This question about a new method of making methamphetamine came across the methresource line. It involves using gun bluing, no external heat, and done in darkness. The result is methamphetamine
-------Original Message-------
From: usbpscm727@gmail.com
Date: 09/29/06 08:43:09
To: DiscussMeth@methresources.gov
Subject: [discussmeth] Inquiry on "Glass"
A southwestern chief has inquired on this after one of his captains reported
it. Anyone know of it or the process?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Glass", where the ingredients involve gun bluing (unknown if this was hot or cold blue solution), Palmolive dish detergent (for phosphorous), household ammonia, and
pseudoephedrine. (Of course, there may be more ingredients; these are the ones listed.) The process is described as not needing external heat and requiring darkness for proper production; the process is described as photosynthesis", and the product is blue to purple in color (consistent with gun bluing). and the dark or purple product was toxic.
Al Ferguson
US Border Patrol (Ret)
Friday, September 29, 2006
Monday, September 25, 2006
Supreme Court to post transcripts online
By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer Thu Sep 14, 2:50 PM ET
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court will post transcripts of oral arguments on its Web site the same day they occur, beginning in October.
The change, long desired by court watchers, comes as Chief Justice John Roberts begins his second term at the head of the court. The court occasionally has made available audio tapes on the day of argument in major cases. Usually, however, arguments have been transcribed from audio recordings and made available roughly two weeks later. Now, a court reporter will sit in the elegant courtroom to speed the process and attempt to sort out which of the nine justices is interrupting a lawyer arguing the case. There is no indication that justices are prepared to relent on another matter of media interest. Television cameras still are barred from the court.
___
Sandra Cano, one of the women behind the legalization of abortion 33 years ago, is seeking to reverse her victory. On Oct. 6, the justices are scheduled to consider at one of their routine private conferences whether to take her case. Cano says she never wanted an abortion and that her difficult early life resulted in her becoming the anonymous plaintiff in Doe v. Bolton, the lesser-known abortion case that the justices ruled on the same day in 1973 as the landmark Roe v. Wade.
Cano says she was a 22-year-old victim of an abusive husband and that her children were in foster care when she sought legal assistance in getting a divorce and in getting her children back. She said an aggressive lawyer pushed her into the abortion case. "What I received was something I never requested — the legal right to abort my child," Cano said in an affidavit six years ago. Her current lawyers' legal brief says that despite advances in medicine, science and technology, the justices have "frozen abortion law based on obsolete 1973 assumptions and prevented the normal regulation of the practice of medicine."
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in January that neither it nor a U.S. District Court had the authority to reverse the Supreme Court's decisions in Doe v. Bolton or Roe v. Wade.
___
Who are you calling a judicial activist? The term often is used pejoratively and has been a favorite way for conservatives to criticize liberal judges. University of Kentucky law professor Lori Ringhand recently stirred the pot with a study of justices' voting records. She concludes that the court's conservatives can be just as activist as their liberal colleagues, but on different issues. Ringhand defined activism as voting to overturn a federal law, a state law or a Supreme Court decision. Examining votes from 1994 to 2005 — when the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist led a stable roster of justices — Ringhand found conservative justices were more likely to vote to overturn federal laws, while the liberals were more likely to want to strike down state laws. In the third category, conservatives were much more willing to strike down the court's own precedents.
The New York Times' editorial page said the study demonstrates that conservatives are wrong to pretend their judges are not activist. Wait a minute, said Matthew Franck, writing in the conservative National Review Online. Franck acknowledged that judges of all ideological stripes can be activist. But he objects to Ringhand's categories, particularly her count of votes to strike down court precedents. "If yesterday's activists (liberal or conservative) set the precedents inherited by today's advocates of restraint, can it be considered a proper part of their devotion to a reduced role for judicial power to preserve those precedents?"
The study is to be published in the spring 2007 edition of Constitutional Commentary. The debate about activism no doubt will continue.
___
Associated Press writer Pete Yost contributed to this report.
___
On the Net:
Supreme Court: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/
copy and pastethis link in you address bar to see the article on the website with any picutes it may have.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060914/ap_on_go_su_co/scotus_transcripts;_ylt=AkbAPh0YNK
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court will post transcripts of oral arguments on its Web site the same day they occur, beginning in October.
