the 11-year-old's tortured life began to emerge.<br /><br />Raashanai Coley suffered prolonged abuse and malnutrition, weighing about 55 pounds, and died of injuries from a lethal blow to her stomach, according to authorities.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_04YRU0vh3pG17QXOEvZIomqzwq_MxGuizCSgxzUMMgOzGBhtfaqDIZ1T11oE4h3lwY7IOn337ICW-0FaslP5V5EYokBTYx0ZczsAndbjeracnwS9dZUrcT-jyMN4PCP4KmHDI5mP-fA/s1600/5lawrence2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_04YRU0vh3pG17QXOEvZIomqzwq_MxGuizCSgxzUMMgOzGBhtfaqDIZ1T11oE4h3lwY7IOn337ICW-0FaslP5V5EYokBTYx0ZczsAndbjeracnwS9dZUrcT-jyMN4PCP4KmHDI5mP-fA/s1600/5lawrence2.jpg" width="320" /></a>As her mother, Nicholette Lawrence, 32, faces murder charges, a Tribune review of the disturbing case reveals shortcomings in the state's multilayered system designed to protect children. Despite repeated contact with police, court and child welfare officials, authorities failed to piece together the family's troubled history and recognize the danger Raashanai faced.<br /><br />Less than three months before her death, Waukegan police investigated an anonymous complaint of child abuse at the home. Officers left minutes later, not finding any evidence of a problem. Interviews and records show they never saw Raashanai, wrote a report or followed up, despite earlier domestic disturbances, evictions and child-abuse complaints involving the family.<br /><br />The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services wasn't notified about that complaint, but in July 2013 the agency received a hotline call about the family. DCFS did not investigate the tip further, though it found credible evidence two years earlier that Raashanai's stepfather had abused her.<br /><br />Police arrested him in August 2011 for allegedly beating her when the family lived elsewhere in town. Swollen-faced and timid, Raashanai told a Waukegan officer her stepfather hit her almost daily for no reason, according to a police report.<br /><br />Officers followed up with DCFS as required after the 2011 arrest. The agency launched an investigation, but it did not take Raashanai into temporary protective custody. Instead, DCFS left her and two younger siblings in their mother's care with the promise she would not allow her husband to have unsupervised contact with the kids.<br /><br />Lawrence declined an offer of voluntary support services from DCFS, and she bailed her husband out of jail - a red flag that experts say shows the parent may be more motivated to protect his or her partner than his or her child.<br /><br />Lawrence had pleaded guilty in Nevada to pandering of a child, according to records. She also was investigated in her home state of Oregon after allegedly exposing her daughter to the mother's adult-entertainment business and possible "criminal activity," records show.<br /><br />DCFS investigators are required under agency procedure to interview child welfare officials in the state a family moved from if its members lived in Illinois less than five years. It's unclear whether the agency in 2011 knew the family had moved to Illinois a few years earlier.<br /><br />DCFS acting Director Bobbie Gregg said the agency is reviewing how it handled the case but that it doesn't appear any procedure was violated. The agency, she said, has limited legal authority to remove a child from a parent's custody and does so only if it finds an "imminent and immediate" risk of harm.<br /><br />"It's unfortunate that children are hurt by people who have a responsibility to care for them," Gregg said. "The department has responsibilities. Teachers, medical workers, social workers, police - we all have responsibilities to try and protect those children. But it's not a perfect system. It just isn't."<br /><br />At the time of her death, Raashanai was living in a Gillett Avenue flat with her mother and two younger siblings. An older half-brother had been taken away from the mother several years ago in Oregon.<br /><br />Prosecutors said Lawrence confessed to punching Raashanai in the stomach in their home on Sept. 3, two days before the girl was pronounced dead, as well as beating her earlier with an extension cord. The girl's body was covered in scars, bruises, cigarette burns and ligature marks, they said.<br /><br />After learning of the pain Raashanai endured, residents in her Waukegan neighborhood felt compelled to respond. On a recent Sunday afternoon, their bake sale raised nearly $4,000 for the slain child's cremation. Her remains were sent to the mother's relatives in Oregon.<br /><br />Neighbors also plan to dedicate a bench in her memory at the local park where she apparently was not allowed to play.<br /><br />"We felt our whole community failed this child," said Nichol Acosta, who helped with the fundraising. "She was failed by her parents. She was failed by the system. She was failed by everyone - period. We want to make sure everyone connects and is more aware of our surroundings, so some good comes out of this in some way."<br /><br />A troubled past<br /><br />Most of Raashanai's extended family lives in northwest Oregon, and relatives said they hadn't seen her since 2007, when her mother took her to Texas to live with her and her new husband. The couple later moved to Illinois.<br /><br />The slain girl's biological father, Raashan Coley, was in prison for most of the first 4 1/2 years of her life with convictions for robbery and assault.<br /><br />Coley and other relatives said Lawrence made it difficult to keep in touch, often blocking or changing her phone number.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilymg2Wk3ePjtcUAQ_VRbm4LDFCjtfe65fO_1U6J34tNhZTMSfdpkjPaHuh4geg-zs7I-xixMMH2266c9-T1lSHfqPoX6mryp8a14UN7gkQvqsCWRkfL_9uIdsVD6suoEX0gFqCjQbtWI/s1600/5lawrence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilymg2Wk3ePjtcUAQ_VRbm4LDFCjtfe65fO_1U6J34tNhZTMSfdpkjPaHuh4geg-zs7I-xixMMH2266c9-T1lSHfqPoX6mryp8a14UN7gkQvqsCWRkfL_9uIdsVD6suoEX0gFqCjQbtWI/s1600/5lawrence.jpg" width="320" /></a>"She cut everyone else out of her life," said Linda North, Lawrence's stepmother. "When she was here, she had all these people around her guiding and helping her, but after she left, she really pushed away from us."<br /><br />In December 2002, while pregnant with Raashanai, Lawrence was arrested in Las Vegas after being accused of driving an underage girl from Oregon to Nevada for prostitution, according to a police report.<br /><br />Lawrence later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor conspiracy to pandering of a child and was placed on probation. Less than one month later, in April 2003, Raashanai was born.<br /><br />Worried about their granddaughter, North said, she and her husband contacted Oregon child welfare officials in 2005. Records show Oregon officials in their case reports raised questions about Lawrence's parenting, especially since her firstborn - a son - already had been "removed from mom's care."<br /><br />Authorities said in the May 2006 state human services report that Raashanai was autistic and that they were concerned Lawrence was involved in adult-oriented business and "criminal activity." Afterward, the records said, Lawrence voluntarily gave guardianship of her daughter to her father and stepmother.<br /><br />North said Raashanai made strides in language and in other early intervention programs while she lived with them, but officials allowed the child to join her mother in Texas about a year later. Officials in Oregon said they could not discuss the case.<br /><br /><h4>Warnings missed</h4><br />Raashanai's death comes amid continued public scrutiny for DCFS, which has faced repeated budget cuts, leadership changes and even has become fodder in the heated governor's race.<br /><br />Historically, 1 in 4 children who die of abuse or neglect in Illinois had prior DCFS involvement, according to agency statistics. A September 2012 Tribune report identified about 200 such fatalities - mostly due to neglect - that occurred from 2000 to 2011.<br /><br />Similarly, Raashanai was known to myriad authorities. Police responded repeatedly to the family's various apartments in the last four years for complaints about domestic fights and alleged child abuse, records show.<br /><br />In the August 2011 police call, a neighbor said she heard a little girl crying while possibly being beaten in a first-floor apartment in their building, according to the police report. The right side of Raashanai's face was swollen when an officer took the 8-year-old child out on the front steps and asked what happened.<br /><br />"She stated that she was in the kitchen cleaning up and sweeping the floor," the police report says. "She stated that her stepfather, for no apparent reason, punched and slapped her face at least 10 times, mainly to the right side of her face."<br /><br />Police arrested the stepfather, Robert Lawrence, and called the DCFS hotline as required. Nicholette Lawrence was at work at the time, and although she declined a DCFS offer for domestic violence help and other support services, she agreed her husband would not be allowed around the children unsupervised, officials said.<br /><br />Robert Lawrence, 46, later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery and was placed on court supervision, records show. He has not been charged with wrongdoing in his stepdaughter's death.<br /><br />Nearly two years later, on July 16, 2013, someone called the DCFS hotline with a request to check on the family. DCFS officials said the hotline worker did not accept the complaint as a report of abuse or neglect that would have required an investigation. Instead, the caller was instructed to call police, according to the child welfare agency.<br /><br />Police said they do not have any record the caller followed through with them to seek help.<br /><br />On June 21, 11 weeks before the killing, officers investigated an anonymous report from someone who said it sounded as if "kids were being beaten" in the home, said Waukegan police Cmdr. Joe Florip.<br /><br />He said officers spoke with two adults and two children, both of whom appeared "smiling and happy." Police had little information to go on and lacked the legal right to search the home, Florip said. Although Waukegan officers investigated the 2011 abuse of Raashanai at the couple's former apartment, police wouldn't have had immediate access to that background, he said.<br /><br /><h4>Florip confirmed police did not see Raashanai that June evening.</h4><br />"The whole case is just so tragic," he said. "Everybody wishes they could have saved this little girl. We want to protect those that need protecting. That's why we became police officers. But based on what they saw and after talking to the children, there was not enough evidence to investigate further."<br /><br />Another layer of oversight that might have helped was not available in Raashanai's case. More than 20 percent of DCFS hotline calls come from school officials, but Nicholette Lawrence pulled her daughter out of Waukegan District 60 in summer 2012 in favor of a home school education, officials said.<br /><br />Illinois is among 13 states that don't require parents to register when a child is home-schooled or grant state or regional education authorities much oversight power.<br /><br />"Unfortunately, the law regarding home schooling is not very firm so, no, there is no monitoring system," said Monika Schwander of the Lake County Regional Office of Education.<br /><br />"Once the family says they are going to home-school their child, we send them a one-page registration form. Unfortunately, they do not even need to send that form back to us."<br /><br />'We felt horrible'<br /><br />Nicholette Lawrence remains in custody, charged with first-degree murder. Authorities said the mother told them she was her daughter's sole caretaker and that her husband was not involved in Raashanai's death.<br /><br />DCFS has placed the couple's two children in temporary protective custody in a foster home.<br /><br />Many neighbors said they often heard the couple arguing and saw police when they came to the home, but never suspected child abuse. On rare occasions when they saw Raashanai, they assumed she was just visiting.<br /><br />"We felt horrible ... that we didn't know she was even there," said Danielle Bentivegna.<br /><br />Bentivegna and other neighbors organized last month's bake sale to raise money for Raashanai's funeral expenses. Going forward, they want to ensure they take a more active role in looking out for each other.<br /><br />"It definitely has brought us closer," Bentivegna said. "We're more aware and question more things."<br /><br />On Oct. 5, the neighbors planted a hydrangea tree in the girl's memory. Afterward, several of them chatted about the day's event while sipping coffee and hot cider around a kitchen table.<br /><br />That same day, in Independence, Ore., the child's funeral was held in a local church, North said. Among the 50 well-wishers were her preschool teachers and speech therapists.<br /><br />Her final resting place will be in a Willamette Valley cemetery, surrounded by distant hills.<br /><br />North said she does not want Raashanai's legacy to be about tragedy.<br /><br />"I really want her to be about hope and change and (making) a difference in someone's life, and I believe she's already done that," she said. "That brings us some comfort."

