Veteran Los Angeles California Police Officer Alejandro Nava And Other Officers Under Investigation For Military-Style Boot Camp For Kids

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – Officials from the Los Angeles Police Department are investigating two officers who allegedly operated a military-style boot camp for kids that employed harsh physical methods.

The Juvenile Intervention Program, which bills itself on its website as a 12-week program that will “improve the lives of “at risk” youth and their families by implementing structure, self-discipline and respect,” has been operating its weekend classes in Hollywood since at least February, according to the program’s website.

Two online videos show drill instructors screaming at young participants, disparaging them, and, in at least one instance, challenging one child to a fight. Much of the footage shows the children struggling to complete sets of push-ups and other difficult endurance exercises. In one scene, a group of exhausted-looking girls calls out, “316, sir,” as they count off another squat with their hands held behind their heads. Several kids are seen crying during the exercises or as instructors lean down into their faces to shout at them.

In one scene, a male officer pushes a girl from her knees into push-up position. In another, a young boy is brought to tears by an expletive-filled tirade.

The program and videos were first reported by the Los Angeles Daily News.

Several of the instructors are shown wearing holstered guns and uniforms from the city’s General Services police–an agency that soon will become part of the LAPD, but traditionally has been separate. The chief of the General Services force did not immediately respond to a call for comment.

LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith confirmed the department was investigating two LAPD officers, who reportedly started the program. Smith would not elaborate, citing the ongoing investigation. Police sources who requested their names not be used because they were not permitted to discuss the details of the case, said the department was investigating the way children were treated, whether the organizers improperly billed the program as being associated with the LAPD, and the program’s finances.

Although its website says the program is a charity with tax-free status, no program with its name is listed in a charity database kept by the federal government and a for-profit company with the group’s name was created last year, state records show. The program charges $200 for each child, according to its website.

One of the LAPD officers who runs the program is identified on the videos as Alejandro Nava, a 17-year department veteran. Nava did not return an e-mail seeking comment.

The program seems to be modeled closely on a boot camp sanctioned by the LAPD that uses officers as drill instructors. Smith, however, said instructors in the department’s program are closely vetted and monitored. “If someone is running another juvenile program and identifying themselves as an LAPD officer…that could lead parents to mistakenly believe we sanction it. That could lead to problems,” Smith said.

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South Saint Louis County Missouri Police Officer Tackles Woman With Traffic Violations Inside Victoria’s Secret Store, Attacks Her Little Girl Using Taser Weapon

SOUTH ST. LOUIS COUNTY, MISSOURI – A police officer tased a 12-year-old girl inside a Victoria’s Secret Wednesday afternoon at South County Center.

Police say the officer came into the Victoria’s Secret looking for the teenager’s mom, who had warrants for her arrest. But it was the teen who got tased.

“This one goes in my chest. It was stuck in there so she had to keep on pulling trying to pull it out,” said Dejamon Baker, as she pointed to a small wound on her chest.

Baker has a matching wound on her stomach.

“I had fell on the floor and I couldn’t control myself I just kept on shaking and stuff,” said the girl.

Baker, her mother Charlene Bratton, and some other relatives were in the Victoria’s Secret.

Bratton had just tried on some shorts and was about to buy them when she says a St. Louis County officer came looking for her. Bratton had warrants, she says, for numerous unresolved traffic tickets.

“He said, put your hands behind your back. I said for what. Next thing you know he tackled me down on the ground,” said Bratton.

Baker said, “I was just crying. I guess he got mad because I was crying or something, then he just took it out and just tased me.”

A police spokesman says the officer stated the girl was physically getting involved and would not back away, but Dejamon and her mother deny that.

“He should have had enough control to tell her to get back instead of pulling out his gun, I guess he was nervous or whatever, and tasing people,” said Bratton.

The police spokesman says he believes the officer’s actions were justified, but he admits it’s a unique situation.

He suggests the mother report the incident to internal affairs to have in investigated.

The mother says that’s what she plans to do.

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US Postal Service 1 Day Away From Historic Default On $5.5 BILLION Dollar Payment To US Treasury

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Postal Service is bracing for a first-ever default on billions in payments due to the Treasury, adding to widening uncertainty about the mail agency’s solvency as first-class letters plummet and Congress deadlocks on ways to stem the red ink.

With cash running perilously low, two legally required payments for future postal retirees’ health benefits – $5.5 billion due Wednesday, and another $5.6 billion due in September – will be left unpaid, the mail agency said Monday. Postal officials said they also are studying whether they may need to delay other obligations. In the coming months, a $1.5 billion payment is due to the Labor Department for workers compensation, which for now it expects to make, as well as millions in interest payments to the Treasury.

The defaults won’t stir any kind of catastrophe in day-to-day mail service. Post offices will stay open, mail trucks will run, employees will get paid, current retirees will get health benefits.

But a growing chorus of analysts, labor unions and business customers are troubled by continuing losses that point to deeper, longer-term financial damage, as the mail agency finds it increasingly preoccupied with staving off immediate bankruptcy while Congress delays on a postal overhaul bill.

“I think for my generation it was a great asset – if you had a letter or package and you needed it to get up to the North Pole, you knew it would be delivered,” said Jim Husa, 87, of Lawrence, Mich., after stopping to mail letters recently at his local post office. Noting the mail agency’s financial woes, he added: “Times have changed, and we old-timers know that. FedEx and UPS and the Internet seem to be making the Postal Service obsolete.”

Banks are promoting electronic payments, citing in part the growing uncertainty of postal mail. The federal government will stop mailing paper checks starting next year for millions of people who receive Social Security and other benefits, paying via direct deposit or debit cards instead.

First-class mail volume, which has fallen 25 percent since 2006, is projected to drop another 30 percent by 2016.

Art Sackler, co-coordinator of the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, a group representing the private-sector mailing industry, said the payment defaults couldn’t come at a worse time, as many major and mid-sized mailers are preparing their budgets for next year.

“The impact of the postal default may not be seen by the public, but it will be felt by the business community,” he said. “Mailers will be increasingly wary about the stability of the Postal Service. The logical and likely move would be to divert more mail out of the system.”

The Postal Service, an independent agency of government, does not receive taxpayer money for operations but it is subject to congressional control. It estimates that it is now losing $25 million a day, which includes projected savings it had expected to be accruing by now if Congress this spring had approved its five-year profitability plan. That plan would cut Saturday delivery, reduce low-volume postal facilities and end its obligation to pay more than $5 billion each year for future retiree health payments.

While the Senate passed a bill in April that provides an $11 billion cash infusion to help the mail agency avert a default, it also would delay many of the planned postal cuts for another year or two. The House remains stalled over a measure that allows for the aggressive cuts the Postal Service prefers; that’s unlikely to move forward this year, partly due to concerns among rural lawmakers over cutbacks in their communities.

The Postal Service originally sought to close low-revenue post offices in rural areas to save money but after public opposition agreed to keep 13,000 open with shorter operating hours. The Postal Service also is delaying the closing of many mail processing centers, originally set to begin this spring. The estimated annual savings of $2.1 billion won’t be realized until the full cuts are completed in late 2014.

The postal uncertainty offers opportunities for banks, which can save up to one-third of the cost of processing checks if payments are made electronically. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. (C) and Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) have been urging electronic transactions.

“This could be a watershed event to motivate consumers and businesses to stop writing checks,” said Rodney Gardner, head of global receivables at Bank of America, who recently reviewed the topic at a conference with insurance companies.

The Postal Service, which releases third-quarter financial results next week, has projected a record $14.1 billion loss for the year. It expects to avoid bankruptcy in October only by defaulting on the two health prepayments, totaling $11.1 billion. It faces a cash crunch again next year.

Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, notes that the onerous health payment for future retirees – something not required of any other government agency or private business – is to blame for much of the post office’s red ink. He faults Congress for mandating the payments in 2006, saying they force the post office every year into a “panic mode that absorbs energy and resources” rather than focusing on longer-term innovation.

“The word ‘default’ sounds ominous, but in reality this is a default on the part of Congress,” Rolando said.

In 2007 and 2008, the Postal Service initially had profits of roughly $3 billion but fell into the red after making the health payments. In more recent years, it has suffered annual losses of $2 billion to $5 billion even after factoring out the health payments; by 2016, the mail agency expects to lose $21.3 billion a year, of which $5.8 billion will be caused by that payment.

Peter Nesvold, a financial analyst with Jefferies and Co., says the post office’s financial future will depend on how Congress resolves its conflict over the mail agency’s core mission. While the Postal Service is a business expected to stay afloat, it also has a legal obligation to provide uniform first-class mail service even to sparsely populated, far-flung areas of the U.S., all for the same price of a 45-cent postage stamp. UPS and FedEx don’t deliver to those areas that are less profitable, contracting with the Postal Service to get the job done.

Last year, first-class mail contributed to 49 percent of the Postal Service’s total revenue; by 2016, that share will drop to 41 percent. The mail agency has been seeking to pick up the slack by promoting its fast-growing package business as a cheaper alternative to FedEx and UPS, as well as encouraging more use of “standard mail,” which are advertising circulars and catalogs often referred to as “junk mail.”

Linda Graham, a postmaster in Hope, Alaska, says she understands the Postal Service’s financial dilemma. Her rural postal branch may see its hours reduced from eight to four hours a day. “I feel that right now the post office is really grasping to try to make things work. I mean, they’re losing money,” she said.

Graham acknowledges her postal branch could probably get by if it were open just 6 hours a day, but believes that a bigger cut would be “suicide” for the town because of the role it plays as a community gathering place. “That’s a real concern. So I just tell people, write more letters, buy more stamps,” she said.

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Former US Military Police Officer Rogelio Harris Arrested, Charged With Trying To Smuggle Pounds Of Meth To Japan Inside Snickers Candy Bars – Tossed Out Of Navy After Testing Positive For Drugs, But Still Traveling On “Official Passport” For US Government

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – A former military policeman is facing a federal narcotics rap after he allegedly sought to smuggle several pounds of methamphetamine to Japan in the form of 45 Snickers bars.

Rogelio Harris, 34, was arrested Friday afternoon at Los Angeles International Airport after federal agents discovered the narcotics in his suitcase during a “border search,” according to a felony criminal complaint. Traveling alone, Harris was headed to Tokyo on a Delta Airlines flight (and scheduled to return to L.A. three days later).

Federal agents found the meth-filled candy bars inside a “box with a design printed on the outside suggesting that it contained Snickers candy bars.” When investigators unwrapped one of Snickers bars, they determined that the meth “was actually wrapped inside clear cellophane, which was itself coated in a chocolate-like substance so as to make the contents of the package appear to be a real candy bar.”

There was no tasty nougat, caramel, or peanuts to be found anywhere.

During questioning, Harris told agents that he last year received an “other than honorable discharge” from the Navy after testing positive for marijuana use. He claimed to be “traveling to Japan to visit his girlfriend, who lived in Hong Kong,” according to the felony complaint. When an investigator explained that Hong Kong and Japan were separate countries, Harris replied, “They are?”

Though he was bounced from the military, Harris was carrying an “Official Passport” with an endorsement reading, “The bearer is abroad on an official assignment for the United States Government.” Before requesting a lawyer, Harris admitted to agents that he “was not traveling to Japan on official orders.”

Harris is being held in L.A.’s Metropolitan Detention Center.

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Investigation Finds Top 5 Senior ATF Officals Responsible For “Fast And Furious” Gun Operation That Armed Criminals And Mexican Drug Cartels Under Disgraced US Attorney General Eric Holder

WASHINGTON, DC – Republican congressional investigators have concluded that five senior ATF officials — from the special agent-in-charge of the Phoenix field office to the top man in the bureau’s Washington headquarters — are collectively responsible for the failed Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation that was “marred by missteps, poor judgments and inherently reckless strategy.”

The investigators, in a final report likely to be released later this week, also unearthed new evidence that agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Phoenix initially sought to hide from the Mexican government the crucial information that two Fast and Furious firearms were recovered after the brother of a Mexican state attorney general was killed there.

According to a copy of the report obtained Monday by The Times, the investigators said their findings are “the best information available as of now” about the flawed gun operation that last month led to Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. being found in contempt of Congress for failing to turn over subpoenaed documents.

Two more final reports, they said, will deal with “the devastating failure of supervision and leadership” at the Department of Justice and an “unprecedented obstruction of the [congressional] investigation by the highest levels of the Justice Department, including the attorney general himself.”

The first report did allege some Justice Department involvement, however, notably that Kenneth E. Melson, then acting ATF director, was made into a “scapegoat” for Fast and Furious after he told congressional Republicans his Justice Department supervisors “were doing more damage control than anything” else once Fast and Furious became public.

“My view is that the whole matter of the department’s response in this case was a disaster,” Melson told the investigators.

Fast and Furious, which allowed some 2,500 illegal gun sales in Arizona with the hope that agents would track the weapons to Mexican drug cartels, began in fall 2009 and was halted after U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in December 2010. By then, most of the weapons had been lost, and two were recovered at the scene of his slaying.

The five ATF managers, since moved to other positions, have either defended Fast and Furious in congressional testimony or refused to discuss it. They could not be reached for comment Monday. At the Justice Department, senior officials, including Holder, have steadfastly maintained that Fast and Furious was confined to the Arizona border region and that Washington was never aware of the flawed tactics.

The joint staff report, authored by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, was highly critical of the ATF supervisors.

They found that William Newell, the special agent-in-charge in Phoenix, exhibited “repeatedly risky” management and “consistently pushed the envelope of permissible investigative techniques.” The report said “he had been reprimanded … before for crossing the line, but under a new administration and a new attorney general he reverted back to the use of risky gunwalking tactics.”

His boss, Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations William McMahon, “rubber stamped critical documents that came across his desk without reading them,” the report alleged. “In McMahon’s view it was not his job to ask any questions about what was going on in the field.”

They added that McMahon gave “false testimony” to Congress about signing applications for wiretap intercepts in Fast and Furious.

His supervisor, Mark Chait, assistant director for field operations, “played a surprisingly passive role during the operation,” the report said. “He failed to provide oversight that his experience should have dictated and his position required.”

Above Chait was Deputy Director William Hoover, who the report said ordered an exit strategy to scuttle Fast and Furious but never followed through: “Hoover was derelict in his duty to ensure that public safety was not jeopardized.”

And they said Melson, a longtime career Justice official, “often stayed above the fray” instead of bringing Fast and Furious to an “end sooner.”