The change, long desired by court watchers, comes as Chief Justice John Roberts begins his second term at the head of the court. The court occasionally has made available audio tapes on the day of argument in major cases. Usually, however, arguments have been transcribed from audio recordings and made available roughly two weeks later. Now, a court reporter will sit in the elegant courtroom to speed the process and attempt to sort out which of the nine justices is interrupting a lawyer arguing the case. There is no indication that justices are prepared to relent on another matter of media interest. Television cameras still are barred from the court.
___
Sandra Cano, one of the women behind the legalization of abortion 33 years ago, is seeking to reverse her victory. On Oct. 6, the justices are scheduled to consider at one of their routine private conferences whether to take her case. Cano says she never wanted an abortion and that her difficult early life resulted in her becoming the anonymous plaintiff in Doe v. Bolton, the lesser-known abortion case that the justices ruled on the same day in 1973 as the landmark Roe v. Wade.
Cano says she was a 22-year-old victim of an abusive husband and that her children were in foster care when she sought legal assistance in getting a divorce and in getting her children back. She said an aggressive lawyer pushed her into the abortion case. "What I received was something I never requested — the legal right to abort my child," Cano said in an affidavit six years ago. Her current lawyers' legal brief says that despite advances in medicine, science and technology, the justices have "frozen abortion law based on obsolete 1973 assumptions and prevented the normal regulation of the practice of medicine."
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in January that neither it nor a U.S. District Court had the authority to reverse the Supreme Court's decisions in Doe v. Bolton or Roe v. Wade.
___
Who are you calling a judicial activist? The term often is used pejoratively and has been a favorite way for conservatives to criticize liberal judges. University of Kentucky law professor Lori Ringhand recently stirred the pot with a study of justices' voting records. She concludes that the court's conservatives can be just as activist as their liberal colleagues, but on different issues. Ringhand defined activism as voting to overturn a federal law, a state law or a Supreme Court decision. Examining votes from 1994 to 2005 — when the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist led a stable roster of justices — Ringhand found conservative justices were more likely to vote to overturn federal laws, while the liberals were more likely to want to strike down state laws. In the third category, conservatives were much more willing to strike down the court's own precedents.
The New York Times' editorial page said the study demonstrates that conservatives are wrong to pretend their judges are not activist. Wait a minute, said Matthew Franck, writing in the conservative National Review Online. Franck acknowledged that judges of all ideological stripes can be activist. But he objects to Ringhand's categories, particularly her count of votes to strike down court precedents. "If yesterday's activists (liberal or conservative) set the precedents inherited by today's advocates of restraint, can it be considered a proper part of their devotion to a reduced role for judicial power to preserve those precedents?"
The study is to be published in the spring 2007 edition of Constitutional Commentary. The debate about activism no doubt will continue.
___
Associated Press writer Pete Yost contributed to this report.
___
On the Net:
Supreme Court: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/
copy and pastethis link in you address bar to see the article on the website with any picutes it may have.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060914/ap_on_go_su_co/scotus_transcripts;_ylt=AkbAPh0YNK
a good example of starie decisis
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Abortion rights supporters dropped a lawsuit challenging the state's sale of "Choose Life" license plates because the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Tennessee to continue selling similar plates. The American Civil Liberties Union had argued on behalf of the National Abortion Rights Action League in Ohio that the specialty plates, which bear the slogans "adoption builds a family" and "Choose Life," were unconstitutional because the state did not offer an opposing plate for abortion rights supporters to buy.
In June, the Supreme Court agreed with a decision to allow the Tennessee plates by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, where the ACLU's Ohio case was pending. "I think it's unfortunate that the 6th Circuit didn't see it our way," NARAL Ohio Executive Director Kellie Copeland said Thursday. "We still believe that it's viewpoint discrimination because the state legislature refused to grant us an opposing viewpoint license plate." Tennessee's "Choose Life" plates are expected to be available in another two months, Revenue Commissioner Loren L. Chumley said Thursday. The launch was delayed after the plate's design needed to be changed slightly to pass visibility standards set by the Department of Safety.