System failed to avert battered child's slaying

The family rented the ramshackle two-flat for nearly three years without neighbors realizing the raven-haired girl with dark eyes lived ther...

Cable Cord-Cutters Beware:Prices Could be Higher,Not Lower

<b>With HBO and CBS planning stand-alone streaming services, the oft-maligned pay-TV bundle has begun to loosen. But it’s not clear the brave new streaming world that replaces it will actually be cheaper for consumers.</b><br /><b><br /></b><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk6i1tGVW7ylPn49QXnclTNVqp0EgV9q_vZ2fiNW0SNhzISpUoDUnISSjAw63vlLmZhh-LODZRynCXptDFrw2WAMiufnPzXqD_HyR0E7ccAOJeQcOEpQjcLapUhhHeVvbmvoGIMPyEtfo/s1600/EGB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk6i1tGVW7ylPn49QXnclTNVqp0EgV9q_vZ2fiNW0SNhzISpUoDUnISSjAw63vlLmZhh-LODZRynCXptDFrw2WAMiufnPzXqD_HyR0E7ccAOJeQcOEpQjcLapUhhHeVvbmvoGIMPyEtfo/s1600/EGB.jpg" /></a>By offering their networks directly to consumers via the Internet, HBO and CBS are cutting out the middleman—cable and satellite companies—and potentially undermining the backbone of the television business.<br /><br />On the surface, this is seen as a win for people frustrated with rising monthly television bills and paying for lots of channels they don’t watch. Other networks are following the lead of Time Warner’s HBO and CBS, including Univision Communications Inc. and possibly Showtime, which is a unit of CBS Corp.<br /><br />Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN is also developing online-only platforms that would be offered separate from traditional channels.<br /><br />“It seems to me that a la carte, which seemed like a distant reality a few months ago, has become a much more viable option,” said Tuna Amobi, an analyst at S&P Capital IQ. “This is a watershed moment for the industry.”<br /><br />But cord-cutters should be careful what they wish for. A future where television viewers subscribe to each channel individually could be cheaper for young people who only watch two or three channels, industry executives said. But analysts say that for households filled with people of differing tastes or fans of many channels, this future could make the average cable TV bill-which hovers at around $90-seem like a bargain.<br /><br />CBS has set a price of $5.99 a month for its service, which launched Thursday. Initially, it will be available only in the 14 big cities where it owns TV stations, but the network aims to make it national in the coming months. Not all CBS content will be available. The biggest missing element is the National Football League, which CBS carries on Thursday and Sunday. CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves said he hopes that will be part of the offfering.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWqYgUYxEaxeJO464SkV4_iUc2MUXWSsKW83gT89F6DYzJ2_vXj3O2m8AdNfpFEldJp6AVivKqFFnLhu-Ue8Mmn5k1E9lzHvhghc4wnaiucA5euFuA7AUvq44cgxSrsUGoo6pZdVU4MMI/s1600/uled.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWqYgUYxEaxeJO464SkV4_iUc2MUXWSsKW83gT89F6DYzJ2_vXj3O2m8AdNfpFEldJp6AVivKqFFnLhu-Ue8Mmn5k1E9lzHvhghc4wnaiucA5euFuA7AUvq44cgxSrsUGoo6pZdVU4MMI/s1600/uled.png" /></a>HBO, which announced plans for its stand-alone service on Wednesday, has offered few details, except that it will debut sometime next year. HBO costs an average of $15 a month and the price for the stand-alone service isn’t expected to be cheaper and could be more costly.<br /><br />Univision, the dominant Spanish-language broadcaster, is working on making its UVideos website and app available to non-cable subscribers, according to Tonia O’Connor, president of content distribution at Univision. UVideos streams live and on-demand content from Univision’s broadcast and cable networks today, but most content is limited to pay-TV customers.<br /><br />Univision is working on offering solutions that bypass the pay-TV bundle in part because 76% of its flagship network’s viewers between the ages of 18 and 49 watch that channel alone-no others, Ms. O’Connor said.<br /><br />She added that the industry’s streaming effort so far-known as TV Everywhere is “not reaching all of our viewers.”<br /><br />Driving the change is the growing popularity of online streaming services from Netflix Inc, Hulu and Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Instant Video. In response, many networks have started making their own content available online or selling it to such services, but usually after it debuts on their linear service.<br /><br />Now, though, as the number of people either abstaining from pay-TV or opting for smaller packages with fewer channels grows, traditional networks are starting to hedge their bets. “There is no question that streaming, in terms of consumer options, is becoming a reality,” said Mr. Amobi.<br /><br />Technology may be doing what consumer advocates and many lawmakers have long argued for-making programming available on an a la carte basis, which they believe will result in smaller bills.<br /><br />Some analysts however, paint a grim portrait of an unbundled world. Laura Martin, an analyst at Needham & Co., estimates that unbundling would drain half of the revenue, or $70 billion, out of the television industry. Moreover, today’s hundreds of channels would shrink down to about 20, she wrote. That is because advertising would decrease substantially on channels with reduced audience reach, forcing consumers to pay the entire cost of running the channels, instead of splitting that cost with advertisers, as is done in basic cable.<br /><br />Sports networks could be most at risk in an unbundled world. About half of the subscriber fees paid each month by consumers go to channels with sports, even though these channels account for less than a quarter of viewership, according to Nielsen data analyzed by Needham.<br /><br />If ESPN were taken out of the bundle, for example, it might need to cost as much as $30-instead of the roughly $6 per subscriber it currently charges as part of the bundle, according to SNL Kagan-to recoup its losses from reduced distribution and continue to afford its content.<br /><br />“We believe that only 20 million ‘super fan’ homes would pay $30/month for ESPN’s group of channels”-not enough for ESPN to have a meaningful advertising business, Ms. Martin wrote.<br /><br />Programmers, meanwhile, are protective of the bundle because it allows for the pairing of weaker channels with strong ones. Content companies often offer discounts to distributors for taking weaker channels along with strong ones.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOGwIWoSH8NXPZUxZ5ceirtV5adI5LY9EI0zKrvOq-RzAkE-RyMu-VxQUXTeH3h94Lbbh_0XAZvnyxyR1UTOSh5Z2UOUVpucUSYImF1cHaUxpwXdo0xrdMi1loWp03V5qhbTPenn3YwRA/s1600/P0SW.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOGwIWoSH8NXPZUxZ5ceirtV5adI5LY9EI0zKrvOq-RzAkE-RyMu-VxQUXTeH3h94Lbbh_0XAZvnyxyR1UTOSh5Z2UOUVpucUSYImF1cHaUxpwXdo0xrdMi1loWp03V5qhbTPenn3YwRA/s1600/P0SW.jpg" width="320" /></a>“All these things are so much more expensive when you separate them out,” said David Bank, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets. “You are going to have to pay more for less choice.”<br /><br />But some distributors are trying to do just that. Cablevision Systems Corp. is suing Viacom Inc. over bundling in a case that will be closely watched by the industry.<br /><br />Some cable operators, reading the tea leaves, are shifting their emphasis away from providing video to broadband in the hopes of still being the gateway to the consumer, albeit through a different pipe.<br /><br />“Cable has known for a long time that video is going to becoming increasingly on-demand and online,” said John Bergmayer, a senior staff attorney at Public Knowledge, a media watchdog. “Cable’s goal is to manage the transition and come out the other side still in control.”<br /><br />But other distributors fear all these changes could be bad for their bottom line.<br /><br />DirecTV warned in a statement that if the ecosystem isn’t kept “in balance” programmers and providers could “risk losing” significant revenue streams “that could drive our collective businesses backwards.”