But, the investigators said, ATF agents said that they were hamstrung by federal prosecutors in Arizona from obtaining criminal charges for illegal gun sales, and that Melson “even offered to travel to Phoenix to write the indictments himself. Still, he never ordered it be shut down.”

In the November 2010 slaying in Mexico of Mario Gonzalez, the brother of Patricia Gonzalez, then attorney general for the state of Chihuahua, two of 16 weapons were traced back to Fast and Furious after they were recovered from a shootout with Mexican police.

But 10 days later, ATF Agent Tonya English urged Agent Hope MacAllister and their supervisor, David J. Voth, to keep it under wraps. “My thought is not to release any information,” she told them in an email.

When Patricia Gonzalez later learned that two of the guns had been illegally obtained under Fast and Furious, she was outraged. “The basic ineptitude of these officials [who ordered the Fast and Furious operation] caused the death of my brother and surely thousands more victims,” she said.

The following month, Agent Terry was killed south of Tucson. Voth emailed back, “Ugh … things will most likely get ugly.”

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London UK Police Run Out Of Crimes To Solve, Terrorists, And Real Criminals To Hunt – Arrest Twitter User Who Commented About Olympic Diver

LONDON, UK – Police say a man has been arrested in connection to Twitter postings directed at British Olympic diver Tom Daley.

Daley’s father died of brain cancer a year ago and the 18-year-old Olympian had hoped win a medal “for myself and my dad.” But he finished fourth on Monday in the 10-meter synchronized platform with teammate Pete Waterfield.

Afterward, a Twitter user sent him several negative messages, including: “You let your dad down i hope you know that.”

Dorset Police said early Tuesday that a 17-year-old man was arrested at a guest house in Weymouth “on suspicion of malicious communications” in relation to Twitter threats made against Daley.

In Britain, tweeting messages considered menacing can lead to prosecution.

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Obama Administration Scrambling To Delay Mass Layoffs Just Before Election – Intimidating Businesses, Companies, And Corporations

President Obama is trying to prevent thousands of layoff notices from going out a few days before the November election, Sen. Jame Inhofe (R-Okla.) said on Tuesday.

Obama’s Labor Department on Monday issued “guidance” to the states, telling them that a federal law requiring advance notice of mass layoffs does not apply to the layoffs that may occur in January as a result of automatic budget cuts known as “sequestration.”

Inhofe, appearing on Fox & Friends Tuesday morning, said President Obama, through his Labor Department, “is trying to intimidate businesses, companies, corporations — not just defense contractors — into not issuing the pink slips,” which are required by federal law 60 days before mass layoffs or plant closings.

“(T)he president doesn’t really want all these pink slips going out five days before the election,” Inhofe said.

He noted that if the automatic budget cuts kick in on Jan. 2 — as they will if Congress can’t reach a deficit-reduction agreement — layoff notices would have to go out no later than Nov. 2. The general election is on Nov. 6.

Under the WARN Act — The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act — companies with more than 100 employees must give 60 days’ notice if there is to be a mass layoff during any 30-day period for 500 or more employees (or for 50-499 employees if they make up at least 33% of the employer’s active workforce).

But in guidance issued on Monday, Assistant Labor Secretary Jane Oates said never mind about those pink slips:

“Questions have recently been raised as to whether the WARN Act requires Federal contractors…whose contracts may be terminated or reduced in the event of sequestration on January 2, 2013, to provide WARN Act notices 60 days before that date to their workers employed under government contracts funded from sequestrable accounts. The answer to this question is ‘no.’ In fact, to provide such notice would be inconsistent with the purpose of the WARN Act.”

In its guidance, the Labor Department also noted that “efforts are being made to avoid sequestration,” making its occurrence “not necessarily foreseeable.”

“You can’t not comply with the law,” Inhofe said on Tuesday. “Put yourself on the board of directors of Lockheed Martin. If they came out with a class-action suit of a thousand dollars per employee, that would be $120 million. You bet they’re going to send out pink slips. And by the way, they don’t have to wait until Nov. 2. They can send them out today if they want,” Inhofe added.

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) also criticized the Obama administration for the “obvious political aim” of its guidance on the WARN Act.

“At a time when our economy continues to suffer from staggeringly high unemployment, the Obama Administration today took away an important planning tool for Americans who may lose their jobs as a result of the failure of Congress and the White House to address the looming and entirely predictable threat of budget sequestration. Sequestration is currently the law of the land, and our nation’s workers have a right to know how these sequestration cuts which begin in January may impact them,” the senators said in a news release.

“This decision is especially disturbing in light of the fact that the Department of Labor previously stated in a Fact Sheet that ‘since it has no administrative or enforcement responsibility under’ the WARN Act, it ‘cannot provide specific advice or guidance with respect to individual situations.’ Today the Department did just that, issuing guidance to government contractors not to provide their employees advance notification of potential layoffs as a result of sequestration. This is a troubling turnaround that lays bare the obvious political aim of today’s announcement – avoiding mass layoff notices just days before the November 6th election.

McCain, Ayotte and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) this week are visiting communities in Florida, North Carolina and Virginia and New Hampshire that will be hardest hit by the steep, automatic cuts to the Defense budget.

“The Americans we have met today are asking Republicans and Democrats to do their jobs – to come together to find a solution that avoids this threat to our national security and economy. They are also asking for something that has been totally lacking in Washington – presidential leadership,” they said.

Republicans say President Obama has refused to engage in the debate and will share responsibility for the potential loss of one million jobs if sequestration takes effect.

“The Senate Armed Services Committee has received letters from eight defense companies, all of which advise that they will have to lay off thousands – if not tens of thousands – of workers if sequestration occurs. These Americans deserve fair warning that politics in Washington is placing their jobs in jeopardy,” McCain and Ayotte said.

Under the Budget Control Act of 2011, if Congress can’t produce deficit-reduction legislation by the end of the year, automatic spending cuts will take effect in 2013, split 50-50 between domestic and defense spending. That amounts to a $500-billion cut to the Defense budget over ten years.

In theory, the deep Defense cuts were supposed to be so unpalatable that Democrats and Republicans would come together to find other ways to reduce the deficit.

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BROKE: 16 States Now Rationing Prescription Drugs For Medicaid Patients

WASHINGTON, DC – Sixteen states have set a limit on the number of prescription drugs they will cover for Medicaid patients, according to Kaiser Health News.

Seven of those states, according to Kaiser Health News, have enacted or tightened those limits in just the last two years.

Medicaid is a federal program that is carried out in partnership with state governments. It forms an important element of President Barack Obama’s health-care plan because under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act–AKA Obamcare–a larger number of people will be covered by Medicaid, as the income cap is raised for the program.

With both the expanded Medicaid program and the federal subsidy for health-care premiums that will be available to people earning up to 400 percent of the poverty level, a larger percentage of the population will be wholly or partially dependent on the government for their health care under Obamacare than are now.

In Alabama, Medicaid patients are now limited to one brand-name drug, and HIV and psychiatric drugs are excluded.

Illinois has limited Medicaid patients to just four prescription drugs as a cost-cutting move, and patients who need more than four must get permission from the state.

Speaking on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal on Monday, Phil Galewitz, staff writer for Kaiser Health News, said the move “only hurts a limited number of patients.”

“Drugs make up a fair amount of costs for Medicaid. A lot of states have said a lot of drugs are available in generics where they cost less, so they see this sort of another move to push patients to take generics instead of brand,” Galewitz said.

“It only hurts a limited number of patients, ‘cause obviously it hurts patients who are taking multiple brand name drugs in the case of Alabama, Illinois. Some of the states are putting the limits on all drugs. It’s another place to cut. It doesn’t hurt everybody, but it could hurt some,” he added.

Galewitz said the move also puts doctors and patients in a “difficult position.”

“Some doctors I talked to would work with patients with asthma and diabetes, and sometimes it’s tricky to get the right drugs and the right dosage to figure out how to control some of this disease, and just when they get it right, now the state is telling them that, ‘Hey, you’re not going to get all this coverage. You may have to switch to a generic or find another way,’” he said.

Arkansas, California, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia have all placed caps on the number of prescription drugs Medicaid patients can get.

“Some people say it’s a matter of you know states are throwing things up against the wall to see what might work, so states have tried, they’ve also tried formularies where they’ll pick certain brand name drugs over other drugs. So states try a whole lot of different things. They’re trying different ways of paying providers to try to maybe slow the costs down,” Galewitz said.

“So it seems like Medicaid’s sort of been one big experiment over the last number of years for states to try to control costs, and it’s an ongoing battle, and I think drugs is just now one of the … latest issues. And it’s a relatively recent thing, only in the last 10 years have we really seen states put these limits on monthly drugs,” he added.

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World War II Veteran Attacked And Robbed By 3 Savage Black Beasts In West Englewood Illinois While Walking Home From Corner Store

WEST ENGLEWOOD, ILLINOIS – An 87-year-old World War II veteran was walking from a corner store in West Englewood after buying lottery tickets when he was attacked by three people who smashed his glasses, knocked out his hearing aid and broke his dentures, then went through his pockets and fled with his wallet, according to his family and police.

Two delivery men who witnessed the attack Monday afternoon followed the robbers in their truck and helped police track them down, authorities said. Three suspects — ages 15, 17 and 20 — were taken into custody not far from where Porter B. Cross was beaten.

“He’s just a sweet guy,” said Cross’ daughter, Cynthia Steward-Jones, this morning. “Chicago has bruised my heart with this.”

She said her dad, who will turn 88 on Thursday, was returning home from his weekly walk to the store to buy lottery tickets. “It’s the one day of the week he goes out and gets his exercise,” said Steward-Jones, who lives with her father.

The three jumped him just blocks from his home. “They broke his glasses in his face and his dentures in his mouth,” she said. “They knocked his hearing aid out and his face is really swollen.”

The three took his wallet, which contained money, his Social Security card, his state ID, driver’s license and credit cards. But he was able to hold onto the lottery tickets, she said.

Cross suffered a bruised left eye, a laceration under his right eye and was treated at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, police said.

Steward-Jones said her father served in World War II. “He was a seaman,” she said. After the war, he worked for 36 years for the U.S. Postal Service before retiring. They moved to the West Englewood neighborhood about two years ago.

“We thought this neighborhood would be good for a single person but apparently it’s not,” she said.

Steward-Jones said the robbery has also left her father “disappointed.”

“He said: ‘I’m just so disappointed. I’ve served this country and I’ve done all the right things. I’ve lived my life like I was supposed to and this younger generation is just something else. … They’re just losing their mind.’ “

Steward-Jones said the family is touched by the kindness of the people who came to her father’s aid.

“If it had not been for the two gentlemen … they might not have been caught,” she said. “They could have killed my father. I am just so grateful to them. I just want to say thank you and my whole family says thank you.

“At least there’s someone who still cares.”

One of those Good Samaritans was Dennis Weekly, who was making a meat delivery on the Southwest Side when he saw Cross on the ground near 71st Street and Claremont Avenue and three men going through his pockets. When the muggers ran away, he and his partner followed them in their rented truck.

“I saw the man lying on the ground and three males standing over him, going through his pockets,” said Weekly, 29. “Once I saw it was an old man on the ground, I called the ambulance and I told them they needed to call the police.

“He could barely move or talk. He was in so much pain,” Weekly said. “He didn’t deserve this. They didn’t need to do this to him. It hurt my heart to see him lying on the ground like that.”

Weekly said he and his partner decided to follow the robbers.

“I followed them about four blocks until police got there,” Weekly said, careful not to get too close. “I kept my distance so they wouldn’t know. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.”

Aiman Samad was driving the truck. “We tracked down the culprits,” Samad said. “We flagged down the cops.”

Police say Rashon Williams, 20, of the 1400 block of Lincoln Avenue in Calumet City, was charged with robbery of a senior citizen, and Michael Protho, 17, of the 3000 block of Woodworth Place in Hazel Crest, was charged with robbery of a senior citizen and reckless conduct.

Juvenile authorities will take over in the case of the 15-year-old, who was also charged with robbery of a senior, police said.

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Obama Administration Decides To Ignore Law, Releases 36,000 Illegal Immigrant Criminals Instead Of Deporting Them, Resulting In 19 MURDERS, 142 SEX OFFENSES – Of 160,000 Not Deported, They Were Later Charged With More Than 60,000 Crimes

WASHINGTON, DC – The Obama administration declined to try to deport more than 36,000 illegal immigrants that were arrested on other charges between 2008 and 2011, including some who went on to commit 19 murders, 3 attempted murders and 142 sex crimes, the House Judiciary Committee said Tuesday.

All told, the administration was alerted to nearly 160,000 immigrants — most of them here legally — who were arrested during the three-year period. They went on to be charged in nearly 60,000 more crimes, according to the committee and the Congressional Research Service, which issued a report on the matter.

The findings stem from the Obama administration’s Secure Communities program, which was designed to identify immigrants who run afoul of the law and who the administration decides it wants to deport.

While hundreds of thousands have been sent back home under the program, 159,286 were not put in deportation proceedings during the period under review, CRS said.

About three quarters of those weren’t eligible for deportation because they were legal immigrants and their criminal records didn’t rise to the level of deportation, though nearly a quarter could have been deported, CRS said.

Those who could have been deported but were released later went on to commit the 19 murders, 3 attempted murders and 142 sex crimes, the Judiciary Committee said.

“The Obama administration could have prevented these senseless crimes by enforcing our immigration laws,” committee Chairman Lamar Smith said. “But President Obama continues to further his anti-enforcement agenda while innocent Americans suffer the consequences. His unwillingness to enforce immigration laws puts our communities at risk and costs American lives.”

Mr. Smith requested the CRS report, which used data he had subpoenaed from the Homeland Security Department.

The department didn’t immediately return a request for comment Tuesday morning.

Secure Communities has come under fire from both sides of the aisle.

Many Democrats say it casts its net too wide, which means illegal immigrants who have committed relatively minor offenses could be deported. But Republicans, led by Mr. Smith, say the administration is actually being too picky in those it chooses to deport, which results in criminals being released back onto the streets to commit more crimes.

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West Yorkshire UK Police Spend 30 Hours Chasing Their Tails After Hoax Call

LONDON, UK – A call to police in England that sparked a frantic search for a 3-year-old girl who said her mother had collapsed was a hoax, police said after spending nearly 30 hours trying to trace the call.

Two 10-year-old girls were being questioned Tuesday, West Yorkshire police said after the urgent hunt in the city of Leeds.

Detective Chief Inspector Lisa Griffin, who led the search, called the incident “incredibly frustrating.”