Tennessee officials have said 1,265 car owners pre-ordered the specialty plate for a $35 surcharge and $70 is personalized. Half the proceeds for the "Choose Life" plates are slated for anti-abortion groups, while 40 percent is dedicated to the arts and 10 percent for the state highway fund. The Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit group that has defended such plates nationwide, lauded the ACLU's decision last week to drop the Ohio lawsuit because similar programs countrywide have contributed millions of dollars to groups that counsel pregnant women about adoption, using fees added to the cost of the
plates. "The ACLU realized it didn't have a prayer in its case against the Ohio Choose Life plate," Liberty Counsel founder and Chairman Matthew Staver said in a statement Wednesday. The plates in Ohio cost an extra $30 — $20 of which benefits the pregnancy counseling groups. The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles has sold about 2,300 of the plates, making it the agency's third most-popular design introduced last year, behind a design featuring a cat and dog that benefits animal shelters and
Cincinnati Bengals specialty plates, spokesman Fred Stratmann said.
In June, the Supreme Court agreed with a decision to allow the Tennessee plates by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, where the ACLU's Ohio case was pending. "I think it's unfortunate that the 6th Circuit didn't see it our way," NARAL Ohio Executive Director Kellie Copeland said Thursday. "We still believe that it's viewpoint discrimination because the state legislature refused to grant us an opposing viewpoint license plate." Tennessee's "Choose Life" plates are expected to be available in another two months, Revenue Commissioner Loren L. Chumley said Thursday. The launch was delayed after the plate's design needed to be changed slightly to pass visibility standards set by the Department of Safety.
Tennessee officials have said 1,265 car owners pre-ordered the specialty plate for a $35 surcharge and $70 is personalized. Half the proceeds for the "Choose Life" plates are slated for anti-abortion groups, while 40 percent is dedicated to the arts and 10 percent for the state highway fund. The Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit group that has defended such plates nationwide, lauded the ACLU's decision last week to drop the Ohio lawsuit because similar programs countrywide have contributed millions of dollars to groups that counsel pregnant women about adoption, using fees added to the cost of the
plates. "The ACLU realized it didn't have a prayer in its case against the Ohio Choose Life plate," Liberty Counsel founder and Chairman Matthew Staver said in a statement Wednesday. The plates in Ohio cost an extra $30 — $20 of which benefits the pregnancy counseling groups. The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles has sold about 2,300 of the plates, making it the agency's third most-popular design introduced last year, behind a design featuring a cat and dog that benefits animal shelters and
Cincinnati Bengals specialty plates, spokesman Fred Stratmann said.
The JUSTICE part of Criminal Justice
Updated: 02:10 PM EDT
At U.N., Chavez Calls Bush 'The Devil'
By KIM GAMEL, AP
(http://ar.atwola.com/link/93179288/296631245/aoladp?target=_blank&border=0)
UNITED NATIONS (Sept. 20) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took his verbal battle with the United States to the floor of the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, calling President Bush "the devil."
Don Emmert, AFP / Getty Images Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez holds up a book by Noam Chomsky "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest For Global Dominance" during his address to the United Nations.
Watch Video:
_Chavez Calls Bush 'Devil'_ (javascript:mp.play('video-browse-light','guidecontext:65.72',[],['pmmsid:1722584']))
The impassioned speech by the leftist leader came a day after Bush and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sparred over Tehran's disputed nuclear program but managed to avoid a personal encounter. "The devil came here yesterday," Chavez said, referring to Bush's address on Tuesday and making the sign of the cross. "He came here talking as if he were the owner of the world." The leftist leader, who has joined Iran and Cuba in opposing U.S. influence, accused Washington of "domination, exploitation and pillage of peoples of the world."
"We appeal to the people of the United States and the world to halt this threat, which is like a sword hanging over our head," he said. The main U.S. seat in the assembly hall was empty as Chavez spoke. But there was a "junior note taker" there, as is customary "when governments like that speak," the U.S. ambassador to the U.N said. Ambassador John Bolton told The Associated Press that Chavez had the right to express his opinion, adding it was "too bad the people of Venezuela don't have free speech." "I'm just not going to comment on this because his remarks just don't warrant a response," Bolton said. "Serious people can listen to what he had to say and if they do they will reject it." Chavez drew tentative giggles at times from the audience, but also some applause when he called Bush the devil. Chavez spoke on the second day of the annual ministerial meetings, which were overshadowed by an ambitious agenda of sideline talks.