Cable Cord-Cutters Beware:Prices Could be Higher,Not Lower

With HBO and CBS planning stand-alone streaming services, the oft-maligned pay-TV bundle has begun to loosen. But it’s not clear the brave n...

San Diego college students get antibiotics after one dies of meningitis

Free antibiotics have been given out to more than 400 San Diego State University students potentially exposed to bacterial meningitis from a campus sorority member who died of the disease early on Friday, campus and public health officials said.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM_9DC1AQNzV1ADMIucyIIfGN28v0bw51-x9wV6DoZNglBRHrgtv0yYZcVaZvFvVO_1dM8bvW-VJlpFqXW1P87n-Y5ixfaUX7R4n0WqL0F0XUpvX-cTnIwSuF66bYR6jtU_pM0kFqpRsU/s1600/esZAU.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM_9DC1AQNzV1ADMIucyIIfGN28v0bw51-x9wV6DoZNglBRHrgtv0yYZcVaZvFvVO_1dM8bvW-VJlpFqXW1P87n-Y5ixfaUX7R4n0WqL0F0XUpvX-cTnIwSuF66bYR6jtU_pM0kFqpRsU/s1600/esZAU.jpg" width="320" /></a>Sara Stelzer, an 18-year-old freshman, was admitted to a San Diego hospital earlier in the week with a high fever and other symptoms and died on Friday morning, according to the university's student affairs vice president, Eric Rivera.<br /><br />Stelzer, a member of the Kappa Delta sorority, had contact with hundreds of people in San Diego, including her sorority sisters and members of two fraternities - Alpha Epsilon Pi and Delta Sigma Phi - during a party last Thursday before she became symptomatic, public health authorities said.<br /><br />She attended regular classes until Monday of this week and also spent time at a homecoming celebration last weekend at Moorpark High School in her hometown of Moorpark, California, north of Los Angeles, according to the Ventura County Health Department.<br /><br />"We are deeply saddened by the loss of one of our students to this terrible illness," Rivera said in a written statement. "Sara was a vibrant young woman who loved San Diego State, her friends and the time she spent at our university."<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUx7lquGP2Z66zpjIviYiAdEAV6Tk8T9tqxG6bU13m4Ie4q0LvhyphenhyphenLhUfWVutucAjC2P-V16TxEOCJxIldFboSr5UWoRU0hbauOUe65KA-kHQ_f6mArY41_v0RkqSI-LisevpDrvSZF9Bw/s1600/120.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUx7lquGP2Z66zpjIviYiAdEAV6Tk8T9tqxG6bU13m4Ie4q0LvhyphenhyphenLhUfWVutucAjC2P-V16TxEOCJxIldFboSr5UWoRU0hbauOUe65KA-kHQ_f6mArY41_v0RkqSI-LisevpDrvSZF9Bw/s1600/120.jpg" width="240" /></a>Stelzer was hospitalized on Tuesday morning and diagnosed with meningococcal meningitis, a bacterial form of the disease marked by acute swelling of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, San Diego County health officials said.<br /><br />Symptoms typically begin with headache, neck stiffness, fever and nausea, and the most severe cases can result in hearing loss, brain damage, kidney disease and death.<br /><br />The bacteria can be spread through direct contact with a sick person's saliva or mucus by way of sharing utensils, kissing or exposure to their throat and nasal secretions.<br /><br />Although transmission is more likely in close quarters with an infected person, meningococcal meningitis cannot be contracted merely by breathing the air where an ill person has been, public health officials say. The time between exposure and onset of symptoms ranges from two to 10 days.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4NhAlToacD1S6yGvmXflIAWmM5U83L7AJRsfWcHPEMPXRIy04wSYDnlGWdQgACZ8gYPGLwmYCrXEH4ppQW3YxNjwygYuEgFzBF31uTqLXYJvLZ3FCSpsg2jkLlwZMwDIzm5kz556Vq7w/s1600/d-19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4NhAlToacD1S6yGvmXflIAWmM5U83L7AJRsfWcHPEMPXRIy04wSYDnlGWdQgACZ8gYPGLwmYCrXEH4ppQW3YxNjwygYuEgFzBF31uTqLXYJvLZ3FCSpsg2jkLlwZMwDIzm5kz556Vq7w/s1600/d-19.jpg" /></a>The 400-plus students provided with preventive antibiotics included Stelzer's classmates, sorority and fraternity members she socialized with and anyone else concerned they may have been exposed, campus officials said.<br /><br />Students were notified of possible exposure through mass emailings, notices posted on campus and a message recorded on the call-in line of the student health service center.

San Diego college students get antibiotics after one dies of meningitis

Free antibiotics have been given out to more than 400 San Diego State University students potentially exposed to bacterial meningitis from a...

An Ebola 'Czar' Won’t Stop Ebola. But What Can He Do?