Earlier Tuesday, the police force had issued an appeal for help tracking down the child who called emergency services to say her mother had fallen down and was not moving.

She said she had shouted at her mother and shaken her, but she remained motionless on the kitchen floor with a piece of toast in her hand, police said in a release.

The girl said her name was Ellie. The call for an ambulance came at 10:53 Monday morning. Police announced just before 4:30 on Tuesday afternoon that the incident was a hoax.

The West Yorkshire force had put a team of officers on the case, set up a phone number for tips from the public and put out appeals on Twitter and through television interviews.

“We urgently need the public’s help to identify exactly where Ellie and her mum are,” Griffin had said in launching the appeal.

The hoax caller said her mother was named Stacey Hall but was able to give only part of her address — the number 23 and that the street name had “Court” in it.

Police released the information, plus part of the audio recording of the 33-minute phone call, in hopes that someone would be able to identify her.

No phone number came up when the girl called emergency services, West Yorkshire police told CNN, leading them to believe that the call came from a prepaid cell phone.

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11 Year Old Savage Black Beast Found Wandering Chicago Streets With Molotov Cocktail Bomb And A Lighter

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – Chicago Police Bomb and Arson officers responded to a call Monday night about a boy who was allegedly holding a Molotov Cocktail in the Rogers Park neighborhood.

Police questioned the 11-year-old boy around 9:50 p.m. after someone allegedly saw him holding a 12-ounce beer bottle filled with what police suspected to be gasoline, behind a home in the 6800 block of North Ridge Boulevard., the police told the Chicago Tribune.

The boy was also allegedly holding a lighter while another person nearby held a gas can, police said.

A witness saw the boy holding the bottle and called police, according to reports. The boy reportedly noticed he was being watched, dropped the bottle and fled the scene. Police were able to track him down later.

The Molotov cocktail was recovered, no one was injured and no charges have been filed.

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8 Months Of Continuous Pretrial Torture In Virginia By US Military Could Result In All Charges Against Bradley Manning Being Dropped

VIRGINIA – Bradley Manning is seeking to prove that he was held in torture-like conditions after being arrested on suspicion of giving classified army documents to whistleblowing site WikiLeaks, and has asked the judge to allow seven expert witnesses to testify at his next pretrial hearing on 1 October, according to documents filed by his defence team on Friday.

The witnesses will include medical and psychiatric experts who will say that Manning’s eight-months solitary confinement at Fort Quantico – where he was allegedly kept naked, drugged with anti-depressants, and forced to sleep in a straitjacket – was not justified on mental health grounds.

The defence team led by David Coombs will put the case that the charges against him should be thrown out “owing to Manning’s illegal pretrial punishment”. The defence team’s website said:

The Defense is requesting the Court to dismiss all charges with prejudice owing to the illegal pretrial punishment PFC Manning was subjected to in violation of Article 13, UCMJ and the Fifth and Eighth Amendments to the United States Constitution.

Manning’s lawyers filed a 113-page document to the court, but were only allowed to release parts of the document to the public.

According to this Guardian report, Manning was often kept naked while in solitary confinement at the military base of Fort Quantico, and had to be drugged heavily with antidepressants to bear the conditions. At night he was placed in a suicide prevention bed, blanket and smock, which his lawyers have requested to produce as part of their evidence in court.

Suicide prevention beds feature full locking systems that restrain the arms, legs and body and the smocks and blankets are akin to straitjackets.

Though the US Army argued the confinement was essential for Private Manning’s own safety, on Prevention of Injury grounds, experts said they repeatedly disagreed with this mental health assessment, saying that he had not self-harmed or attempted to harm anybody else and did not appear to be at risk of suicide.

The witnesses will also testify to the psychological harm of isolation and solitary confinement.

The case, which is being heard by Military Judge Denise Lind at a military tribunal in Fort Meade, will continue on 1 October. ®

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Louisiana State Police And Local Law Enforcement Suddenly Have Enough Free Time To Target Motorists With Dirty License Plates

LOUISIANA – Louisiana state police and local law enforcement agencies are telling motorists to clean off their dirty license plates.

State police say in a news release the motorists caught with their license plates obscured in any way, including by dirt, mud or frames that cover part of the plate, could be ticketed.

Louisiana law requires vehicle license plates be clearly displayed, as well as illuminated at night by license plate lights.

Col. Michael Edmonson, state police superintendent, says clean license plates can help citizens more easily report reckless or impaired drivers, as well as vehicles involved in criminal acts.

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Washington DC Is PAYING Its Worst Students $5.25 Per Hour To Attend Summer School – 47% Of Students Can’t Complete High School In 4 Years – Previous Effort Paying Students Didn’t Improve Grades Significantly

WASHINGTON, DC – The District is paying 305 students with poor academic and behavioral records to attend summer school, The Washington Examiner has learned.

The rising ninth-graders are earning $5.25 an hour to participate in the “Summer Bridge” program, which targets students identified by D.C. Public Schools as less likely than their peers to graduate high school within four years.

The 95 students who voluntarily signed up for the summer school program will receive half of an elective credit. But to fill the 400-student session with at-risk students, DCPS reached out to the Department of Employment Services. More than 300 students flagged by DCPS and who had signed up for the Summer Youth Employment Program were told that school would be their jobs this summer.

Melissa Salmanowitz, a spokeswoman for Chancellor Kaya Henderson, said DCPS officials are going to study this year’s results, with the intention of expanding the program next summer.

At-large Councilman Michael A. Brown, chairman of the committee that oversaw the summer jobs program until June, said there has been some pushback from residents who question whether paying students one summer leads them to expect rewards for showing up during the school year.

“That’s a completely legitimate argument,” Brown said. “It is a very, very, extremely justified, debatable issue and I don’t think there’s a right answer.”

This summer isn’t the first time the city has paid students to learn. The District allowed a Harvard University group to pay about 3,000 middle-school students up to $100 a month for good grades during the 2008-09 and 2009-10 school years. Grades overall didn’t improve significantly.

Brown and Ward 8 Councilman Marion Barry, who created the summer jobs program in the 1970s, said this summer is not the first time students have been paid for classroom time, but could not provide details.

Gerren Price, the associate director of youth programs for the Department of Employment Services, said he believes this is a first-time program.

Salmanowitz described the Summer Bridge program as “an entirely different model.” Students aren’t making up failed coursework, and some of their class-time is devoted to workplace simulations. In one scenario, students use math and literacy skills to solve problems while pretending to be executives at a sports television network.

Kris Amundson, a policy analyst at think tank Education Sector, said she was unfamiliar with similar summer school efforts across the country, but thought the program was worth exploring as an avenue to reach children who wouldn’t otherwise sign up.

“What would a rising ninth grader do at an internship? Probably mundane tasks, so maybe sitting in a classroom has potential for higher returns,” Amundson said.

Handing paychecks to students for learning could, however, be a “slippery slope,” said local political consultant Chuck Thies.

“How much will we pay going forward, and who will we pay, and what’s the cutoff to get paid?” Thies asked. “It’s critical that we get at-risk students and underperforming students and failing students into the program, but I don’t think incentivizing them with money sends the right message.”

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Nutcase Fauquier County Virginia Zoning Officals Sent Farmer Cease And Desist Notice For Legally Selling Farm Products And Hosting Her Best Friend’s 10 Year Old Daughter’s Birthday Party On Her 70 Acre Farm – Ever After Being Warned By County Attorney And A State Secretary That Restrictions Are Illegal

FAUQUIER COUNTY, VIRGINIA – Farmers in Fauquier County are planning to bring their pitchforks to an Aug. 2 hearing before the Board of Zoning Appeals to protest the arbitrary treatment of one of their own. On April 30, Zoning Administrator Kimberley Johnson sent Martha Boneta an official cease-and-desist notice for selling farm products and hosting a birthday party for her best friend’s 10-year-old daughter on her 70-acre Paris, Va., farm without a special administrative permit.

Johnson threatened to fine Boneta $5,000 per violation if she did not stop the alleged unlawful activities within 30 days. In doing so, Boneta’s fellow farmers say, Johnson stepped far beyond her authority. They’re supporting her appeal before the BZA because they rightly fear that left unchecked, this infringement on one farmer’s freedom to make a living will spread to other agricultural enterprises like a dangerous pest.

The Virginia Right to Farm Act prohibits local authorities from treating agricultural activity as a “nuisance” — which seems to be what’s happening here, since Johnson was reportedly responding to complaints from nearby residents. Boneta already had a business license the county issued her in June 2011 that allowed her to operate a “retail farm shop” on her property. Her license application specifically noted her intention to sell handspun yarns, birdhouses, soaps and other handicrafts in addition to fresh vegetables, eggs, herbs and honey.

The following month, the Fauquier County Board of Supervisors changed the classification of “farm sales” to require a special administrative permit for activities that were in compliance with the ordinance just one month before. But documents received under the Freedom of Information Act showed that Boneta is the only farmer in Fauquier County who has ever been cited — even though the county’s own website lists dozens of farms that sell similar products to end-use customers.

On July 12, supervisors voted to limit the number of visitors allowed at food- and wine-tasting events to 25, and to limit such events to two per month, even though they were warned by the county attorney and Virginia Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry Todd Haymore that such restrictions are illegal. Virginia’s growing wine industry and its small artisanal farmers contribute millions of dollars to the state economy while providing urban residents with a taste of country life. But even in picturesque Fauquier County, their future is clouded by the growing burden of capricious government regulation.

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Act 1: Obama To “Evaluate” Bill Banning Online Ammunition Sales

WASHINGTON, DC – White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday that President Obama will “evaluate” a new bill that would ban online ammunition sales in the wake of the shooting massacre in Aurora, Colo. That left 12 dead and dozens more injured.

During the daily press briefing, Mr. Earnest was asked whether Mr. Obama supports the measure, which aims to end sales of unlimited amounts of ammunition on the Internet and other mail orders. The bill also would force ammunition dealers to report large sales of bullets and other munitions to law enforcement authorities

At first Mr. Earnest said he didn’t know if Mr. Obama was aware of a bill sponsored by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, Democrat from New Jersey, and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, a Democrat from New York. He later amended this remarks to say the White House would evaluate the measure.

“The president’s view that have been relayed quite frequently over the last few days, you know, is that he believes in the Second Amendment of the Constitution, in the right to bear arms but he also believes that we should take robust steps within existing law to ensure that guns don’t fall in the hands of criminals or others [who] shouldn’t have them,” he said, referring to gun-control comments Mr. Obama made during at speech at the National Urban League.

The reporter followed up by asking whether the president’s push for enforcing existing law would prevent him from supporting the bill banning online munition sales.

“Well, like I said, I haven’t seen the specific piece of legislation that has been offered up today. But as those — as that and other pieces of legislation make their way through the legislative process, you know, we’ll consider — we’ll evaluate them as they make their way through the process,” he noted.

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Federal Court Finds That Obama Appointees Interfered With new Black Panther Prosecution And Awards Legal Fees And Costs To Group Whose Efforts Obtained Documents Government Didn’t Want Disclosed

WASHINGTON, DC – A federal court in Washington, DC, held last week that political appointees appointed by President Obama did interfere with the Department of Justice’s prosecution of the New Black Panther Party.

The ruling came as part of a motion by the conservative legal watch dog group Judicial Watch, who had sued the DOJ in federal court to enforce a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for documents pertaining to the the New Black Panthers case. Judicial Watch had secured many previously unavailable documents through their suit against DOJ and were now suing for attorneys’ fees.

Obama’s DOJ had claimed Judicial Watch was not entitled to attorney’s fees since “none of the records produced in this litigation evidenced any political interference whatsoever in” how the DOJ handled the New Black Panther Party case. But United States District Court Judge Reggie Walton disagreed. Citing a “series of emails” between Obama political appointees and career Justice lawyers, Walton writes:

The documents reveal that political appointees within DOJ were conferring about the status and resolution of the New Black Panther Party case in the days preceding the DOJ’s dismissal of claims in that case, which would appear to contradict Assistant Attorney General Perez’s testimony that political leadership was not involved in that decision. Surely the public has an interest in documents that cast doubt on the accuracy of government officials’ representations regarding the possible politicization of agency decision-making.
…
In sum, the Court concludes that three of the four fee entitlement factors weigh in favor of awarding fees to Judicial Watch. Therefore, Judicial Watch is both eligible and entitled to fees and costs, and the Court must now consider the reasonableness of Judicial Watch’s requested award.

The New Black Panthers case stems from a Election Day 2008 incident where two members of the New Black Panther Party were filmed outside a polling place intimidating voters and poll watchers by brandishing a billy club. Justice Department lawyers investigated the case, filed charges, and when the Panthers failed to respond, a federal court in Philadelphia entered a “default” against all the Panthers defendants. But after Obama was sworn in, the Justice Department reversed course, dismissed charges against three of the defendants, and let the fourth off with a narrowly tailored restraining order.

“The Court’s decision is another piece of evidence showing the Obama Justice Department is run by individuals who have a problem telling the truth,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. “The decision shows that we can’t trust the Obama Justice Department to fairly administer our nation’s voting and election laws.”

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Two Savage Black Beasts Break Into Apartment, Beat And Ron Man In Wheelchair

UPPER DARBY, PENNSYLVANIA – Police in Delaware County are searching for one of two suspects who were caught on surveillance video assaulting and robbing a wheelchair-bound man inside his apartment.

The incident happened at about 5:30 a.m. on July 26th inside an apartment in Upper Darby.

According to investigators, the two suspects entered the victim’s apartment and pulled the victim, who suffers from muscular dystrophy, out of his wheelchair and began to beat him.

The suspects left the victim on the floor and actually stood on him at one point.

The suspects then ransacked the victim’s apartment, taking several items, including a flat-screen TV.

Investigators say the suspects were apparently after Oxycodone, which the victim takes to deal with his pain.

“There’s somebody who physically disabled because of muscular dystrophy and these bums walk in and do what they did. It’s cruel and inhumane … (if) they get convicted, they should throw them away forever,” Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said.

One of the suspects, 23-year-old Dominic Henderson, was arrested the same day. He is being held on $50,000 cash bail. A second suspect, identified by police as 21-year-old Keenan Smith, remains at large.

Anyone with information on Smith’s whereabouts is urged to contact police.

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Sacramento California International Airport Considers Giving TSA The Boot

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA – The Sacramento International Airport is considering making a security change, and it could mean getting rid of TSA agents.

But now the airport may be the third largest airport in the country to replace these government workers with ones from a private company.

“It’s a win-win for everything has no bearing on security procedure or the processes the public has become accustomed to,” said Linda Beech Cutler, Sacramento International Airport.