The Mideast peace process also was in the spotlight, with ministers from the Quartet that drafted the stalled road map -- the U.S., the U.N., the European Union and Russia -- planning to meet. The Security Council also was scheduled to hold a ministerial meeting Thursday that Arab leaders hope will help revive the Mideast peace process. Bush tried to advance his campaign for democracy in the Middle East during his address to the General Assembly on Tuesday, saying extremists were trying to justify their violence by falsely claiming the U.S. is waging war on Islam. He singled out Iran and Syria as sponsors of terrorism. Bush also pointed to Tehran's rejection of a Security Council demand to stop enriching uranium by Aug. 31 or face the possibility of sanctions. But he addressed his remarks to the Iranian people in a clear insult to the government. "The greatest obstacle to this future is that your rulers have chosen to deny you liberty and to use your nation's resources to fund terrorism and fuel extremism and pursue nuclear weapons," the U.S. leader said. "Iran must abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions," he said. "Despite what the regime tells you, we have no objection to Iran's pursuit of a truly
peaceful nuclear power program." He said he hoped to see "the day when you can live in freedom, and America and Iran can be good friends and close partners in the cause of peace." Ahmadinejad took the podium hours later, denouncing U.S. policies in Iraq and Lebanon and accusing Washington of abusing its power in the Security Council to punish others while protecting its own interests and allies. The hard-line leader insisted that his nation's nuclear activities are "transparent, peaceful and under the watchful eye" of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
He also reiterated his nation's commitment to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Earlier this month, Ahmadinejad proposed a debate with Bush at the General, Assembly's ministerial meeting after the White House dismissed a previous TV debate proposal as a "diversion" from serious concerns over Iran's nuclear program. But even though the two leaders spoke from the same podium, they skipped each other's addresses and managed to avoid direct contact during the ministerial meeting. Also on Wednesday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai warned that terrorism is rebounding in his country and said efforts to build democracy there had suffered setbacks over the past year as violence increased, especially in the volatile south where NATO forces have been battling Taliban militants in some of the fiercest battles since the hard-line government was toppled in 2001. "We have seen terrorism rebounding as terrorists have infiltrated our borders to step up their murderous campaign against our people," he told the General Assembly. He said the situation was so bad it had contributed to a rise in polio from our cases in 2005 to 27 this year because health workers were unable to reach the region.
But he said the problem had to be fought beyond Afghanistan's borders as well as within. "We must look beyond Afghanistan to the sources of terrorism," he said. "We must destroy terrorist sanctuaries beyond Afghanistan. "He also expressed concern about "the increased incidents of Islamophobia in the West," saying it does not "bode well for the cause of building understanding and cooperation across civilizations." The crisis in the ravaged Sudanese region of Darfur also was on the agenda Wednesday, with the African Union's Peace and Security Council meeting to discuss breaking the deadlock over a plan to replace an AU force with U.N. peacekeepers. The Sudanese president said his country won't allow the United Nations to take control of peacekeepers in Darfur under any circumstance, claiming that rights groups have exaggerated the crisis there in a bid for more cash. But Omar al-Bashir did say that the African Union, which now runs the peacekeeping mission in Darfur, should be allowed to augment its forces with more logistics, advisers and other support.
"We want the African Union to remain in Darfur until peace is re-established in Sudan," al-Bashir said at a news conference. Those comments suggest that the African Union will not face any resistance in renewing the peacekeeping
force's mandate, which expires Sept. 30.
Associated Press writers Ian James and Edith M. Lederer at the United
Nations contributed to this story.
9/20/2006 13:46:41
At U.N., Chavez Calls Bush 'The Devil'
By KIM GAMEL, AP
(http://ar.atwola.com/link/93179288/296631245/aoladp?target=_blank&border=0)
UNITED NATIONS (Sept. 20) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took his verbal battle with the United States to the floor of the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, calling President Bush "the devil."