<h4>All right, we have an Ebola "czar" now.Realistically, what can we expect from him, and from the U.S. response to the outbreak?</h4><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilVuE21uaM_OntebnlP9ml_O_vBSLYqxddpQ_cHkjgVMS1uZJ0FKJLishj9fvWy6cUXvY-UyEwiE8gZxInnjMg0c87ePw5NkHDgMvT0EE4et5soPG3Pmpc4VJegxZNqSIwAkJWRu9GNYc/s1600/KLAIN.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilVuE21uaM_OntebnlP9ml_O_vBSLYqxddpQ_cHkjgVMS1uZJ0FKJLishj9fvWy6cUXvY-UyEwiE8gZxInnjMg0c87ePw5NkHDgMvT0EE4et5soPG3Pmpc4VJegxZNqSIwAkJWRu9GNYc/s1600/KLAIN.JPG" width="320" /></a>So far, each new Ebola development in the United States- from the first two American aid workers flown here for treatment, to the infection of two Dallas nurses -- has set off its a new round of panic. And there were real shortcomings in Dallas -- substantive problems that allowed the disease to spread when it shouldn't have.<br /><br />The response to domestic Ebola cases needs to get a whole lot better, and that was part of the White House's rationale for tapping Democratic lawyer Ron Klain to coordinate the effort. Naming an Ebola "czar" was also, in part, a public-relations effort to show action and reassure the public that the government is on top of the situation.<br /><br />But two complicating factors are at work here: First, most Americans' Ebola fears are unfounded or exaggerated. Even with the very real shortcomings in the initial response, the risk of infection in the U.S. is incredibly low. At the same time, even if Klain, the CDC, and every American hospital do their jobs perfectly, there are limits to what they can accomplish.<br /><br />So in the interest of both accountability and avoiding unnecessary panic, let's be realistic about what's inevitable, what's manageable, and what's truly a cause for alarm.<br /><br /><b>There will probably be more U.S. cases</b><br /><br />Public health experts agree that Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola inside the U.S., probably won't be the last. They expect more infected people to reach American hospitals, with or without a travel ban from West Africa.<br /><br />"We surely have to expect it could happen," said Michael Osterholm, a professor of public health at the University of Minnesota and an expert on infectious diseases.<br /><br />Even Duncan's case wasn't a big surprise to the public health community -- as the Ebola outbreak spread through Africa, experts from the CDC and elsewhere said consistently that a U.S. case was probably inevitable. And even if the domestic response is perfect from now on, they're expecting to see more. In other words, another person with Ebola won't necessarily be a reason to panic or assume that the government is failing to protect us.<br /><br /><b>Some of those patients could die</b><br /><br />Other than Duncan, every patient treated in the U.S. so far has lived. But no one knows exactly why. Remember, there is no treatment for Ebola. No cure, no vaccine, not even a proven therapy. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, the first two aid workers treated in the U.S., received an experimental drug called ZMapp; but doctors who got the same drug in West Africa didn't make it. Some patients have responded well to massive doses of fluids, and others to blood transfusions from Ebola survivors, but developing a proven cure for Ebola will take years.<br /><br /><b>The big test: Controlling each new infection</b><br /><br />Think of Duncan as a sort of nucleus. He got infected in West Africa, then came to the U.S. Here, he infected two people -- the nurses from the Dallas hospital. There will probably be more of those patients -- more people who get infected outside the U.S., but then make their way here, either intentionally or because they didn't realize they were sick.<br /><br />The big test for the CDC, hospitals and state health departments is how well they can control the spread from each nucleus. That's the biggest criticism of how Duncan's case was handled at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. His one initial infection has generated two new infections -- the same rate at which the virus is spreading in Liberia.<br /><br />"The next time a patient comes in, we just can't have doctors and nurses coming out with Ebola," said Ashish Jha, a public health professor at Harvard.<br /><br />Depending on the number of additional cases and where those patients show up, it might not be possible to ensure that not a single additional health care worker becomes infected. But that should be the goal, Jha said.<br /><br />"Is it realistic to expect zero? I think we should be able to get pretty darn close to 0," he said.<br /><br /><b>Better hospital practices</b><br /><br />The way to get there, experts said, is to handle new cases much differently than Duncan's. Whether you blame the CDC for unclear guidelines, or the hospital for breaking protocols, or a little of both, it's clear that Texas Health Presbyterian wasn't equipped to handle this the right way.<br /><br />"I think the point about Dallas is, Presbyterian Hospital is the unfortunate hospital that got the first case," Osterholm said. "The rest of the country has learned a lot."<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWLFJ8v0ZhgNQ9ikeMv29QYvrFMyFnq5wcwy1jdK0hYs-PhkwIPNSWynFkMFpSXTRv_fvS-vi-VZN-b0-X0NrKih-FUfm5MM5AFql05L7IIjD4oRrVuQ75ooflZAQYWhBQ5jnx0GjJoOQ/s1600/BB9tkh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWLFJ8v0ZhgNQ9ikeMv29QYvrFMyFnq5wcwy1jdK0hYs-PhkwIPNSWynFkMFpSXTRv_fvS-vi-VZN-b0-X0NrKih-FUfm5MM5AFql05L7IIjD4oRrVuQ75ooflZAQYWhBQ5jnx0GjJoOQ/s1600/BB9tkh.jpg" width="320" /></a>CDC Director Thomas Frieden initially said any U.S. hospital should be able to handle an Ebola patient, but now that strategy is shifting. Public health experts said every health care facility needs to be able to accurately identify Ebola, including taking a travel history for patients who show up with the early symptoms of Ebola, even though those symptoms are common.<br /><br />Frieden said this week he would refocus on identifying one hospital in each state to prepare for and handle Ebola patients, and provide a CDC "SWAT team" to support those hospitals. Experts said that's a much better model, but that every health care worker still needs to know what to do for the first 24 to 36 hours.<br /><br />"The patient's not going to show up at a center of excellence," Jha said.<br /><br />Jha thinks having an Ebola "czar" can help with this part of the process, particularly by coordinating federal efforts with state health departments. Although the CDC is in the political spotlight now, he said he thinks the agency has done a "pretty reasonable job," but that state agencies have lagged.<br /><br /><b>The answer for the U.S. is in Africa</b><br /><br />You probably don't need to be concerned about catching Ebola in the United States. But If you are, you need to be concerned about containing the virus in West Africa. We're going to see more Ebola cases inside the U.S., because the outbreak is still getting worse in Africa.<br /><br />"If the epidemic in West Africa continues for months and months and months, we're going to be seeing Ebola cases in the U.S. for months and months and months," Jha said.<br /><br />It might not fall under Klain's portfolio coordinating the domestic response, but putting more resources into Africa is the most important step the federal government can take. And the U.S. has stepped up -- President Obama has committed roughly $170 million to fight the outbreak in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, and has dispatched military personnel to the region to set up temporary hospitals. But the rest of the world hasn't offered nearly as much money, and more is still needed.<br /><br />"Even if you say, 'I don't care about West Africa, I only care about Americans,' focus on shutting it down there. I is the only way to protect Americans," Jha said.<br /><br /><b>Panic doesn't help</b><br /><br />There will be more Ebola patients in the U.S. -- each new one shouldn't necessarily be a call for alarm. Ebola is simply here now, and it will be until the West African outbreak is contained. Politicizing the tragedy and exaggerating the risks to Americans only make things worse, Jha said.<br /><br />Jha also isn't especially worried about the virus spreading to Americans who are not health care workers. In Africa, it has primarily spread through funeral services, health care workers and family members caring for infected relatives in their homes. The risk of transmission outside a caregiving environment is extremely low.<br /><br />He is especially frustrated by the continuing calls for a ban on travel from West Africa to the U.S., calling it a "distraction" that was understandable when it came from the "fringe" but a more serious problem now that it's coming from elected representatives. The CDC and NIH also oppose a travel ban, which they say could threaten the stability of the Liberian state.<br /><br />The longer the virus ravages Africa, the greater the risk it will spread to even more countries. Controlling it in Africa is the only way to prevent a global pandemic the U.S. could not possibly wall itself off from, Jha said.<br /><br />"You want to ban flights to West Africa: OK. You want to ban flights to India and China? You want to ban flights to Europe?" he said.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDBOE8AbYsDVpPLXyuSvNnihhiQxJ4iXPVxkH48nd4dAdHQqOk7wlAPtuczUmi2jbxiSB53GsywqdKiweDDOl3TsGdZgQYMapO7ABgdAaLXbrIIq7NTuKZ6pb-VS24PdHCNliE-DlT8qM/s1600/cdc5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="486" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDBOE8AbYsDVpPLXyuSvNnihhiQxJ4iXPVxkH48nd4dAdHQqOk7wlAPtuczUmi2jbxiSB53GsywqdKiweDDOl3TsGdZgQYMapO7ABgdAaLXbrIIq7NTuKZ6pb-VS24PdHCNliE-DlT8qM/s1600/cdc5.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />

An Ebola 'Czar' Won’t Stop Ebola. But What Can He Do?

All right, we have an Ebola "czar" now.Realistically, what can we expect from him, and from the U.S. response to the outbreak? So ...

Obama gets credit card declined

For anyone who ever had their credit card declined in a store or restaurant, no need to be embarrassed - it happened to the president, too.<br /><script src="http://WGCL.images.worldnow.com/interface/js/WNVideo.js?rnd=43744;hostDomain=www.cbs46.com;playerWidth=630;playerHeight=385;isShowIcon=true;clipId=10712250;flvUri=;partnerclipid=;adTag=Station%252050;advertisingZone=;enableAds=true;landingPage=;islandingPageoverride=false;playerType=STANDARD_EMBEDDEDscript;controlsType=fixed" type="text/javascript"></script><a href="http://www.cbs46.com/" title="CBS46 News">CBS46 News</a><br />President Barack Obama shared the story Friday while signing an executive order aimed at fighting identity theft.<br /><br />"I should mention, by the way, I went to a restaurant up in New York when I was there for the UN general assembly, and my credit card was rejected," he said. "Turned out I guess I don't use it enough, so they thought there was some fraud going on. Fortunately, Michelle had hers. I was trying to explain to the waitress, 'No, I really think that I've been paying my bills.'"<br /><br />The executive order calls for newer, secure technology for government-issued debit and credit cards.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfeQxd3MmGFbF12LBLeLTm16akic9NC59it9EDe78R3pJeGfsnDI_UJ_PFYVuW7K9F8tCzu3lMWmj2ZXxKJ_x9awLKfPo_EI320W8MjgYyvQ4Iw1047SJu9ojTVBlLzf3eXmiHe_nxF5M/s1600/5_G.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfeQxd3MmGFbF12LBLeLTm16akic9NC59it9EDe78R3pJeGfsnDI_UJ_PFYVuW7K9F8tCzu3lMWmj2ZXxKJ_x9awLKfPo_EI320W8MjgYyvQ4Iw1047SJu9ojTVBlLzf3eXmiHe_nxF5M/s1600/5_G.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />

Obama gets credit card declined

For anyone who ever had their credit card declined in a store or restaurant, no need to be embarrassed - it happened to the president, too. ...