So far passengers at large airports like San Francisco and Kansas City are becoming accustomed to the same plan already in place.

Fourteen smaller airports around the country have also joined the screening partnership program.

“It might be better, less intrusive on us. I don’t like how the government runs their business,” said one flyer.

Airport officials say the change will in no way compromise passenger safety and won’t cost anyone less money.

In fact, TSA will still manage the new company coming in.

“They will issue proposals, evaluate the private security companies and ultimately choose the company that would operate here,” said Cutler.

Airport officials say them having more control means more flexibility and better customer service and faster lines.

“Makes us more flexible for staffing, for peak times and not being so staffed up for not so busy times,” said Cutler.

Passengers here don’t seem too worried. In fact, many say they’ll feel safer.

“I doubt they’ll get some rinky-dink company coming in and taking care of security. I don’t see that happening,” said Chad Harrison, airport passenger.

If approved, it could take up to a year to change over.

Any current TSA employees at Sacramento International Airport can apply and be trained to work for the new private security coming in.

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New York City “Domain Awareness System” To Track “Criminals And Potential Terrorists” Will Be Spying On All Innocent US Citizens In Public Spaces

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – The NYPD says it will launch an all-seeing “Domain Awareness System” that combines several streams of information to track both criminals and potential terrorists.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly says the city developed the software with Microsoft.

The program combines city-wide video surveillance with law enforcement databases, according to Kelly.

The Domain Awareness System will include technology deployed in public spaces as part of the counterterrorism program of the NYPD counterterrorism bureau, including: NYPD-owned closed circuit television cameras, license plate readers, and other undisclosed domain awareness devices.

Kelly said the system will be officially unveiled by Mayor Michael Bloomberg sometime this week. Commissioner Kelly announced the program before an audience at the Aspen Security Forum in Aspen, Colo. over the weekend.

The NYPD has been heavily criticized for using surveillance in Muslim communities and partnering with the Central Intelligence Agency to track potential terror suspects.

Muslim groups have protested and sued to stop the NYPD programs.

Kelly says the policies were essential to halting 14 terrorism plots against the city since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

According to previous information released about the software system:

The Domain Awareness System is a counterterrorism tool designed to:

• Facilitate the observation of pre-operational activity by terrorist organizations or their agents
• Aid in the detection of preparations to conduct terrorist attacks
• Deter terrorist attacks
• Provide a degree of common domain awareness for all Stakeholders
• Reduce incident response times
• Create a common technological infrastructure to support the integration of new security technology

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Past Due: Secret Service Stiffs Newport Beach California For $35,000 After They Provided Extra Security And Protection For Obama Visit

WASHINGTON, DC – A Secret Service official said Newport Beach city administrators are asking the wrong people to pay for police protection at presidential campaign events.

It’s the service that is responsible for the candidates’ security, not the campaigns, said Max Milien, an agency spokesman. Any cost concerns should be directed to the agency.

Newport Beach City Manager Dave Kiff billed the campaigns of President Obama and presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney for police security at their separate fundraisers this year in the city.

Now that the Romney campaign paid its bill, the city is left in the awkward position of trying to collect from Obama.

Attack Victim Arrested And Jailed For Feeding Alligator After Losing Hand

FLORIDA – A Florida airboat captain was arrested Friday on charges of feeding the alligator that chomped off his right hand.

Wallace Weatherholt faces a second-degree misdemeanor charge for an alleged act that might have provoked the attack, the Fort Myers News-Press reported.

The 63-year-old lost his hand on June 12 when a 9-foot alligator jumped out of the water in the Everglades and sunk its teeth into Weatherholt’s wrist.

In the weeks following the attack, Florida Fish and Wildlife authorities began looking into whether Weatherholt provoked the gator.

The airboat captain, who works for Captain Doug’s Small Airport Tours in Everglades City, Fla., was giving a tour to an Indiana family when the attack occurred.

The family told the AP that Weatherholt was dangling a fish over the side of the boat and had his hand just above the water’s surface when the gator suddenly appeared.

The boat captain managed to steer the boat back to the docks and immediately went to the hospital, but doctors were unable to reattach his hand.

Wildlife officers tracked down and euthanized the alligator soon after.

It’s illegal in Florida to feed alligators because they stop fearing humans, making them more likely to attack, according to David Weathers, a nuisance-alligator trapper and alligator owner.

“Alligators have a natural fear of humans,” Weathers told the News-Press. “If they see us, they take off. They see us as these giants hovering over them. They’re not going to attack unless they’ve been fed.”

Six people have been warned and 13 cited in Florida for feeding or enticing alligators between January 2011 and May 2012, WPTV reported.

Weatherholt has posted $1,000 bail since his arrest and will appear in court on Aug. 22.

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Department Of Homeland Security Claims The 30,000 Drones Designed To Spy On Americans Are To Be Deployed In US Are For “Public Safety” – US Signing UN Arms Trade Treaty Will Gut US Constitution’s 2nd Amendment

WASHINGTON, DC – Surveillance drones have a new mission. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) they will be used for “public safety”. Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the DHS, told a House Committee meeting on Homeland Security that the more than 30,000 drones that will be deployed into American skies are just arbitrarily watching out for US citizens.

[Disclaimer: Questionable source – http://www.infowars.com]

Napolitano stated : “With respect to Science and Technology, that directorate, we do have a funded project, I think it’s in California, looking at drones that could be utilized to give us situational awareness in a large public safety [matter] or disaster, such as a forest fire, and how they could give us better information.”

Secretly, DHS have been taking bid for contractors who can install “aerial remote sensing” which uses light detection and ranging (LIDAR) that would be part of the unmanned drone missions within domestic US territory.

“DHS believes these airborne images are essential for homeland defense missions, such as planning for National Special Security Events (Super Bowls or a national political conventions come to mind); enhancing border, port and airport security; as well as performing critical infrastructure inventories and assessments” and has spent over $50 million to employ contractors, as well as processors for images and dissemination throughout the DHS.

Coincidentally, the Federal Protective Service (FPS) has been given the responsibility to protecting federally owned property while preparing for civilian led riots expected in the near future.

Part of the preparatory measures was an order of 150 sets of riot gear that was requested to be filled exponentially – within 15 days.

The items requested were:

– 147 “Upper Body and Shoulder Protection” which are brand name or equal to “Centurion Soft Shell Riot Control System (CPX2500)”
– 152 “Thigh-Groin Protector” brand name or equivalent to “Centurion TPX200”
– 156 “Forearm Protectors” brand name or equivalent to “Centurion (FP100)”
– 147 units of “Hard Shell Shin Guards” brand name or equivalent to “Centurion (TS70)”
– 147 carry bags brand name or equivalent to Exotech (E4), 147 tactical gloves brand name or equivalent to “Damascus (DMZ333)”
– 147 riot helmets brand name or equivalent to “MaxPro (TR1000)”

The FPS is anticipating that police or military wearing the gear would encounter “blunt force trauma” to the upper torso, as well as potential beatings with “blunt objects”. To compliment these outfits, are required riot helmets with “tactical face shield” equipped with “liquid seals”.

In addition, the US military are ready to assist with local law enforcement “if called upon”.

Five hundred military police and dogs will be allocated on civilian matters, as reported by mainstream media (MSM) have included the reallocation of hundreds of military police officers being trained to “assist local authorities” in investigation, crime scene and case building. These same soliders were just stationed in combat areas like Afghantistan.

Meanwhile, the TSA have been patrolling trains stations and bus terminals in California.

According to one whistleblower : “We’re doing patrols in the parking lot with dogs, we’re even going as far out to the train station because the train station is connected to the airport here and we have guys walking around the train station, walking around the rental cars, we’re inspecting cars coming into the parking garage, I mean we’ve fully expanded – we’re no longer just at the gate and just at the security checkpoint.”

The preparations that DHS and FPS are making for civil unrest may be tied to Article 15 of the UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). This part allows foreign troops (preferably NATO forces) to offer assistance in implementing the ATT. As the ATT does not specify an adherence to the 2nd Amendment, but rather make vague definitions of who can own a gun, what type of gun and for what purpose, the Constitutional rights we take for granted now will be stripped from us once the ATT is signed.

To downplay the severity of our American right to bear arms against tyrannical dictators foreign and domestic, President Obama stated at a National Urban League meeting that: “We recognize the traditions of gun ownership that passed on from generation to generation, that hunting and shooting are part of a cherished national heritage. I also believe that a lot of gun owners would agree that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers, not in the hands of criminals. That they belong on the battlefield of war, not on the streets of our cities.”

Richard Schrade, attorney and member of the Libertarian National Committee commented on the 2nd Amendment: “The Second Amendment was to protect the ability of the people to violently overthrow the government. Let’s remember that this country was formed in a violent revolution. Let’s remember that at Lexington and Concord citizen fired on and killed government soldiers sent by the central government to confiscate their weapons and arms…. When viewed in this light, it is apparent that a limitation on automatic weapons would be an infringement on the purposes of the Second Amendment.”

Wayne LaPierre, vice president of the NRA, has called out Obama as being part of “conspiracy to ensure re-election by lulling gun owners to sleep. All that first term, lip service to gun owners is just part of a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and hide his true intentions to destroy the Second Amendment during his second term.”

LaPierre states that upon re-election, Obama will be “busy dismantling and destroying our firearms freedom, erase the 2nd Amendment from the Bill of Rights and excise it from the US Constitution.”

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Car Runs Into Desoto Texas Home And Savage Black Beast Jumps Out And Attacked Woman Occupant With A Knife

DESOTO, TEXAS – DeSoto police arrested a 39-year-old man and charged him with an unusual assault in a quiet neighborhood.

Cpl. Melissa Franks says Sautuwaira Thomas drove his SUV into the front window of a home in the 100 block of Faircrest about 5 a.m. Tuesday.

No one was hurt in the collision, but Franks said Thomas then jumped out of the vehicle and attacked the woman who lived there with a knife.

She was taken to the hospital with non life-threatening injuries.

“It’s a family-related issue,” said Franks, but police would not elaborate on the relationship between Thomas and the victim.

The investigation is still continuing, police said.

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Moron Veteran Bexar County Texas Deputy Sheriff Steve Benoy Suspended After Killing 2 Police Dogs By Leaving Them Locked In Hot Patrol Car All Night

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS — The Bexar County Sheriff’s Department says two of its K-9s have died after they were left inside a hot patrol vehicle overnight.

According to a statement from the Sheriff’s Office, the dogs were found dead Thursday morning from apparent heat exposure after being “inadvertently” left inside the vehicle overnight.

The deputy responsible, identified as Deputy Steve Benoy, has been placed on administrative leave as the Animal Care Services and the BCSO investigate the incident. He was described as a 23-year veteran who has been assigned to the K-9 unit for 13 years of his career with the BCSO.

According to the statement, Benoy is “completely devastated by the tragic accident.”

Sheriff Amadeo Ortiz said in the statement, “Deputy Benoy has been a dedicated officer during his career; he has never received any discipline during his tenure with the Sheriff’s Office. It is my belief that this is a tragic accident however; the Sheriff’s Office is following standard procedures in conducting a thorough investigation.”

The Sheriff’s Office is withholding any other comments until preliminary reports are obtained from the investigation, according to the released.

This is not the first time a Bexar County K-9 has died inside a vehicle.

In June 2010, a K-9 was left inside a cruiser that was parked outside the sheriff’s training academy. The dog died while being rushed to the veterinarian’s office.

Deputies later determined the 5-year-old dog died from preexisting medical issues.

Texas lawmakers had proposed a bill that would require heat alarms to be installed in all K-9 vehicles by 2011. However, the bill was never assigned to a committee.

The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office had told KENS 5 in 2010, shortly after the first accidental K-9 death, that they would be installing the alarms in all five of their K-9 vehicles.

The sheriff’s office would not confirm on Thursday whether or not the heat alarms were ever installed.

Don Barnes, of Voices for Animals in San Antonio, said the most recent accident is unacceptable.

“I’m pretty upset by that kind of irresponsibility and hope that changes can be made in the very near future,” he said.

Nobody is perhaps more upset than Benoy, the deputy being held responsible for the dogs’ deaths. In a 2010 interview with KENS 5, Benoy explained what it would be like to lose his K-9 companions.

“This would be just like losing a member of your family,” he said. “I’m sure when a canine officer loses his companion, we all mourn.”

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Pack Of Savage Black Beasts Robbed Chicago Illinois Clothing Store That Stocked Exclusive And Expensive Jeans – Police Took 30 Minutes To Respond To 911 Call And Made No Arrests

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – A mob of more than 20 teenagers descended on a trendy Wicker Park shop on Saturday and made off with more than $3,000 worth of jeans.

CBS 2′s Derrick Blakley reports the incident was caught on store surveillance cameras, and the owner posted the video on YouTube.

Luke Cho said he hopes the images help police find the robbers, or maybe even shame the parents of the teens enough that they’ll turn the kids in.

From the moment the teens started flooding in the door at Mildblend Supply Co. on Milwaukee Avenue around 6:40 p.m. Saturday, Cho knew something wasn’t right.

“You see a group a group of teenagers walking in – or marching in – one-by-one. As you can see, it looks like it’s some kind of procession,” Cho said while reviewing the surveillance video on Sunday.

To Cho, it looked like a flash mob was about to rob the store, so he immediately locked the door.

“At least I think I kind of maybe stopped the flow a little bit, but I quickly realized something bad’s about to happen, and I alerted my staff to call 911,” Cho said.

Most of the group flocked to an corner of the store right beneath a security camera, and appeared to know exactly what they were looking for: an exclusive, expensive brand of jeans called Nudie Jeans, which average about $200 a pair.

“We happen to be one of the few that sell Nudie Jeans in the city,” Cho said.

The teens tried to get out of store, but not before doing more shopping, stuffing their backpacks with merchandise, while other teens outside tried to get in.

“At the time when I locked the door, they’re banging on the door,” Cho said.

Eventually, the teens figured out how to unlock the door themselves, and rushed into the streets, which were packed with crowds from the Wicker Park Fest, making it easier to blend in.

Now, Cho wonders whether the flash mob phenomenon is deserting downtown for the neighborhoods.

“I think if they zero in on a product they want to steal, they’re going to go anywhere, and basically organize, and plan it to hit what they want,” Cho said.

Cho said it took police 30 minutes to reach his store after the 911 call went out about 6:45 p.m. on Saturday. He said officers told him they were delayed by the many street closures for Wicker Park Fest.

Cho called the incident organized looting, pure and simple. Police confirmed they’re investigating the robbery, but have made no arrests as of Sunday afternoon.

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New York City Mayor Bloomberg Now Trying To Control New Mothers

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – The nanny state is going after moms.

Mayor Bloomberg is pushing hospitals to hide their baby formula behind locked doors so more new mothers will breast-feed.

Starting Sept. 3, the city will keep tabs on the number of bottles that participating hospitals stock and use — the most restrictive pro-breast-milk program in the nation.

Under the city Health Department’s voluntary Latch On NYC initiative, 27 of the city’s 40 hospitals have also agreed to give up swag bags sporting formula-company logos, toss out formula-branded tchotchkes like lanyards and mugs, and document a medical reason for every bottle that a newborn receives.
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While breast-feeding activists applaud the move, bottle-feeding moms are bristling at the latest lactation lecture.

“If they put pressure on me, I would get annoyed,” said Lynn Sidnam, a Staten Island mother of two formula-fed girls, ages 4 months and 9 years. “It’s for me to choose.”

Under Latch On NYC, new mothers who want formula won’t be denied it, but hospitals will keep infant formula in out-of-the-way secure storerooms or in locked boxes like those used to dispense and track medications.

With each bottle a mother requests and receives, she’ll also get a talking-to. Staffers will explain why she should offer the breast instead.

“It’s the patient’s choice,” said Allison Walsh, of Beth Israel Medical Center. “But it’s our job to educate them on the best option.”

Lisa Paladino, of Staten Island University Hospital, said: “The key to getting more moms to breast-feed is making the formula less accessible. This way, the RN has to sign out the formula like any other medication. The nurse’s aide can’t just go grab another bottle.”

Some of the hospitals already operate under the formula lockdown.

“New York City is definitely ahead of the curve,” said Eileen DiFrisco, of NYU Langone Medical Center, where the breast-feeding rate has surged from 39 to 68 percent under the program.

Breast-feeding in the first weeks gives a baby a critical healthy start, many medical experts say. It helps the digestive system develop and protects the baby with the mother’s immunities. Nursing also helps the mother recover from childbirth.

But not everyone is convinced.

“They make formula for a reason, and the FDA makes sure it’s safe,” said Roxanne Schmidt, whose 14-month-old twins were fed with formula from birth. “Locking it up is just wrong.”

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Pack Of Drunk Savage Black Female Beasts Stabbed 63 Year Old Man On New York Subway – None Old Enough To Legally Drink, But Boarded Train Carrying Bottles Of Beer

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Apparently, courtesy isn’t contagious on the No. 6 train.

A drunken, rowdy group of young women stabbed a 63-year-old male straphanger this morning after he had the audacity to suggest they pipe down, authorities said.

“The eight females were acting stupid. He just told them, ‘Relax, calm down,’ ” one police source said.

Cops said the victim, whose name they have not released, was first assaulted and then stabbed in the left shoulder about 6:15 a.m.

Witnesses pointed out his attackers to cops and all eight women, ages 15 to 20, were arrested leaving the 23rd Street station, officials said.

An MTA bus driver who witnssed the bust said the women were carrying bottles of Corona and mouthed off to cops as they cuffed them, screaming “We didn’t do anything!” as they were led away.

The man was in stable condition at Bellevue Hospital, cops said.

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WikiLeaks Assange’s Mom In Ecuador To Plead For Son’s Asylum – Trying To Keep Julian From Being Shipped To US Where He Will Be Tortured By American Agents

WASHINGTON, DC – The mother of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will meet with Ecuadorian authorities Monday to urge them to grant her son asylum.

Christine Assange, who arrived in the capital city Quito on Saturday, told reporters she will appeal to Ecuador’s stance on human rights during her meeting.

“Surely, the president and his staff will make the best decision,” Christine Assange said, according to a report in the state-run El Ciudadano website.

Her son has been holed up inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since applying for political asylum on June 19.

Ecuador: Still no decision on Assange asylum request

He is seeking to avoid being sent to Sweden over claims of rape and sexual molestation and said he fears if he is extradited there, Swedish authorities could hand him over to the United States.

If her son is sent to the United States, he “could expect a sentence of death or many years in prison with torture as they are doing now with Bradley Manning,” Christine Assange said, according to the El Ciudadano report.

“If they did that to a U.S. citizen, they would have fewer qualms about doing it to a foreigner.”

Manning is a U.S. Army intelligence analyst suspected of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified military and State Department documents while serving in Iraq. Many of those documents ended up on the WikiLeaks website.

He is being held on charges of aiding the enemy, wrongfully causing intelligence to be published on the Internet, transmitting national defense information and theft of public property or records, among others. He could go to prison for life if convicted.

Ecuador has said it is weighing Julian Assange’s asylum request and will make the decision on its own, in its own time.

‘Syria File’ unlikely to affect Assange embassy standoff

“Ecuador will make its own, independent decision,” President Rafael Correa said in an interview to a local television station earlier this month. “The case is under review.”

Correa noted that capital punishment exists in the United States for a “political crime,” and that fact could be sufficient grounds to grant Julian Assange asylum.

Correa also stressed he is not afraid of international repercussions that might stem from whatever decision Ecuador makes.

“We have to see whether everything that’s being done in the case of Julian Assange is compatible with … the constitution and our view of human rights, political rights and due process,” the president said.

Julian Assange was arrested in Britain in 2010 because Swedish authorities wanted to question him about the sexual molestation and rape allegations, which he denies. His bail conditions included staying every night at the home of a supporter outside London.

UK police say he violated his bail by staying at the embassy. After he entered it, they served him with notice to turn himself in — an order he ignored, marking a further violation.

Diplomatic protocol prevents police from entering the embassy to arrest him.

Christine Assange said Saturday her son was being treated well at the embassy.

“I am grateful for the facilities Ecuador offered to my son in London,” she said.

Two women have accused Julian Assange of sexually assaulting them in August 2010, when he was visiting Sweden in connection with a WikiLeaks release of internal U.S. military documents. He was arrested in Britain that December and has been fighting extradition since, saying the allegations are retribution for his organization’s disclosure of American secrets.

Susan Benn of the Julian Assange defense fund has said the United States had empaneled a grand jury in its goal to press charges against the WikiLeaks founder. Turning himself in to British authorities would start a process that would end with Julian Assange being extradited to the United States, Benn said.

WikiLeaks, which facilitates the anonymous leaking of secret information, has published about 250,000 confidential U.S. diplomatic cables, causing embarrassment to the government and others. It also has published hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. documents relating to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Julian Assange sought refuge at the embassy five days after the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom dismissed a bid to reopen his appeal of the decision to send him to Sweden, his last option in British courts.

British officials have met with Ecuadorian authorities, but no information has been released about those meetings.

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Kidnap Victim Found Imprisoned In Veteran New York City Police Officer Ondre Johnson’s Garage After $75,000 Ranson Demand Was Traced To Call Made From His Home

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – A veteran NYPD detective has been suspended without pay after a tied-up kidnap victim was found in his Queens garage, sources told The Post.

Ondre Johnson, a 17-year veteran of the Brooklyn north gang unit, was being questioned along with his cousin and another man suspected of being involved in the incident, and was forced to surrender his gun and badge pending the outcome of the investigation.

The 25-year-old victim was snatched off the street early yesterday morning, taken to the detective’s home and held for $75,000 ransom, sources said.

Cops busted four in the scheme.

Hakeem Clark, 30, who lives in the same building as Johnson, was slapped with kidnapping and weapons charges along with Jason Hutson, 27, and James Gayle, 27.

Alfredo Haughton, 24, was charged with kidnapping.

The sources said the kidnappers called a friend of the victim and demanded the huge cash sum. After several calls were made, the victim’s pal went to cops who were able to trace the location of the phone to the detective’s home.

Cops reached the detective’s home at about 3 p.m. yesterday. The detective answered the door with two handguns visible on his person, and identified himself as NYPD, sources said.

Officers found the victim bound in the garage, law-enforcement sources said.

The detective and his sidekicks were questioned last night at the 113th Precinct in Jamaica by Internal Affairs and Queens detectives, the sources said. No charges had been filed.

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Cruel And Unusual Punishment: Texas Prison Inmates Dying From Heat – The Dead Found With Body Temperatures Of Up To 108 Degrees In Areas With No Air Conditioning

HOUSTON, TEXAS — Last summer’s record-breaking heat wave had a grim impact on Texas, playing a role in the deaths of roughly 150 people. Many of them were found in their homes or apartments, but a few were discovered somewhere else — in their prison cells.

Ten inmates of the state prison system died of heat-related causes last summer in a 26-day period in July and August, a death toll that has alarmed prisoners’ rights advocates who believe that the lack of air-conditioning in most state prisons puts inmates’ lives at risk.

The 10 inmates were housed in areas that lacked air-conditioning, and several had collapsed or lost consciousness while they were in their cells. All of them were found to have died of hyperthermia, a condition that occurs when body temperature rises above 105 degrees, according to autopsy reports and the state’s prison agency.

Other factors contributed to their deaths. All but three of them had hypertension, and some were obese, had heart disease or were taking antipsychotic medications, which can affect the body’s ability to regulate heat.

One inmate, Alexander Togonidze, 44, was found unresponsive in his cell at an East Texas prison called the Michael Unit at 8 a.m. on Aug. 8 with a body temperature of 106 degrees, according to prison documents. The temperature in his cell, taken by prison officials 15 minutes after he was pronounced dead, was 86.2 degrees and the heat index was 93 degrees.

Five days later, at the nearby Gurney Unit prison, Kenneth Wayne James, 52, was found in his cell with a body temperature of 108 degrees. His autopsy report stated Mr. James most likely died of “environmental hyperthermia-related classic heat stroke,” noting several risk factors, including Mr. James’s chronic illness and use of a diuretic, and the lack of air-conditioning.

“We were looking for him to come home in a few months,” said Mary Lou James, the mother of Mr. James, who had been charged with injuring a child and was serving a five-year sentence for violating probation. “I think that’s just awful, to have a place like that where you don’t have any air. I don’t think human beings should be treated in that manner.”

Officials with the prison agency, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said 12 inmates had died of heat-related causes since 2007. The debate over the lack of air-conditioning in the prison system has intensified in recent weeks, after lawyers from the nonprofit Texas Civil Rights Project sued the agency in federal court over one of the inmate deaths from last summer. They also plan to file additional wrongful-death lawsuits.

Of the 111 prisons overseen by the agency, only 21 are fully air-conditioned, and inmates and their advocates have argued that the overheated conditions during triple-digit summers violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

Prison officials dispute those claims, saying that the health and well-being of the inmates are their top priorities and that the autopsies of the 12 inmates who died list a variety of contributing factors to their deaths. They said they take steps to help inmates on hot days, including restricting outside work activities and providing extra water and ice.

“It is unknown whether the lack of air-conditioning was a contributing factor in the offender deaths,” Jason Clark, a prison system spokesman, said in a statement. “Texas experienced one of the hottest summers on record in 2011. It was an unprecedented event affecting the entire state and much of the southern and eastern United States. T.D.C.J. took precautions to help mitigate the impact of temperature extremes on offenders and staff. The agency continues to do so.”

But a corrections supervisor who works at a prison where one of the 12 inmates died said the number of heat-related fatalities was a cause of concern, as was the larger number of inmates and corrections officers who require medical attention because of the heat.

At least 17 prison employees or inmates were treated for heat-related illnesses from June 25 through July 6, according to agency documents. Many of them had been indoors at the time they reported feeling ill.

At the Darrington Unit near Rosharon on June 25, a 56-year-old corrections officer fainted in a supervisor’s office and was taken to a hospital. Heat exhaustion was diagnosed. At the four-story Coffield Unit near Palestine, where one inmate died of hyperthermia last August, dozens of windows have been broken out — prisoners slip soda cans or bars of soap into socks and throw them at the windows, hoping to increase ventilation.

“I’m supposed to be watching them, I’m not supposed to be boiling them in their cells,” said the corrections supervisor, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the news media. “If you’ve got a life sentence, odds are you’re going to die in the penitentiary. But what about the guy who dies from a heat stroke who only had a four-year sentence? His four-year sentence was actually a life sentence.”

One of the 10 inmates who died last summer, Larry Gene McCollum, 58, a prisoner at the Hutchins State Jail outside Dallas, had a body temperature of 109.4 degrees. Nine days before his death in his cell, the indoor temperatures at Hutchins were routinely recorded by prison officials and ranged from 100 degrees to 102 degrees, according to agency documents.

Those temperatures exceed those allowed by a state law requiring county jails to maintain temperature levels between 65 and 85 degrees in occupied areas. But the law applies only to county jails, not to state prisons.

“After this many deaths, prison officials obviously know this is a problem,” said David C. Fathi, director of the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, in Washington. “Prisons aren’t supposed to be comfortable, nor are they supposed to kill you.”

State Senator John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat and chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, said he was not alarmed by the number of deaths, noting that the overall state inmate population exceeds 150,000. Keith Price, the former warden of the Coffield Unit, agreed.

“Just from a statistical standpoint, that’s really not significant, particularly when you consider the population,” Mr. Price, an associate professor of sociology and criminal justice at West Texas A&M University, said of the 12 deaths. “Many inmates are poorly equipped to manage their lives and thus make poor decisions. I do not believe it is up to the taxpayers to provide air-conditioning for inmates when some simple self-discipline would avoid many of these problems.”

Prison officials said that air-conditioning had not been installed in many buildings because of the additional construction and utility costs, and that retrofitting them would be an extraordinary expense.

Prisoners’ rights advocates said that treating inmates who become ill from the heat is just as costly, and that retrofitting entire buildings was not the only possible solution. They said allowing medically high-risk inmates to spend time in air-conditioned areas would be one improvement.

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Shortage Of Doctors In America To Worsen Under Obamacare

RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA –  In the Inland Empire, an economically depressed region in Southern California, President Obama’s health care law is expected to extend insurance coverage to more than 300,000 people by 2014. But coverage will not necessarily translate into care: Local health experts doubt there will be enough doctors to meet the area’s needs. There are not enough now.

Other places around the country, including the Mississippi Delta, Detroit and suburban Phoenix, face similar problems. The Association of American Medical Colleges estimates that in 2015 the country will have 62,900 fewer doctors than needed. And that number will more than double by 2025, as the expansion of insurance coverage and the aging of baby boomers drive up demand for care. Even without the health care law, the shortfall of doctors in 2025 would still exceed 100,000.