Soldier who flew to Africa isolated at Ft. Benning due to high temperature

<b>A soldier who recently traveled to Nigeria has been isolated at Fort Benning after officials said he had a high temperature.</b><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl8pmkIit2fVpnO1-GmBBzojKKMyoIE_j9bPNErr80CxDtxn6GPik8ESPvYISupS9l2ojEQV2FUKUqHn5fcUaZhvbvpUUhWTxkK3YwmhX82ijI4LO9AP_dEFa2-3duokKDhuAC-VnniXw/s1600/BG2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl8pmkIit2fVpnO1-GmBBzojKKMyoIE_j9bPNErr80CxDtxn6GPik8ESPvYISupS9l2ojEQV2FUKUqHn5fcUaZhvbvpUUhWTxkK3YwmhX82ijI4LO9AP_dEFa2-3duokKDhuAC-VnniXw/s1600/BG2.jpg" width="320" /></a>Fort Benning is located just south of Columbus, GA, which is just over 100 miles southwest of Atlanta.<br /><br />Officials said that the soldier was given vaccines that could have caused his rise in temperature, and they do not believe he has Ebola.<br /><br />He was isolated as a precaution, and there is no confirmed case of Ebola.<br /><br />The U.S. Army post was not locked down or evacuated, according to officials.

Soldier who flew to Africa isolated at Ft. Benning due to high temperature

A soldier who recently traveled to Nigeria has been isolated at Fort Benning after officials said he had a high temperature. Fort Benning is...

A strengthening Tropical Storm Gonzalo takes aim at Caribbean

Tropical Storm Gonzalo gained strength as it took aim at a swath of the Caribbean including Puerto Rico, threatening to dump heavy rains that could unleash mudslides and flash floods.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8zujM6hyRs2nQ25n5H0SCcEJk4HAG83svVuh-Pe7vVGGun-UIwtTqP1nYLunWE1GHSd7Gdp6hO53qcaiVytiLzntzM-EneIQwybbtFZejOjeFZdY3YFW0OqklWC6iOvgwumPW5KOC1qo/s1600/B8Zz0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8zujM6hyRs2nQ25n5H0SCcEJk4HAG83svVuh-Pe7vVGGun-UIwtTqP1nYLunWE1GHSd7Gdp6hO53qcaiVytiLzntzM-EneIQwybbtFZejOjeFZdY3YFW0OqklWC6iOvgwumPW5KOC1qo/s1600/B8Zz0.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />As it approached the warm waters of the Caribbean, the storm's impending arrival prompted wary officials to post hurricane or tropical storm warnings and watches stretching from the French island of Guadeloupe to the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.<br /><br />Rain-swollen Gonzalo was expected to move through parts of the Leeward Islands by early Monday, producing 4 inches to 8 inches (10 centimeters to 20 centimeters) of pelting rainfall, with some isolated areas potentially getting deluged with as much as 12 inches (30 centimeters), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. Its maximum sustained winds were 45 mph (75 kph) late Sunday night.<br /><br />Islanders wary of a potential blow from the intensifying storm secured boats and stocked up on fuel and groceries as Gonzalo tracked over open waters toward the eastern rim of the Caribbean.<br /><br />"We're being told that it's coming this way so people are trying to find safe havens for their boats. Hopefully, all we'll get is some rain but you have to be prepared as best as you can," said Jane Wherren, operations director at Crown Bay Marina, which caters to mega yachts and other pleasure watercraft up to 200 feet (60 meters) in length.<br /><br />Spinning west at about 12 mph (19 kph) and located 80 miles (130 kilometers) east-northeast of Guadeloupe, forecasters said the storm could reach hurricane strength after it crosses Puerto Rico on Tuesday. After tracking south to north across the territory of about 3.6 million people, forecasters expect Gonzalo to curve over the open Atlantic and stay away from the U.S. East Coast.<br /><br />From Puerto Rico, the U.S. Coast Guard warned people to avoid the ocean and stay away from shoreline rocks starting noon Monday. "Tropical Storm Gonzalo is developing quickly," said Guard Capt. Robert Warren.<br /><br />The storm forecasts prompted cruise ship companies to tweak itineraries. Carnival Cruise Lines' Breeze ship cancelled a visit in La Romana, Dominican Republic, and its Liberty and Conquest vessels are switching to western Caribbean ports to avoid the storm, according to spokesman Vance Gulliksen.<br /><br />Hundreds of miles (kilometers) north of the Caribbean, Fay strengthened briefly into a hurricane as it tracked away from Bermuda before returning to tropical storm strength late Sunday. It earlier lashed the British chain with heavy rain and gusting winds. There were no immediate reports of injuries as Bermuda authorities assessed damage and discontinued storm watches and warnings.<br /><br />Fay, which had maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph), disrupted power for more than 27,000 customers of the Bermuda Electric Light Company. The utility is the sole supplier of electricity for the territory of roughly 65,000 inhabitants.<br /><br />Forecasters said a cold front was likely to absorb Fay on Monday.

A strengthening Tropical Storm Gonzalo takes aim at Caribbean

Tropical Storm Gonzalo gained strength as it took aim at a swath of the Caribbean including Puerto Rico, threatening to dump heavy rains tha...

Kerry pushes for Middle East peace, pledges $212 million aid for Gaza

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called on Sunday for a renewed commitment to achieving Middle East peace, saying a lasting deal between Israel, the Palestinians and all their neighbors could be achieved.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoLGJakFc8c9QnkPOB5HcSd4HAC9IBNFg1lh9WTArgf79BnU8Oa1N0JKeoqflu5DCxVlejL1aIPFs1d-4xQI2UMd4wuqMe8KZwTh6wNAMxyz5Z4RQ6CSBL9bVAcaIDWDDXdaTMXgcP65w/s1600/kerry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoLGJakFc8c9QnkPOB5HcSd4HAC9IBNFg1lh9WTArgf79BnU8Oa1N0JKeoqflu5DCxVlejL1aIPFs1d-4xQI2UMd4wuqMe8KZwTh6wNAMxyz5Z4RQ6CSBL9bVAcaIDWDDXdaTMXgcP65w/s1600/kerry.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />But prospects for a renewed peace process appeared dim as Kerry offered no specifics on how to restart negotiations in his speech to a Gaza reconstruction conference in Cairo.<br /><br />The last round of U.S.-brokered peace talks, presided over by Kerry, foundered in April over Israeli objections to a Palestinian political unity pact including the Islamist Hamas movement and Palestinian opposition to unremitting Israeli settlement expansion.<br /><br />"Out of this conference must come not just money but a renewed commitment from everybody to work for peace that meets the aspirations of all, for Israelis, for Palestinians for all people of this region," Kerry told the conference.<br /><br />"And I promise you the full commitment of president Obama, myself and the United States to try to do that," he said.<br /><br />At the conference Kerry also announced an additional $212 million in U.S. aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which was badly damaged during a conflict with Israel in July and August in which 2,100 Palestinians died, most of them civilians.<br /><br />An estimated 18,000 homes and vital infrastructure were destroyed in the seven-week war. The Palestinians have put the full cost of reconstruction at about $4 billion over three years.<br /><br />Germany on Sunday also announced it would contribute 50 million euros ($63 million) to reconstruction efforts in Gaza.<br /><br />"We can't allow the people in Gaza to sink into despair," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in a statement.<br /><br />The British ambassador to Egypt, John Casson, told Reuters London would provide $32 million for reconstruction.<br /><br />Egypt, the most populous Arab country and which brokered the current ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians in August, used the conference to renew its call for a wider Middle East peace deal based on a 2002 Arab initiative, which Israel has rejected.<br /><br />"We should turn this moment into a real starting point to achieve a peace that secures stability and flourishing and renders the dream of coexistence a reality, and this is the vision of the Arab peace initiative," Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said in his opening speech.<br /><br />The Arab peace initiative was floated by Saudi Arabia at an Arab League summit in Beirut in 2002 and offers full recognition of the Jewish state, but only if it gives up all land seized in the 1967 Middle East war and agrees to a "just solution" for Palestinian refugees.<br /><br />Also speaking in Cairo, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said the 2002 Arab plan could be the framework for a new comprehensive approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.<br /><br />Successive Israeli governments have rejected the Arab initiative but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently suggested a greater role for Israel's Arab neighbors in the pursuit of peace.<br /><br />Dozens of countries are attending the Cairo meeting. The Palestinian Authority is hoping that moves by a new unity government towards assuming control in Hamas-dominated Gaza could make wealthy donor governments less wary of providing reconstruction funds.<br /><br />Israel and the United States consider Hamas a terrorist organization.<br /><br />Palestinians want a state encompassing the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but has continued expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.<br /><br />But the message at the conference was clear: nations want a comprehensive, lasting solution and do not want to keep meeting at donor conferences to pick up the pieces after fighting.<br /><br />"Everything else will be a band aid fix, not a long-term solution... Everything else will be the prisoner of impatience and that has brought us to this unacceptable and unstable status quo," said Kerry.<br /><br />The last war began in July with Israel saying it was determined to put an end to rocket fire from Gaza. On the Israeli side, 67 soldiers and six civilians were killed.<br /><br />The Palestinians have threatened to seek membership in the international criminal court as a forum to accuse Israel of war crimes.<br /><br />Kerry plans to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Cairo and will seek to dissuade him from very "destabilizing" diplomatic moves, one U.S. official said.<br /><br />(1 US dollar = 0.7920 euro)

Kerry pushes for Middle East peace, pledges $212 million aid for Gaza

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called on Sunday for a renewed commitment to achieving Middle East peace, saying a lasting deal between I...

Seizures of cash from Americans fuel police spending nationwide

Police agencies have used hundreds of millions of dollars taken from Americans under federal civil forfeiture law in recent years to buy guns, armored cars and electronic surveillance gear.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFM-YJgIMgJWcyPyt_Jt6eXJwZctvqwAl_9sg93e-cQkh9Cq1Ipvx7fyXVVRHfO6118iihIAkuwFBNwzz3_MOruiw5hoQ8bUFKafmTLLBkcZw3V8IHLgZhtUAwFQJNI1fLDXTvsS_MSUA/s1600/USD.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="406" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFM-YJgIMgJWcyPyt_Jt6eXJwZctvqwAl_9sg93e-cQkh9Cq1Ipvx7fyXVVRHfO6118iihIAkuwFBNwzz3_MOruiw5hoQ8bUFKafmTLLBkcZw3V8IHLgZhtUAwFQJNI1fLDXTvsS_MSUA/s1600/USD.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><b>They have also spent money on luxury vehicles, travel and a clown named Sparkles.</b><br /><br />The details are contained in thousands of annual reports submitted by local and state agencies to the Justice Department’s Equitable Sharing Program, an initiative that allows local and state police to keep up to 80 percent of the assets they seize. The Washington Post obtained 43,000 of the reports dating from 2008 through a Freedom of Information Act request.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.s-msn.com/tenant/amp/entityid/BB8MHBe.img?h=486&w=728&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=969&y=717" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://img.s-msn.com/tenant/amp/entityid/BB8MHBe.img?h=486&w=728&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=969&y=717" width="640" /></a></div><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Sanford Police Chief Thomas Connolly steps down from the department's Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle. </blockquote><br />The documents offer a sweeping look at how police departments and drug task forces across the country are benefiting from laws that allow them to take cash and property without proving a crime has occurred. The law was meant to decimate drug organizations, but The Post found that it has been used as a routine source of funding for law enforcement at every level.<br /><br />“In tight budget periods, and even in times of budget surpluses, using asset forfeiture dollars to purchase equipment and training to stay current with the ever-changing trends in crime fighting helps serve and protect the citizens,” said Prince George’s County, Md., police spokeswoman Julie Parker.<br /><br />Brad Cates, a former director of asset forfeiture programs at the Justice Department, said the spending identified by The Post suggests police are using Equitable Sharing as “a free floating slush fund.” Cates, who oversaw the program while at Justice from 1985 to 1989, said it has enabled police to sidestep the traditional budget process, in which elected leaders create law enforcement spending priorities.<br /><br />“All of this is fundamentally at odds with the U.S. Constitution,” said Cates, who recently co-wrote an article calling for the program’s abolition on The Post’s editorial page. “All of this is at odds with the rights that Americans have.”<br /><br />Of the nearly $2.5 billion in spending reported in the forms, 81 percent came from cash and property seizures in which no indictment was filed, according to an analysis by The Post. Owners must prove that their money or property was acquired legally in order to get it back.<br /><br />The police purchases comprise a rich mix of the practical and the high-tech, including an array of gear that has helped some departments militarize their operations: Humvees, automatic weapons, gas grenades, night-vision scopes and sniper gear. Many departments acquired electronic surveillance equipment, including automated license-plate readers and systems that track cellphones.<br /><br />The spending also included a $5 million helicopter for Los Angeles police; a mobile command bus worth more than $1 million in Prince George’s County; an armored personnel carrier costing $227,000 in Douglasville, Ga., population 32,000; $5,300 worth of “challenge coin” medallions in Brunswick County, N.C.; $4,600 for a Sheriff’s Award Banquet by the Doña Ana County (N.M.) Sheriff’s Department; and a $637 coffee maker for the Randall County Sheriff’s Department in Amarillo, Tex.<br /><br />Sparkles the Clown was hired for $225 by Chief Jeff Buck in Reminderville, Ohio, to improve community relations. But Buck said the seizure money has been crucial to sustaining long-term investigations that have put thousands of drug traffickers in prison.<br /><br />“The money I spent on Sparkles the Clown is a very, very minute portion of the forfeited money that I spend in fighting the war on drugs,” he told The Post.<br /><br />About 5,400 departments and drug task forces have participated in the Equitable Sharing Program since 2008. Justice spokesman Peter Carr said the program is an effective weapon to fight crime but should not be considered “an alternative funding source for state and local law enforcement.”<br /><br />“It removes the tools of crime from criminal organizations, deprives wrongdoers of the proceeds of their crimes, recovers property that may be used to compensate victims, and deters crime,” he said in a statement. “Any funds received through the equitable sharing program are meant to enhance and supplement, not supplant or replace an agency’s appropriated budget and resources.”<br /><br />Money for gear, training<br /><br />A local or state police agency can seize cash or property under federal law through the Equitable Sharing Program when a federal agency such as the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration or Immigration and Customs Enforcement agrees to adopt the seizure under federal law. Federal agencies generally are allowed to keep 20 percent or more of the seizure after an adoption.<br /><br />In September, The Post reported that police across the country became more aggressive in their use of federal civil asset forfeiture laws after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Officials at Justice and the Department of Homeland Security encouraged a technique known as highway interdiction to help in the fight against drugs and terror.<br /><br />There have been 61,998 cash seizures on highway and elsewhere since 9/11 without search warrants or indictments and processed through the Equitable Sharing Program, according to an analysis of Justice data obtained by The Post.<br /><br />Equitable Sharing participants must follow rules contained in a 50-page Equitable Sharing guide that require the proceeds of seizures to be used “by law enforcement agencies for law enforcement purposes only.”<br /><br />Permissible uses include overtime pay, training, building construction and improvements and equipment — everything from file cabinets and fitness gear to automatic weapons, surveillance systems and cars. They also can use proceeds to buy food and drinks at conferences or during disaster operations.<br /><br />Police generally may not pay ongoing salaries or otherwise support annual budgets. One exception allows for departments to pay salaries of newly hired officers for one year or officers assigned to a drug task force as a replacement “so long as the replacement officer does not engage in the seizure of assets or narcotics law enforcement as a principal duty.”<br /><br />The Justice Department has about 15 employees assigned to overseeing compliance. Five employees review thousands of annual reports for discrepancies. Justice employees also use analytical tools to search for spending patterns. Several attorneys review all sharing request for $1 million or more, Carr said, adding that the locals also do their own audits.<br /><br />The annual reports from local and state police are required to help “promote public confidence” in the program and to protect against “waste, fraud and abuse,” the guidelines say. But the forms provide few details about what is actually purchased, according to documents and interviews. That is in part because the department leaves it up to local officials to decide how to categorize their spending. There is little room to provide line-item detail.<br /><br />Justice’s inspector general’s office has conducted 25 audits on spending since 2008, an average of four a year, examining more than $18 million in Equitable Sharing spending, roughly three-quarters of 1 percent of the money spent during that time. Justice has challenged millions of dollars in spending as unsupported or unallowable.<br /><br />One audit examined about $3.4 million in Equitable Sharing funds that the Oklahoma Highway Patrol spent from July 2009 to June 2012.<br /><br />The audit found $1.9 million in unallowable and unsupported expenditures relating to salaries, overtime pay, construction, fees paid to contractors and the use of two Ford F-150 pickup trucks by non-law enforcement personnel.<br /><br />Oklahoma authorities did not return calls seeking comment.<br /><br />Auditors found the Mesa County, Colo., Sheriff’s Office paid thousands for projectors, scanner equipment and other items that were not intended for law enforcement. They also paid for 20 lawyers in the Mesa County prosecutors office to attend a conference at the Keystone ski resort. Auditors questioned more than $78,000 in spending.<br /><br />The Mesa Sheriff’s Office also did not respond to calls from The Post.