Health experts, including many who support the law, say there is little that the government or the medical profession will be able to do to close the gap by 2014, when the law begins extending coverage to about 30 million Americans. It typically takes a decade to train a doctor.

“We have a shortage of every kind of doctor, except for plastic surgeons and dermatologists,” said Dr. G. Richard Olds, the dean of the new medical school at the University of California, Riverside, founded in part to address the region’s doctor shortage. “We’ll have a 5,000-physician shortage in 10 years, no matter what anybody does.”

Experts describe a doctor shortage as an “invisible problem.” Patients still get care, but the process is often slow and difficult. In Riverside, it has left residents driving long distances to doctors, languishing on waiting lists, overusing emergency rooms and even forgoing care.

“It results in delayed care and higher levels of acuity,” said Dustin Corcoran, the chief executive of the California Medical Association, which represents 35,000 physicians. People “access the health care system through the emergency department, rather than establishing a relationship with a primary care physician who might keep them from getting sicker.”

In the Inland Empire, encompassing the counties of Riverside and San Bernardino, the shortage of doctors is already severe. The population of Riverside County swelled 42 percent in the 2000s, gaining more than 644,000 people. It has continued to grow despite the collapse of one of the country’s biggest property bubbles and a jobless rate of 11.8 percent in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metro area.

But the growth in the number of physicians has lagged, in no small part because the area has trouble attracting doctors, who might make more money and prefer living in nearby Orange County or Los Angeles.

A government council has recommended that a given region have 60 to 80 primary care doctors per 100,000 residents, and 85 to 105 specialists. The Inland Empire has about 40 primary care doctors and 70 specialists per 100,000 residents — the worst shortage in California, in both cases.

Moreover, across the country, fewer than half of primary care clinicians were accepting new Medicaid patients as of 2008, making it hard for the poor to find care even when they are eligible for Medicaid. The expansion of Medicaid accounts for more than one-third of the overall growth in coverage in President Obama’s health care law.

Providers say they are bracing for the surge of the newly insured into an already strained system.

Temetry Lindsey, the chief executive of Inland Behavioral & Health Services, which provides medical care to about 12,000 area residents, many of them low income, said she was speeding patient-processing systems, packing doctors’ schedules tighter and seeking to hire more physicians.

“We know we are going to be overrun at some point,” Ms. Lindsey said, estimating that the clinics would see new demand from 10,000 to 25,000 residents by 2014. She added that hiring new doctors had proved a struggle, in part because of the “stigma” of working in this part of California.

Across the country, a factor increasing demand, along with expansion of coverage in the law and simple population growth, is the aging of the baby boom generation. Medicare officials predict that enrollment will surge to 73.2 million in 2025, up 44 percent from 50.7 million this year.

“Older Americans require significantly more health care,” said Dr. Darrell G. Kirch, the president of the Association of American Medical Colleges. “Older individuals are more likely to have multiple chronic conditions, requiring more intensive, coordinated care.”

The pool of doctors has not kept pace, and will not, health experts said. Medical school enrollment is increasing, but not as fast as the population. The number of training positions for medical school graduates is lagging. Younger doctors are on average working fewer hours than their predecessors. And about a third of the country’s doctors are 55 or older, and nearing retirement.

Physician compensation is also an issue. The proportion of medical students choosing to enter primary care has declined in the past 15 years, as average earnings for primary care doctors and specialists, like orthopedic surgeons and radiologists, have diverged. A study by the Medical Group Management Association found that in 2010, primary care doctors made about $200,000 a year. Specialists often made twice as much.

The Obama administration has sought to ease the shortage. The health care law increases Medicaid’s primary care payment rates in 2013 and 2014. It also includes money to train new primary care doctors, reward them for working in underserved communities and strengthen community health centers.

But the provisions within the law are expected to increase the number of primary care doctors by perhaps 3,000 in the coming decade. Communities around the country need about 45,000.

Many health experts in California said that while they welcomed the expansion of coverage, they expected that the state simply would not be ready for the new demand. “It’s going to be necessary to use the resources that we have smarter” in light of the doctor shortages, said Dr. Mark D. Smith, who heads the California HealthCare Foundation, a nonprofit group.

Dr. Smith said building more walk-in clinics, allowing nurses to provide more care and encouraging doctors to work in teams would all be part of the answer. Mr. Corcoran of the California Medical Association also said the state would need to stop cutting Medicaid payment rates; instead, it needed to increase them to make seeing those patients economically feasible for doctors.

More doctors might be part of the answer as well. The U.C. Riverside medical school is hoping to enroll its first students in August 2013, and is planning a number of policies to encourage its graduates to stay in the area and practice primary care.

But Dr. Olds said changing how doctors provided care would be more important than minting new doctors. “I’m only adding 22 new students to this equation,” he said. “That’s not enough to put a dent in a 5,000-doctor shortage.”

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US Supreme Court Judge Antonin Scalia Warns Of Firearm Regulation

WASHINGTON, DC – Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the Supreme Court’s most vocal and conservative justices, said on Sunday that the Second Amendment leaves room for U.S. legislatures to regulate guns, including menacing hand-held weapons.

“It will have to be decided in future cases,” Scalia said on Fox News Sunday. But there were legal precedents from the days of the Founding Fathers that banned frightening weapons which a constitutional originalist like himself must recognize. There were also “locational limitations” on where weapons could be carried, the justice noted.

When asked if that kind of precedent would apply to assault weapons, or 100-round ammunition magazines like those used in the recent Colorado movie theater massacre, Scalia declined to speculate. “We’ll see,” he said. ‘”It will have to be decided.”

As an originalist scholar, Scalia looks to the text of the Constitution—which confirms the right to bear arms—but also the context of 18th-century history. “They had some limitations on the nature of arms that could be borne,” he told host Chris Wallace.

In a wide-ranging interview, Scalia also stuck by his criticism of Chief Justice John Roberts and the majority opinion in the ruling that upheld the Affordable Care Act this summer. “You don’t interpret a penalty to be a pig. It can’t be a pig,” said Scalia, of the court’s decision to call the penalty for not obtaining health insurance a tax. “There is no way to regard this penalty as a tax.”

Scalia, a septuagenarian, said he had given no thought to retiring. “My wife doesn’t want me hanging around the house,” he joked. But he did say he would try to time his retirement from the court so that a justice of similar conservative sentiments would take his place, presumably as the appointee of a Republican president. “Of course I would not like to be replaced by somebody who sets out immediately to undo” what he has spent decades trying to achieve, the justice said.

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Department Of Homeland Security Orders Riot Gear To Ready For Political Conventions And Presidential Inauguration

WASHINGTON, DC – The Department of Homeland Security has ordered masses of riot gear equipment to prepare for potential significant domestic riots at the Republican National Convention, Democratic National Convention and next year’s presidential inauguration.

The DHS submitted a rushed solicitation to the Federal Business Opportunities site on Wednesday, which is a portal for Federal government procurement requisitions over $25,000. The request gave the potential suppliers only one day to submit their proposals and a 15-day delivery requirement to Alexandria, Virginia.

As the brief explains, “the objective of this effort is to procure riot gear to prepare for the 2012 Democratic and Republican National Conventions, the 2013 Presidential Inauguration and other future similar activities.”

The total amount ordered is about 150 sets of riot helmets, thigh and groin protectors, hard-shell shin guards and other riot gear.

Specifically, DHS is looking to obtain:

– “147 riot helmets” with “adjustable tactical face shield with liquid seal”

– “147 sets of upper body and shoulder protection”

– “152 sets of thigh and groin protection”

– “147 hard-shell shin guards” with “substantial protection from flying debris, non-ballistic weapons, and blows to the leg” and “optimized protective design for severe riot control or tactical situations.”

– “156 forearm protectors”

– “147 pairs of tactical gloves”

The riot gear will be worn by Federal Protective Service agents who are tasked with protecting property, grounds and buildings owned by the federal government.

The urgency of the order can be explained by the fact that there is a growing anticipation that many demonstrators will travel to the Republican National Convention (RNC), scheduled for August 27-30 in Tampa Bay, Florida, and Democratic National Convention (DNC), planned for September 3-6 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The RNC itself, for example, will have free speech zones, which will serve as containment quarters for the protesters by not allowing them to leave the designated areas and cause trouble.

Another recent DHS move to gear up was back in March of this year, when it gave the defense contractor ATK a deal to provide the DHS with 450 million .40 caliber hollow-point ammunition over a five year period.

On top of that, the DHS has recently purchased a number of bullet-proof checkpoint booths and hired hundreds of new security guards to protect government buildings.

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Missouri Police Fall For “There’s A Bomb In Walmart” At Least 8 Times In 1 Day – Not That There Has Ever Been A Bomb In Walmart, But Maybe Someday

MISSOURI – At least eight Walmarts across Missouri have been evacuated Friday evening after bomb threats.

Two of the stores are in the Kansas City area.

Two and a half hours after the threats were called in, police declared the scenes as safe.

The Gladstone, MO, Walmart at 72nd and North Prospect Avenue was evacuated after police got a call of a bomb threat about 6:30 p.m.

About the same time, the Raytown, MO, Walmart on Missouri Highway 350 near Raytown Road was evacuated for the same reason. Police said someone called in the bomb threat.

Kansas City, MO, police as well as Olathe police volunteered their bomb and arson K-9 unit to help at the Kansas City area locations. Officers found nothing suspicious and let everyone back inside the big box store about 8:30 p.m.

Media outlets in southern Missouri report that two Walmarts in Christian County have been evacuated due to bomb threats. Those stores are in Nixa and Ozark. Other media outlets are reporting the Walmart in Jefferson City was evacuated as well as the Walmart in St. Peters, near St. Louis. Just before 10 p.m., police confirmed that the Walmart in Piedmont also received a threat.

At this time, it is unknown if police are investigating the threats as being connected.

In a statement, Walmart officials said they are working with authorities and apologized for the inconvenience to customers. Company officials said they were grateful no one was hurt.

Melissa Munkers posted on KCTV5’s Facebook page that she was inside the Raytown Walmart when it was evacuated.

“When cops are telling you to get out of the building, you grab your two small children and GO!” she wrote.

A Facebook user commented on KCTV5’s page that police escorted families out through the garden center at the Gladstone Walmart.

Click here to read OzarksFirst coverage of the evacuations in Christian County.

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Dumbass Los Angeles County California Deputies Sued After Breaking Down Former Beauty Queen’s Door And Dragging Her Out Of Bed Naked. Cops To Stupid To Know The Difference Between “A” And “C” Went To Wrong Address

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – A former beauty queen is suing the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department after she says deputies kicked down the wrong apartment door, pointed guns at her and her fiancee and watched as she got out of bed, naked.

Calenche Ranae Manos, a former Miss Nevada 2007, says in her lawsuit that the incident happened on the night of November 15, 2011.

Manos and her fiancee, Eric Otto Ryder, say deputies had a search warrant for apartment “C” but entered their unit — clearly marked as apartment “A.”

“At that time Ms. Manos was still in bed and was naked,” the complaint, obtained by Courthouse News Service, states.

“The sheriff deputies, all of which were male and armed with guns, ordered Ms. Manos to get out of bed and then watched as she attempted to do so,” it alleges.

The officers then spent a “significant amount of time” in the apartment before they realized their mistake, according to the complaint.

One of the officers allegedly joked that Manos would have a good story to tell at Thanksgiving.

Manos is seeking damages for negligence, false imprisonment and civil rights violations.

She is also accusing the deputies of sexual harassment.

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Disgraced Former Pennsylvania State President Graham Spanier Hired At “Top Secret” Federal Agency – FBI Has Evidence He Helped Cover Up Molestations By Sandusky

WASHINGTON, DC – Where could the disgraced, Sandusky scandal-marred, ex-president of Penn State go to find a job? The federal government–where else?

That’s right, Graham Spanier, who resigned from his position at Penn State last fall in the midst of the sex abuse scandal, now has a job working for a “top secret” federal agency, according to his lawyer.

An internal investigation conducted by former FBI director Louis Freeh turned up evidence that Spanier helped cover up Jerry Sandusky’s crimes. Sandusky would go on to rape and abuse more children in the years that followed.

Spanier’s attorneys say that the federal government conducted its own “re-review” of his security clearance in light of his role in the Sandusky case, and nevertheless reaffirmed his trustworthiness. That’s very troubling in light of the fact that Spanier may have broken the law by not reporting Sandusky’s abuse to law enforcement authorities. Spanier may face criminal charges himself in the near future related to the case.

In the meantime, the government continues to employ Spanier, which means that we are all paying his salary with our tax dollars. It also means that the government is entrusting work related to our national security to Spanier–a man who has proved that he simply isn’t trustworthy.

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Frankfort Illinois Police Officer Donald Walsh Arrested And Suspended After Violent And Brutal Attack On His Girlfriend Over Her Cellphone

FRANKFORT, ILLINOIS – Frankfort police officer Donald Walsh, 29, was arrested in Mokena and charged with domestic battery July 25, after allegedly choking and headbutting a woman, Sun-Times Media reports.

Mokena police said they responded to a 9-1-1 call at 3:48 a.m. on the 11500 block of Stratford Road, from a 9-year-old girl who heard her mother screaming. When officers arrived on the scene, the victim, a 31-year-old woman with whom Walsh had an on-and-off dating relationship, approached them from a neighbor’s home and told them that Walsh was inside the woman’s home with a gun to his head and that he had threatened to kill himself, Mokena police said.

Officers made contact with him at the front door, detained him, and determined that a domestic battery had taken place, police said. Walsh was taken into custody, processed, and transported to Will County Jail, police said. Walsh posted bail and was released later on Wednesday, according to the Sun-Times Media report.

Frankfort Police Chief John Burica declined to comment on the incident, calling it a personnel issue.

“It’s an open investigation, so he’s on administrative leave until the investigation’s closed,” Burica said.

According to police reports, Walsh had texted the woman earlier in the night and told her he would be over around midnight, but didn’t show up until about an hour before police were called. Police said the couple argued about text messages, and that Walsh demanded to see the woman’s phone. When he couldn’t unlock the phone to view it, Walsh proceeded to choke the woman, strike her with the bottom of his right fist, and head-butt her, police said. According to police reports, the woman sustained bruising and other injuries.

According to Mokena police, Walsh gave a conflicting statement about the incident, claiming that the woman had attacked him and that he had only tried to restrain her. However, the victim’s daughter stated that she went into the bedroom and saw him on top of her mother, choking and punching her, police said.

Mokena police said they had no record of previous incidents of domestic violence in relation to Walsh.