<br /><br />Trading cards and BMWs<br /><br />One task force used the money for a subscription to High Times, a magazine for marijuana enthusiasts, at $29.99 for a year.<br /><br />Several departments bought custom-made trading cards, complete with photos and data about their officers. Some, including police in Chelsea, Mass., share them with children in their communities.<br /><br />“We have found that this is a great way to build trust and foster long-lasting relationships with the youth in our community who get to know officers on a first-name basis,” said Chelsea Police Chief Brian Kyes.<br /><br />Ten agencies have used the asset forfeiture funds to pay their fees for the Defense Department’s excess property initiative, better known as the 1033 program, which enables local and state police to buy surplus military-grade equipment at cut rates. The equipment includes automatic weapons, night-vision gear and clothing.<br /><br />Police in Sahuarita, Ariz., paid $4,300 to outfit a Humvee obtained through the 1033 program.<br /><br />The New Bedford, Mass., Police Department in 2012 paid $2,119 for shipping costs for M-16s from the military.<br /><br />Dozens of sheriff and police offices paid a total of more than $100,000 for keepsakes known as “challenge coins” and lapel pins that they could share with one another and with local residents.<br /><br />Scores of departments spent money on vehicles. Many of them were typical police cruisers, but dozens were new and used sports and luxury cars, including at least 15 Mercedes, a dozen Mustangs, a handful of BMWs and two Corvettes.<br /><br />Others bought a variety of armored cars. Among them was the police department in Douglasville, Ga., and the sheriff’s office in Douglas County, Ga., which teamed up several years ago to buy an eight-ton, $227,000 BearCat (Ballistic Engineered Armored Response Counter Attack Truck).<br /><br />Douglasville Deputy Chief Gary E. Sparks said they have used the vehicle a few times in barricade situations. But mostly it comes in handy for “officer down” and SWAT team exercises.<br /><br />“It’s better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it,” he said.<br /><br />Police in Ferguson, Mo., also participate in Equitable Sharing. Since 2008, the department reported using seizure proceeds to buy $18,000 in weapons, $71,000 in computers and communications gear, and about $43,000 in electronic surveillance equipment. Some of the money was seized in partnerships with other agencies, the annual reports show.<br /><br />Jurisdictions in the Washington region have used the federal asset forfeiture program as well.<br /><br />Virginia State Police spent $33 million on buildings and improvements and $11 million on computers and communications gear.A state police spokeswoman said the funds came from money forfeited by Purdue Frederick Company, the maker of OxyContin, to settle allegations that the company played down the drug’s addictive properties.<br /><br />The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department was a leader in spending on informants and undercover drug purchases, reporting about $3.3 million under that category. The department declined a request to provide details.<br /><br />Prince George’s police spent $382,000 on license-plate readers, $56,000 to paint two aging helicopters and an undisclosed amount on a “cell site simulator” that can surreptitiously track cellphones.<br /><br />Parker, the Prince George’s police spokeswoman, said the cellphone-tracking system is only used under court order and that the department “follows best practice policies” when spending forfeiture funds.<br /><br />Fairfax County police have spent $1.3 million on weapons and protective gear, $561,000 on buildings and improvements and $208,000 on electronic surveillance gear. The department declined to share details about the spending.<br /><br />The Justice Department audited Fairfax’s spending in 2009 and 2010 and found the department had complied with the guidelines at that time.<br /><br />“Our financial stewardship of our Seized Account Funds is in compliance with all Federal rules and laws, State rules and laws, County rules and laws, and we undergo audits of these accounts by local and federal agencies,” Col. Edwin C. Roessler Jr., the Fairfax police chief, said in a statement. “Additionally, we are subjected to internal audit processes to review all requests for expenditures to ensure purchases are pre-approved for compliance.”<br /><br />Steady money for Ga. town<br /><br />The Post analysis found that since 2008, more than 500 departments and drug task forces have reported receiving the equivalent of 20 percent of their annual spending plans at least once. Nearly 100 have done so in at least three of the past six years.<br /><br />The local department that makes the most consistent use of Equitable Sharing funds per capita is in Braselton, Ga., a town of about 8,000 people along Interstate 85 northeast of Atlanta. It has reported receiving the equivalent of 20 percent or more of its budget from the Justice program in five of the past six years, documents show.<br /><br />The Braselton Police Department’s approach to Equitable Sharing offers insights about the latitude the Justice Department gives local and state departments to spend seized proceeds . It also underscores how little Equitable Sharing participants are required to disclose to Justice each year.<br /><br />According to the town’s annual reports, police in Braselton have spent $79,000 on weapons and protective gear since 2008, $139,000 on travel and training, $134,000 on salaries, $224,000 on computers and communications gear, $875,000 on a category characterized on the Justice form as “other,” and $905,000 on buildings and improvements.<br /><br />Their spending included $806,000 for the purchase and modification of vehicles.<br /><br />In interviews, Assistant Chief Lou Solis said that not all the reported spending went to items for the town police. He said that Braselton often uses its membership in the Equitable Sharing Program to buy things for law enforcement partners, such as the Georgia State Patrol.<br /><br />The federal guidelines allow the formation of “informal task forces” and the participants to decide how to split the seizures among themselves, with Justice’s approval. Most of Braselton’s seizure proceeds came as a result of its participation in an Atlanta-based DEA drug task force that relies heavily on local police. Braselton has one officer assigned to the task force, Solis said.<br /><br />Braselton police recently paid $6,000 for copiers for a nearby DEA office. “The DEA says, ‘Hey man, we need a copier,’ ” Solis said.<br /><br />In some instances, town police help out on “whisper stops” after receiving informal tips about smugglers from the DEA, he said. Some of the seizures are made by state troopers on nearby I-85, with help from Braselton officers, he said.<br /><br />State police have sometimes partnered with Braselton on seizures in exchange for pledges from town police to provide cars and equipment for the state police. For example, Solis said, Braselton police recently bought 27 M-4 assault rifles, at about $2,000 each, for state police with proceeds from Equitable Sharing. Braselton also paid almost $8,000 in program funds for “radar, lights and tag reader” for the state police.<br /><br />The deals with Braselton enabled state police offices to receive the direct benefit of seizure proceeds rather than have the money go through the state patrol’s general fund, according to Solis and Capt. Kermit Stokes, a state patrol official.<br /><br />Braselton police also used seizure proceeds to build an enclosed shooting range used by local, state and federal authorities, including the Department of Homeland Security, which also contributed funding, Solis said.<br /><br />“It’s legit. We’re not buying stuff just to buy stuff,” he said, adding, “We spend the money if we have it. . . . It’s pretty cool. We’re not only able to help us, we’re able to help others.”<br /><br />In every instance, planned purchases are submitted to town authorities before being approved by Braselton’s police chief, he said. Every request from Georgia’s state patrol is accompanied by a formal letter, as required by the Justice program, he said.<br /><br />“It’s checked and it’s double-checked,” Solis said about the spending. “It’s audited.”<br /><br />When town police help out, other agencies sometimes promised to include them in a “DAG-71,” the federal form that specifies how sharing should occur. So many seizures have occurred in recent years, leading to so much sharing among local, state and federal authorities, that it has become common for one officer to tell another, “We’re going to DAG you in,” Solis said.<br /><br />After The Post brought the transactions to Justice’s attention, a department official told Braselton to stop using Equitable Sharing funds to buy items for other departments, said Carr, the Justice spokesman. Such transactions were not “explicitly prohibited previously,” but a new interim guidance for the program was issued this summer, Carr said.<br /><br />“Braselton Police Department is now aware that this is not permitted and has assured the department it will comply with the new guidance,” Carr said.<br /><br />Braselton Police Chief Terry Esco said he was not aware of the interim guidance but is happy to comply.<br /><br />“We just never received the e-mail,” he said.