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Dickhead Port Orange New Jersey Police Officer Michael Garay Told Woman To Show Him How Her Husband Choked Her, Arrests Her Just For Touching Him – Entrapment

PORT ORANGE, NEW JERSEY – A Port Orange police officer asked a woman to show him how her husband tried to strangle her and when the woman put two fingers on the policeman’s neck, she got arrested, records show.

Officer Michael Garay, responding to a domestic disturbance, charged Claudia Ambroziak, 58, with battery on a law enforcement officer, although he asked the woman for the demonstration, police reports state.

“I asked Claudia to show me how Joe (Ambroziak) choked her,” Garay wrote in his report. “Claudia was able to place approximately two fingers and her thumb around the front of my neck…was able to apply pressure to the front of my neck.”

Garay said he then grabbed Claudia Ambroziak’s hand “before she was able to apply any more pressure to my neck,” and charged her with battery on a law enforcement officer, according to his report.

The incident happened when Garay responded to a domestic disturbance call at 10:57 a.m. Wednesday at a Hoyt Drive home in Port Orange. Joe Ambroziak told Garay his wife of 33 years kicked him in the back while they were arguing and tried to attack him. Joe Ambroziak told the officer he protected himself by placing his right hand around Claudia Ambroziak’s neck.

And when interviewing Claudia Ambroziak, Garay asked her to show him how her husband choked her. The woman jumped off the couch and said “I’ll show how you how he did,” and reached out to place her fingers on the officer’s neck.

She got arrested for touching the officer. Claudia Ambroziak was also charged with domestic battery.

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Southern University Louisiana Police Officer Randolph Harrell Arrested And Suspended After He And Another Savage Black Beast Pointed Pistol And AK-45 At Man At Auto Parts Store – Previously Should Have Been Fired After Shooting At A Car Near His Home

BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA – A Southern University police officer may be asked to turn in his badge, and the 9 News I-Team has learned it’s not the first time.

According to a report by the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office, Randolph Harrell, an officer at the university, got into an argument with a customer outside of an audio store on Plank Road.

Harrell was booked and charged with felony aggravated assault.

According to the arrest report, the victim, a customer at the store, said Harrell and another guy “pointed a dark colored handgun, which resembled a Ruger at him and the other unknown black male pointed what appeared to be an AK-47 at him.”

Store employees ran inside the store and called 911, but after deputies left they said the two men came back, parked behind the fence at a business next door and waved their guns out of their windows.

The report states, “at 12:13 p.m., deputies returned after a witness called back to report the accused passed back a second time … Pointing a gun out of the window.”

An hour later, a third call to deputies “to report the accused had passed again heading north on Plank Road and pointed the weapon again.”

“Whenever an officer is involved in such matters they’re called in and talked to and put on administrative leave,” Southern University Police Chief Ronald Stevens said.

After the arrest, Stevens said he sent internal affairs officers to Harrell’s house to let him know an investigation was underway.

“I take a misdemeanor arrest just as serious as I do a felony arrest. We are police officers, hired to enforce the law not break it and if I got out and break it then how is it that I can go out and enforce it,” Stevens said.

It was not the first time Harrell found himself on the wrong side of the law. Former Southern University Interim Police Chief Terry Landry said less than a year into Harrell’s job as a police officer, three years ago, he had to ask Harrell to resign or be fired.

“During the probationary period of his employment there was an incident where Mr. Harrell allegedly fired his weapon at a car he had some type of altercation with at his residence,” Landry said.

Landry said Harrell never reported the incident.

Current Chief Stevens said he rehired Harrell in April of this year. But not before doing a thorough background check. He said he called the Pointe Coupee, Tangipahoa and St. Helena Sheriffs’ offices, where Harrell worked after leaving Southern.

“That’s one of the first questions I asked, if they would hire him back and I got the nod that they would have and he was a good officer while he was there,” Stevens explained.

Landry said Chief Stevens never called him about Harrell.

“I’m just astonished that this young man was hired back because his patterns are laid out and if they had done adequate research… I know no one called me and asked what I thought about it,” Landry said.

Chief Stevens said he expects to know the internal affairs investigation to be complete in less than 60 days.

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Columbus Ohio Police Officer Todd L. Smith Arrested By FBI – School Resource Officer Suspended After Arrest For Seeking Sex With A Student

COLUMBUS, OHIO – A Columbus police officer and school resource officer has been arrested amid an investigation that he sexted a high school student.

Officer Todd L. Smith was arrested Thursday by the FBI.

Police said he has been relieved of duty, and his badge and gun were confiscated.

Details on the charges against Smith have not been released.

NBC4 contacted the FBI spokesman in Cincinnati who did not comment on the case.

Columbus City Schools said Smith was a resource officer at Centennial High School, and was well-liked.

School officials said the district never had any complaints against him.

The FBI gets involved if a police officer is accused of abusing authority, or in cases of facilitating interstate commerce, which involves the use of a cell phone.

The complaint against Smith is sealed, but more information should be released at a detention hearing, which is scheduled for Monday in federal court.

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Savage Black Beast Beats White Teen With Tourette’s Syndrome Unconscious In German Subway – Negroid Thought Teen’s Uncontrolable Movements Were Nazi Salutes

GERMANY – German teenager who can’t help making Nazi salutes because he suffers from Tourette’s syndrome was beaten unconscious by a black man who thought he was insulting him.

Gerrit Oeller, 16, was with two friends who tried to explain to the enraged man that the salute was not meant as an insult, and that he could not control his arm.

But when the Tourette’s led the teenager to grin insanely at the man as well, he went mad, hitting Gerrit so hard that he ended up unconscious.

The attack happened on an underground line in the Dulsberg district of Hamburg in northern Germany.

Gerrit said: ‘He asked me if I thought it was funny and it made me nervous, which made me clench my teeth and he thought I was grinning at him. That was when he hit me. I went out like a light.’

His friends told him that another passenger had raised the alarm with station staff who had asked what was going on, but the pair had been too scared to say anything with the furious man there, only when he went off did they call the emergency services and police.

Gerrit, from nearby Brunsbek, was taken to hospital where he was treated for a cut over his eye and a swollen jaw.

The boy’s mother Nicola Oeller said: ‘We don’t really want to see him caught to have him punished, but we would like him to know that our son really is sick and it is a genuine condition, and maybe to apologise.

‘He can’t help himself. But there should be more awareness of the condition.’

In Germany some 5 million people suffer from a form of tic such as Gerrit has, but most are so mild that they are barely noticeable. Gerrit’s arm straightening and the clenching of his teeth is of the more extreme variety.

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Man Shoots Bystander And Indiana Police, Police Shoot Police Dog – 18 Law Enforcement Agencies And 4 SWAT Teams Lock Down Entire Town, But Man Gets Away And Kills Himself

PENDLETON, INDIANA – Kenneth James Bailey Jr. threatened violence against strangers and he delivered, shooting an innocent bystander dead and wounding two police officers before killing himself, authorities said.

The melee also resulted in the fatal shooting of a police dog by officers.

Police in Pendleton, Indiana, responded Thursday night to a report of shots fired. When they arrived, they were met with immediate and “overwhelming” gunfire from the suspect, according to a statement from police in nearby Anderson, Indiana.

The responding officer, Pendleton police Sgt. Shane Isaacs, “was ambushed by the suspect,” according to a Pendleton police statement.

Isaacs was shot multiple times in the legs by the suspect before finding cover from the array of bullets, Pendleton police said.

Anderson police Officer Marty Dulworth was also injured from the suspect’s gunfire, authorities said.

A total of 18 law enforcement agencies arrived at the scene. After the shootout, the suspect escaped, launching a six-hour manhunt.

The suspect’s body was eventually found a block away.

Police believe Bailey, 59, shot himself sometime after authorities locked down the town of Pendleton, preventing anyone from leaving the area.

Authorities believe Bailey was in the neighborhood to confront his estranged wife, Claudia, whom he had been separated from for about 10 months, Pendleton police said.

According to Madison County court documents obtained by CNN affiliate WRTV, Claudia Bailey filed paperwork Thursday requesting a restraining order against Kenneth Bailey. In it, she cited multiple threats, including a 2010 report in which Kenneth Bailey allegedly said he wanted to “blow everyone away” at the store where she worked.

Claudia Bailey also wrote that as recently as a few weeks ago, Kenneth Bailey threatened that if he ever found her with anyone else, “he’d just shoot us from a distance where we stand.”

“I’m scared he would. I’m looking over my shoulder,” she wrote.

A magistrate granted the restraining order Thursday, but it is not clear if Kenneth Bailey received the paperwork before Thursday night’s incident.

Shortly after the shootout, police discovered that the initial shots also struck nearby resident John Neal Shull Jr., who was sitting in his vehicle and had been blocked in traffic by the suspect’s vehicle. Shull was killed.

“There is an innocent victim, he’s a resident of the town, he’s been a friend of mine for years, and he is deceased,” Pendleton Police Chief Marc Farrer tearfully said in a press conference. “Innocent victim, totally in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

The suspect was armed with a pistol and large capacity magazine, an assault rifle, a flak jacket and gas masks, Farrer said.

“He came with an ill intent,” he said.

Four tactical SWAT teams were among the departments that responded to the scene. They helped move families from their homes in the early morning hours Friday as police set up a perimeter and searched for the suspect, Farrer said.

Hundreds of people gathered in a Pendleton church Friday night for a vigil in honor of Shull, the man shot dead in his car, CNN affiliate WXIN reported.

Earlier in the day, Shull’s wife Noelle told WXIN she is at a loss for answers.

“Why? What was the purpose in this man shooting my husband who was only trying to come home?”

John Shull was a business owner and a volunteer in the Kiwanis club, Pendleton police added.

The shootout also led to the death of an Anderson canine officer named Kilo.

“When Officer Dulworth was shot, Kilo, in the midst of the surrounding gunfire and reacting to the loss of his handler, mistook one of the officers as an aggressor and attacked him, biting him several times,” Anderson police said in a statement. “The officers found themselves faced with a confused K-9 and an armed suspect firing upon them.”

Police said officers were forced to shoot Kilo during the chaos.

Kilo followed his instinct to protect his handler to the very end, police said.

Kilo had been partnered with Dulworth since 2010. He was the first Anderson police dog to die in the line of duty.

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Israel, America’s So-Called “Ally”, Seen As Spy Threat To US

WASHINGTON, DC – The CIA station chief opened the locked box containing the sensitive equipment he used from his home in Tel Aviv, Israel, to communicate with CIA headquarters in Virginia, only to find that someone had tampered with it. He sent word to his superiors about the break-in.

The incident, described by three former senior U.S. intelligence officials, might have been dismissed as just another cloak-and-dagger incident in the world of international espionage, except that the same thing had happened to the previous station chief in Israel.

It was a not-so-subtle reminder that, even in a country friendly to the United States, the CIA was itself being watched.

In a separate episode, according to another two former U.S. officials, a CIA officer in Israel came home to find the food in the refrigerator had been rearranged. In all the cases, the U.S. government believes Israel’s security services were responsible.

Such meddling underscores what is widely known but rarely discussed outside intelligence circles: Despite inarguable ties between the U.S. and its closest ally in the Middle East and despite statements from U.S. politicians trumpeting the friendship, U.S. national security officials consider Israel to be, at times, a frustrating ally and a genuine counterintelligence threat.

In addition to what the former U.S. officials described as intrusions in homes in the past decade, Israel has been implicated in U.S. criminal espionage cases and disciplinary proceedings against CIA officers and blamed in the presumed death of an important spy in Syria for the CIA during the administration of President George W. Bush.

The CIA considers Israel its No. 1 counterintelligence threat in the agency’s Near East Division, the group that oversees spying across the Middle East, according to current and former officials. Counterintelligence is the art of protecting national secrets from spies. This means the CIA believes that U.S. national secrets are safer from other Middle Eastern governments than from Israel.

Israel employs highly sophisticated, professional spy services that rival American agencies in technical capability and recruiting human sources. Unlike Iran or Syria, for example, Israel as a steadfast U.S. ally enjoys access to the highest levels of the U.S. government in military and intelligence circles.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk publicly about the sensitive intelligence and diplomatic issues between the two countries.

The counterintelligence worries continue even as the U.S. relationship with Israel features close cooperation on intelligence programs that reportedly included the Stuxnet computer virus that attacked computers in Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities. While the alliance is central to the U.S. approach in the Middle East, there is room for intense disagreement, especially in the diplomatic turmoil over Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

“It’s a complicated relationship,” said Joseph Wippl, a former senior CIA clandestine officer and head of the agency’s office of congressional affairs. “They have their interests. We have our interests. For the U.S., it’s a balancing act.”

The way Washington characterizes its relationship with Israel is also important to the way the U.S. is regarded by the rest of the world, particularly Muslim countries.

U.S. political praise has reached a crescendo ahead of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s scheduled meeting Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. Their relationship spans decades, since their brief overlap in the 1970s at the Boston Consulting Group. Both worked as advisers for the firm early in their careers before Romney co-founded his own private-equity firm. Romney said in a speech this past week that Israel was “one of our fondest friends,” and he criticized Obama for what he called the administration’s “shabby treatment” of the Jewish state.

“The people of Israel deserve better than what they’ve received from the leader of the free world,” Romney said in a plain appeal to U.S. Jewish and pro-Israel evangelical voters.

Obama, who last year was overheard appearing to endorse criticism of Netanyahu from then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy, has defended his work with Israel. “We’ve gotten a lot of business done with Israel over the last three years,” Obama said this year. “I think the prime minister – and certainly the defense minister – would acknowledge that we’ve never had closer military and intelligence cooperation.”

An Israeli spokesman in Washington, Lior Weintraub, said his country has close ties with the U.S.

“Israel’s intelligence and security agencies maintain close, broad and continuous cooperation with their U.S. counterparts,” Weintraub said. “They are our partners in confronting many mutual challenges. Any suggestion otherwise is baseless and contrary to the spirit and practice of the security cooperation between our two countries.”

The CIA declined comment.

The tension exists on both sides.

The National Security Agency historically has kept tabs on Israel. The U.S., for instance, does not want to be caught off guard if Israel launches a surprise attack that could plunge the region into war and jeopardize oil supplies, putting American soldiers at risk.

Matthew Aid, the author of “The Secret Sentry,” about the NSA, said the U.S. started spying on Israel even before the state was created in 1948. Aid said the U.S. had a station on Cyprus dedicated to spying on Israel until 1974. Today, teams of Hebrew linguists are stationed at Fort Meade, Md., at the NSA, listening to intercepts of Israeli communications, he said.

CIA policy generally forbids its officers in Tel Aviv from recruiting Israeli government sources, officials said. To do so would require approval from senior CIA leaders, two former senior officials said. During the Bush administration, the approval had to come from the White House.

Israel is not America’s closest ally, at least when it comes to whom Washington trusts with the most sensitive national security information. That distinction belongs to a group of nations known informally as the “Five Eyes.” Under that umbrella, the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand agree to share intelligence and not to spy on one another. Often, U.S. intelligence officers work directly alongside counterparts from these countries to handle highly classified information not shared with anyone else.

Israel is part of by a second-tier relationship known by another informal name, “Friends on Friends.” It comes from the phrase “Friends don’t spy on friends,” and the arrangement dates back decades. But Israel’s foreign intelligence service, the Mossad, and its FBI equivalent, the Shin Bet, both considered among the best in the world, have been suspected of recruiting U.S. officials and trying to steal American secrets.

Around 2004 or 2005, the CIA fired two female officers for having unreported contact with Israelis. One of the women acknowledged during a polygraph exam that she had been in a relationship with an Israeli who worked in the Foreign Ministry, a former U.S. official said. The CIA learned the Israeli introduced the woman to his “uncle.” That person worked for Shin Bet.

Jonathan Pollard, who worked for the Navy as a civilian intelligence analyst, was convicted of spying for Israel in 1987 when the Friends on Friends agreement was in effect. He was sentenced to life in prison. The Israelis for years have tried to win his release. In January 2011, Netanyahu asked Obama to free Pollard and acknowledged that Israel’s actions in the case were “wrong and wholly unacceptable.”

Ronald Olive, a former senior supervisor with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service who investigated Pollard, said that after the arrest, the U.S. formed a task force to determine what government records Pollard had taken. Olive said Israel turned over so few that it represented “a speck in the sand.”

In the wake of Pollard, the Israelis promised not to operate intelligence agents on U.S. soil.

A former Army mechanical engineer, Ben-Ami Kadish, pleaded guilty in 2008 to passing classified secrets to the Israelis during the 1980s. His case officer was the same one who handled Pollard. Kadish let the Israelis photograph documents about nuclear weapons, a modified version of an F-15 fighter jet and the U.S. Patriot missile air defense system. Kadish, who was 85 years old when he was arrested, avoided prison and was ordered to pay a $50,000 fine. He told the judge that, “I thought I was helping the state of Israel without harming the United States.”

In 2006, a former Defense Department analyst was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison for giving classified information to an Israeli diplomat and two pro-Israel lobbyists.

Despite the Pollard case and others, Olive said he believes the two countries need to maintain close ties “but do we still have to be vigilant? Absolutely. The Israelis are good at what they do.”

During the Bush administration, the CIA ranked some of the world’s intelligence agencies in order of their willingness to help in the U.S.-led fight against terrorism. One former U.S. intelligence official who saw the completed list said Israel, which hadn’t been directly targeted in attacks by al-Qaida, fell below Libya, which recently had agreed to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

The espionage incidents have done little to slow the billions of dollars in money and weapons from the United States to Israel. Since Pollard’s arrest, Israel has received more than $60 billion in U.S. aid, mostly in the form of military assistance, according to the Congressional Research Service. The U.S. has supplied Israel with Patriot missiles, helped pay for an anti-missile defense program and provided sensitive radar equipment to track Iranian missile threats.

Just on Friday, Obama said he was releasing an additional $70 million in military aid, a previously announced move that appeared timed to upstage Romney’s trip, and he spoke of America’s “unshakable commitment to Israel.” The money will go to help Israel expand production of a short-range rocket defense system.

Some CIA officials still bristle over the disappearance of a Syrian scientist who during the Bush administration was the CIA’s only spy inside Syria’s military program to develop chemical and biological weapons. The scientist was providing the agency with extraordinary information about pathogens used in the program, former U.S. officials said about the previously unknown intelligence operation.

At the time, there was pressure to share information about weapons of mass destruction, and the CIA provided its intelligence to Israel. A former official with direct knowledge of the case said details about Syria’s program were published in the media. Although the CIA never formally concluded that Israel was responsible, CIA officials complained to Israel about their belief that Israelis were leaking the information to pressure Syria to abandon the program. The Syrians pieced together who had access to the sensitive information and eventually identified the scientist as a traitor.

Before he disappeared and was presumed killed, the scientist told his CIA handler that Syrian Military Intelligence was focusing on him.

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General Motors Steadily Increasing Dependence On Risky Subprime Loans To Stay Afloat – Housing Industry Used Same Approach, And Look Where That Got Us…

WASHINGTON, DC – President Obama has touted General Motors (GM) as a successful example of his administration’s policies. Yet GM’s recovery is built, at least in part, on the increasing use of subprime loans.

The Obama administration in 2009 bailed out GM to the tune of $50 billion as it went into a managed bankruptcy.

Near the end of 2010, GM acquired a new captive lending arm, subprime specialist AmeriCredit. Renamed GM Financial, it has played a significant role in GM’s growth .

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The automaker is relying increasingly on subprime loans, 10-Q financial reports shows.

Potential borrowers of car loans are rated on FICO scores that range from 300 to 850. Anything under 660 is generally deemed subprime.

Subprime Key Driver

GM Financial auto loans to customers with FICO scores below 660 rose from 87% of total loans in Q4 2010 to 93% in Q1 2012.

The worse the FICO score, the bigger the increase. From Q4 2010 to Q1 2012, GM Financial loans to customers with the worst FICO scores — below 540 — shot up 79% to more than $2.3 billion. The second worst category, 540-599, rose 28% from about $3.4 billion to $4.3 billion.

Prime loans, those above 660, dropped 42% to $676 million.

GM Financial provides just over 8% of GM’s financing. Prior to 2006, GM’s captive lending arm was GMAC, but GM sold a controlling stake in 2006. GMAC later renamed itself Ally Financial and continues to provide the bulk of GM’s financing.

At the peak of the credit crisis and recession in late 2008, Ally announced that it would move away from subprime lending.

By spring 2010 GM’s new management, led by North American executive Mark Reuss, wanted to move back into subprime, fearing that GM couldn’t compete.

Subprime lending in cars is not as risky as in housing. Car loans are cheaper, so customers have an easier time making payments. When they do go into default, the cars can be repossessed and sold to recover some of the loss.

“The subprime market grew as a result of the recession,” said GM spokesman Jim Cain. “Our experience, however, is that with proper management they are very good risks.”

He points to GM’s credit losses which have not risen above 5.5% since late 2010.

Nevertheless, since it acquired GM Financial, GM has seen its subprime loans grow from about 4.8% of sales in Q4 2010 to 8.2% in Q1 2012. The industry average is about 6%.

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Melbourne Florida Police Officer Jose Otero Fired After Hooking Up Whith Whores While On Duty – Caught On Car’s Camera Picking Up And Dropping Off Hookers

MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – A Melbourne police officer accused of meeting prostitutes for sex while on-duty has been fired.

According to a spokesperson for the Melbourne Police Department, Jose Otero is no longer with the department after the chief decided to terminate him.

Otero was out of a job as of Friday, July 20.

That’s just two days after News 13 reported that investigators said Otero had sex with at least four prostitutes while on the job.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigated the case and set up surveillance on Otero they said caught him picking up and dropping of prostitutes.

Otero has a court hearing on August 1.

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Dumbass Veteran Michigan Department Of Correction Parole Officer Suspended After Making Threatening Remarks While Buying Batman Movie Tickets

ROYAL OAK, MICHIGAN – A parole officer with the Michigan Department of Corrections has been suspended with pay after he reportedly made threatening remarks while buying tickets to see “The Dark Knight Rises” at a Royal Oak movie theater.

The man, who supervised parolees at the Macomb MDOC office, was at the Emagine Theater on Main Street in downtown Royal Oak on Saturday, buying the tickets for the 12:30 p.m. matinee when he said, “If I don’t get good seats, I’m going to shank somebody” to the ticket seller, according to police reports. The ticket seller contacted security who called police.

“It was a profoundly stupid thing to say in light of the tragedy in Colorado,” said Royal Oak police chief Corrigan O’Donohue.”The officer who took the report said he realized that and was apologetic.”

The man was not arrested and police do not plan to seek a warrant. The Free Press is not naming him because he was not charged.

The MDOC suspended him with pay Wednesday while it investigates whether he violated work rules. “It showed extremely poor judgment,” said MDOC spokesperson Russ Marlan. Marlan said the man has been with the MDOC since 2005.

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Nutcase Brooksville Florida Police Officer Bryan Drinkard Gets Sweet Plea Deal After Stalking, Trespassing, Grand Theft, And Violation Of Injunction

BROOKSVILLE, FLORIDA — The legal saga of a disgraced Brooksville police officer has ended quietly with a plea deal.

Bryan Drinkard, 44, pleaded no contest last week to charges of stalking, trespassing, grand theft and violating a dating injunction. He received one year of house arrest followed by three years of probation, and was given credit for 115 days served in jail.

Drinkard also must forfeit his law enforcement and corrections certifications, and he agreed to never reapply for those certifications in Florida.

“If you’re out doing things like this, stealing and stalking, you probably shouldn’t be a law enforcement officer,” said Assistant State Attorney Donald “Sonny” McCathran.

Drinkard, records say, had at different times stalked former girlfriend and co-worker Tiffany Still, taken jewelry and a checkbook from her home and, in one case, arranged for a fellow officer to help him follow her. Still is an administrative assistant at the Brooksville Police Department.

Drinkard was first arrested in March. Later, authorities said, Drinkard sent Still a letter telling her he loved her, a violation of the injunction.

Prior to his first arrest, Drinkard had been suspended after Still reported the incidents to her bosses and they launched an internal affairs investigation. His superiors immediately ordered him to turn in his badge and gun.

On Feb. 28, with his finger on the trigger, Drinkard walked into the Police Department lobby and placed his loaded .45-caliber Glock on the counter, security video showed. Normally, Still sits in the receptionist’s chair behind a sheet of glass, on the other side of the counter where Drinkard left his gun. At that moment, she wasn’t there.

The former patrolman, authorities said, later acknowledged that he was so drunk he couldn’t remember dropping off the firearm.

It sat, unnoticed and unsecured, for more than four minutes.

The day after the incident, Chief George Turner terminated Drinkard for what he called “gross negligence.” The officer had worked for the department since 2007.

Drinkard was adjudicated guilty on the misdemeanor charges of stalking, trespassing and violating the injunction. Adjudication was withheld on a felony grand theft charge.

The conviction is Drinkard’s first.

As part of his plea agreement, Drinkard must undergo a mental health evaluation and enroll in an outpatient alcohol treatment program. He also owes Still $1,490 in restitution.

McCathran consulted with Still before reaching the deal.

“She was fine with it,” McCathran said. “She mainly just wants the guy to leave her alone.”

The deal is comparable to what any other defendant would have received, McCathran said.

Drinkard’s attorney, Derek Saltsman, disagreed.

As part of an initial plea offer, Saltsman said, prosecutors wanted Drinkard adjudicated guilty on the theft charge, which would have made him a convicted felon.

Even the final plea agreement is harsh for someone without a prior record, Saltsman said. A fairer deal, he said, would have been to acknowledge Drinkard’s alcohol problem and offer a pretrial intervention agreement. Such an agreement would have resulted in the dismissal of the charges had Drinkard followed certain stipulations, such as enrolling in a substance abuse program.

“The problem I had all along with this case is he wasn’t treated like any other defendant that got arrested,” Saltsman said. “Because of him working in law enforcement and it was a hot news story, he was treated as if he had a large prior record.”

Drinkard was a heartbroken alcoholic who probably made unwise choices, but he has never harbored ill will toward Still, Saltsman said.

“(Alcoholism) destroyed his career and his reputation,” Saltsman said. “It’s not an excuse for it, but it came down to that problem.

Drinkard has moved out of the area and is looking for a job so he can pay the restitution, plus fines and court costs that will exceed $1,800, Saltsman said.

Drinkard had a history of problems at other agencies. In 2003, he resigned from the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office while being investigated for violating agency policy.

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Trenton New Jersey Police Officer Richard Takach Suspended Being Photographed Sleeping In His Patrol Car

TRENTON, NEW JERSEY — An off-duty city police officer has been suspended without pay after he was photographed sleeping in his patrol car between extra duty assignments Wednesday morning.

Officer Richard Takach, a 12-year member of the force, had worked a 5 p.m. to 3 a.m. shift and a side job from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m., a police union official said. In a photo posted on Twitter, he was shown sleeping during an hour-long break before his next extra duty shift was to resume at 8 a.m.

Takach was in his city police uniform and in a marked patrol car when he was photographed. He is scheduled to have a departmental hearing Monday.

Detective Peter Szpakowski, a police spokesman, said an internal affairs investigation is under way. He declined further comment.

George Dzurkoc, president of Policemen’s Benevolent Association Local 11, said Takach was technically off-duty at the time.

“The suspension is absolutely ridiculous,” he said. “It doesn’t appear that the department is doing a thorough investigation on things before overreacting with comments in the paper about officers’ wrongdoings.”

He said he is confident the suspension will not be upheld.

“At the end of the day, you are going to find out that this is an unwarranted suspension,” he said.

Attorney Stuart Alterman, of the Marlton-based Alterman & Associates, LLC, who is representing Takach, said the officer was “resting.”

“He was photographed in his car while he was on his time, not being paid, on a break,” said Alterman. “He was looking the other way, wearing sunglasses … he was probably taking a break and he was resting.”

Alterman said Takach was fully aware of his surroundings.

When asked if he was asleep, he replied that he was “resting.”

The assignment he was working was an emergency extra-duty assignment that came after a transformer explosion in the city late Tuesday night, Alterman said.

Takach was on the scene as PSE&G officials worked to make repairs, and at 7 a.m. he was relieved for an hour until the next crew of utility workers arrived at 8 a.m. to resume work.

Alterman said the city police department’s manpower has been compromised by layoffs and attrition, and that Takach was filling in to meet an immediate need. The story has left out his unblemished record, he said.

Calls to police director Ralph Rivera Jr. yesterday were not returned.

It is not the department’s first time a photo has depicted a uniformed officer at rest. Lt. Paul Messina, who has been promoted to acting captain and placed at the helm of the department’s administrative section, was disciplined in 2003 and 2007 for falling asleep while on duty.

The incidents were captured on video that was widely viewed on the internet and led to him being nicknamed “Captain Sleepy.”

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