Seizures of cash from Americans fuel police spending nationwide

Police agencies have used hundreds of millions of dollars taken from Americans under federal civil forfeiture law in recent years to buy gun...

Ebola screening starts at New York's JFK airport

Medical teams at New York's JFK airport, armed with Ebola questionnaires and temperature guns, began screening travelers from three West African countries on Saturday as U.S. health authorities stepped up efforts to stop the spread of the virus.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoq8peGEOAZvR7q-bfmx-K4Ub9oRESzt3g4boes-eeh0sxMkiYYsj3lF9XsJr8R4jBjtq9sLKZJ0gy_xp6zBBiayoZ_nAHfM1tNW-QxnucxEnbEBWtWuTzXJ101DQcXiFF2mTc_gMNupc/s1600/0b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoq8peGEOAZvR7q-bfmx-K4Ub9oRESzt3g4boes-eeh0sxMkiYYsj3lF9XsJr8R4jBjtq9sLKZJ0gy_xp6zBBiayoZ_nAHfM1tNW-QxnucxEnbEBWtWuTzXJ101DQcXiFF2mTc_gMNupc/s1600/0b.jpg" /></a></div>John F. Kennedy Airport is the first of five U.S. airports to start enhanced screening of U.S.-bound travelers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Those countries have seen most of the deaths from the outbreak, which has claimed more than 4,000 lives.<br /><br />Nearly all passengers traveling to the United States from those countries arrive at JFK, Newark Liberty, Washington Dulles, Chicago O'Hare and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta. The new procedures will begin at the other four airports on Thursday.<br /><br />Mohamed Dabo, a 22-year-old Indiana man who arrived at JFK from Guinea after a stopover in Paris, said he was surprised by the intensity of the screening.<br /><br />"I don't really know what was going on in there but it was kind of crazy," he said. "I sat down there for two hours."<br /><br />The screenings, which will affect only a tiny fraction of overall passengers arriving at JFK, are being conducted by the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection (CBP), under direction of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).<br /><br />There are no direct flights from the affected countries, so CBP staff identify passengers to screen by looking at trip information and checking passports, R. Gil Kerlikowske, the CBP commissioner, told a news conference at JFK on Saturday morning.<br /><br />Using infrared temperature guns, staff are checking for elevated temperatures among passengers whose journeys began or included a stop in one of the three African countries.<br /><br />Screeners will also assess passengers for signs of illness and ask about their health and whether they may have come into contact with an Ebola patient.<br /><br />Buntouradu Bamgoura, 54, who was born in Guinea and lives in the United States, said she was handed a list of guidelines for screened passengers who were allowed to enter. The sheet offers tips for self-monitoring and instructions for doctors treating patients with Ebola-like symptoms.<br /><br />For those with a fever or other symptoms or possible exposure to Ebola, the CDC said, authorities may decide to take a person to a hospital or quarantine the patient.<br /><br />In a sign of how serious U.S. medical authorities view the prevention effort, members of an NBC News crew who worked with a cameraman who contracted Ebola in Liberia were ordered late Friday by New Jersey medical authorities into mandatory quarantine after failing to comply with a voluntary agreement to sequester themselves.<br /><br />Meanwhile, the condition of the freelance American cameraman continues to improve. At Nebraska Medical Center, Ashoka Mukpo, 33, has received the experimental drug Brincidofovir and a blood transfusion from Dr. Kent Brantly, who earlier recovered from a bout with Ebola at an Atlanta hospital.<br /><br /><b>"STIGMATIZATION" CONCERNS</b><br /><b><br /></b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><b><br /></b><br />JFK is the entry point for nearly half the roughly 150 travelers who arrive daily in the United States from the three West African countries, and those passengers amount to about one-tenth of 1 percent of all international daily arrivals at the airport, the CDC said.<br /><br />Edward Lama Wonkeryor, 60, a professor of communications and African studies at a Liberian university, said going through the enhanced screening was educational for him, but he said the push to staunch Ebola was stigmatizing West Africans.<br /><br />"There seems to be an over-exaggeration of the impact of this deadly disease where stigmatization becomes apparent in the process," Wonkeryor said after a trip from Liberia via Brussels.<br /><br />"That is wrong because this is a disease that can be controlled based on what medical experts are telling us."<br /><br /><b>SCREENING QUESTIONED</b><br /><b><br /></b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><b><br /></b><br />The CDC said the airport screening is just one aspect of an overall strategy to fight the spread of Ebola.<br /><br />"No matter how many of these procedures are put into place, we can't get the risk to zero," said Martin Cetron, director of the CDC's Division of Global Migration and Quarantine. "This new entry-screening procedure is just one part of a multi-layered approach," he told the JFK news conference.<br /><br />That said, Lawrence Gostin, who teaches global health law at Georgetown Law School, believes such monitoring "had virtually no effectiveness" when used in Canada and Asia during the SARS outbreak in 2002. He said travelers with a fever can evade detection by taking over-the-counter medication.<br /><br />People also could lie on questionnaires, said Dr. David Mabey, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. "People may not fill them in very truthfully. They don't want to be delayed for hours," Mabey said.<br /><br />Passengers are also screened when they depart from the three West African countries. In two months since those screenings began, only 77 of 36,000 travelers were denied boarding, the CDC said. Many were diagnosed later with malaria, none with Ebola.<br /><br />Thomas Eric Duncan, who died of Ebola in Dallas this week, did not have a fever when screened in Liberia before departure. He said on a questionnaire that he had not been in contact with anyone infected with Ebola. Liberian officials said he was in contact with a woman who later died. A friend of his family said Duncan did not know the woman had Ebola.

Ebola screening starts at New York's JFK airport

Medical teams at New York's JFK airport, armed with Ebola questionnaires and temperature guns, began screening travelers from three West...

Obama's decision on U.S. deportations poses political risks or Who's ignorant?

<blockquote class="tr_bq">President Barack Obama's decision on possible changes to U.S. deportation policy sets up an election-year skirmish that could help Democrats win points with their political base while irritating Republicans who are open to immigration reform.</blockquote><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="http://newsbcpcol.stb.s-msn.com/amnews/i/3a/15cf371c2dd0ffc2845014cd8d45/_h353_w628_m6_otrue_lfalse.jpg" class="decoded" height="359" src="http://newsbcpcol.stb.s-msn.com/amnews/i/3a/15cf371c2dd0ffc2845014cd8d45/_h353_w628_m6_otrue_lfalse.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Obama listens to remarks by Uruguay's Mujica before their meeting in the Oval Office in Washington</td></tr></tbody></table><br />The Obama administration is expected to announce revisions in the coming weeks to policies that determine how undocumented immigrants are selected for removal from the United States.<br /><br />Advocates want sweeping executive actions since broad legislation to rewrite immigration laws is stalled in Congress.<br /><br />But experts say the changes are likely to be modest as the White House holds out hope for a legislative fix this summer before November's midterm congressional elections or next year when a new Congress has been seated.<br /><br />Activists and congressional aides expect the Department of Homeland Security, which is reviewing the deportation guidelines, to focus on several areas.<br /><br />Those include shortening the time period in which immigrants are considered "new" and face increased scrutiny for deportation, instituting deeper background checks of detainees when considering whether they must leave, and protecting immigrants who are serving in the U.S. military from the threat of removal.<br /><br />The decision on how far to go creates a political dilemma for Obama.<br /><br />Making massive changes would endear him to Hispanic voters who helped propel him to the presidency and are furious about the high number of deportations on his watch.<br /><br />Taking symbolic but less far-reaching steps risks exacerbating disappointment from Latinos and others in his political base just as Obama wants them to turn out at the polls to elect Democrats in November.<br /><br />"This is about Obama getting pressure from his base and how far he can go to make sure that those people show up in 2014," said Lanae Erickson Hatalsky, director of social policy and politics at Third Way, a non-partisan think tank in Washington.<br /><br />Taking any executive action at all, however, risks alienating the very Republicans Obama needs to attain his ultimate goal of passing a bill with a path to citizenship for some 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the country.<br /><br />Republicans in the House of Representatives have said there may be interest in tackling immigration reform this summer. But Speaker John Boehner said any attempt to revise existing law without congressional approval will backfire.<br /><br />MOBILIZING THE BASE<br /><br />Strategists and even some former aides to the president believe Obama should disregard Republican objections and give a boost to Democrats with a big policy shift.<br /><br />"I think he should be more aggressive about making the case that 'if you don't act, I will,'" said Luis Miranda, a former White House aide who worked on immigration issues and is now managing director at MDC Strategies, a communications firm.<br /><br />Kenneth Sherrill, a political scientist at New York's Hunter College, said the likelihood of Republicans passing immigration reform this year was slim.<br /><br />"If the White House is really worried about antagonizing Republicans, it seems to me they're nuts," he said. "If they want to do well in November, they've got to antagonize Republicans in order to mobilize Democrats for the election."<br /><br />Hispanics polled by Reuters/Ipsos between January 2012 and March of this year have consistently preferred Democrats' handling of immigration compared with Republicans. But only 35 percent approved of the Democrats' handling of the issue in March, the latest month for which data is available, compared with 44 percent polled around the time of Obama's re-election.<br /><br />That's a problem for Democrats, whose base of younger and minority voters are historically less likely to vote in midterm years than Republican voters, who are typically older and white.<br /><br />Latino voters can be motivated by movement on immigration issues even during midterms, said David Damore, a senior analyst at Latino Decisions, a political research firm that tracks political opinions of Latino voters. In 2010, anti-immigration stances by Republican Senate candidates in Nevada and Colorado spurred Hispanics to the polls, he said.<br /><br />HOW FAR TO GO<br /><br />The question for the administration, then, is how far to go.<br /><br />Activists said Obama could expand the 2012 program known as deferred action that permitted children brought into the United States illegally by their parents to stay. The age cap for that could be raised, for example, or other groups could be added.<br /><br />What they really want - and what Republicans fervently oppose - is a broad program that would let people who are not a priority for deportation come forward, go through background checks, pay a fee and get authorization to stay put.<br /><br />That is unlikely to happen, and immigrants worried about being deported and their supporters in the Latino community are prepared to be disappointed.<br /><br />"Those minimum changes will not take away that fear and I don't think they will satisfy anybody," said Richard Morales, detention prevention coordinator at PICO National Network, a community organizing group.<br /><br />The advocates' impatience has sometimes led to pushback from the White House. Obama appeared visibly frustrated at a meeting with them in February and said they should be directing their anger at Congress, several attendees told Reuters.<br /><br />"On the one hand, activists are never going to be happy," said Gabriela Domenzain, a former aide on Obama's 2012 campaign and now a partner in the Raben Group, a lobbying group. "This doesn't solve the problem permanently that only passing legislation can do."

Obama's decision on U.S. deportations poses political risks or Who's ignorant?

President Barack Obama's decision on possible changes to U.S. deportation policy sets up an election-year skirmish that could help Democ...