Don Emmert, AFP / Getty Images Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez holds up a book by Noam Chomsky "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest For Global Dominance" during his address to the United Nations.
Watch Video:
_Chavez Calls Bush 'Devil'_ (javascript:mp.play('video-browse-light','guidecontext:65.72',[],['pmmsid:1722584']))
The impassioned speech by the leftist leader came a day after Bush and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sparred over Tehran's disputed nuclear program but managed to avoid a personal encounter. "The devil came here yesterday," Chavez said, referring to Bush's address on Tuesday and making the sign of the cross. "He came here talking as if he were the owner of the world." The leftist leader, who has joined Iran and Cuba in opposing U.S. influence, accused Washington of "domination, exploitation and pillage of peoples of the world."
"We appeal to the people of the United States and the world to halt this threat, which is like a sword hanging over our head," he said. The main U.S. seat in the assembly hall was empty as Chavez spoke. But there was a "junior note taker" there, as is customary "when governments like that speak," the U.S. ambassador to the U.N said. Ambassador John Bolton told The Associated Press that Chavez had the right to express his opinion, adding it was "too bad the people of Venezuela don't have free speech." "I'm just not going to comment on this because his remarks just don't warrant a response," Bolton said. "Serious people can listen to what he had to say and if they do they will reject it." Chavez drew tentative giggles at times from the audience, but also some applause when he called Bush the devil. Chavez spoke on the second day of the annual ministerial meetings, which were overshadowed by an ambitious agenda of sideline talks.
The Mideast peace process also was in the spotlight, with ministers from the Quartet that drafted the stalled road map -- the U.S., the U.N., the European Union and Russia -- planning to meet. The Security Council also was scheduled to hold a ministerial meeting Thursday that Arab leaders hope will help revive the Mideast peace process. Bush tried to advance his campaign for democracy in the Middle East during his address to the General Assembly on Tuesday, saying extremists were trying to justify their violence by falsely claiming the U.S. is waging war on Islam. He singled out Iran and Syria as sponsors of terrorism. Bush also pointed to Tehran's rejection of a Security Council demand to stop enriching uranium by Aug. 31 or face the possibility of sanctions. But he addressed his remarks to the Iranian people in a clear insult to the government. "The greatest obstacle to this future is that your rulers have chosen to deny you liberty and to use your nation's resources to fund terrorism and fuel extremism and pursue nuclear weapons," the U.S. leader said. "Iran must abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions," he said. "Despite what the regime tells you, we have no objection to Iran's pursuit of a truly
peaceful nuclear power program." He said he hoped to see "the day when you can live in freedom, and America and Iran can be good friends and close partners in the cause of peace." Ahmadinejad took the podium hours later, denouncing U.S. policies in Iraq and Lebanon and accusing Washington of abusing its power in the Security Council to punish others while protecting its own interests and allies. The hard-line leader insisted that his nation's nuclear activities are "transparent, peaceful and under the watchful eye" of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
He also reiterated his nation's commitment to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Earlier this month, Ahmadinejad proposed a debate with Bush at the General, Assembly's ministerial meeting after the White House dismissed a previous TV debate proposal as a "diversion" from serious concerns over Iran's nuclear program. But even though the two leaders spoke from the same podium, they skipped each other's addresses and managed to avoid direct contact during the ministerial meeting. Also on Wednesday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai warned that terrorism is rebounding in his country and said efforts to build democracy there had suffered setbacks over the past year as violence increased, especially in the volatile south where NATO forces have been battling Taliban militants in some of the fiercest battles since the hard-line government was toppled in 2001. "We have seen terrorism rebounding as terrorists have infiltrated our borders to step up their murderous campaign against our people," he told the General Assembly. He said the situation was so bad it had contributed to a rise in polio from our cases in 2005 to 27 this year because health workers were unable to reach the region.
But he said the problem had to be fought beyond Afghanistan's borders as well as within. "We must look beyond Afghanistan to the sources of terrorism," he said. "We must destroy terrorist sanctuaries beyond Afghanistan. "He also expressed concern about "the increased incidents of Islamophobia in the West," saying it does not "bode well for the cause of building understanding and cooperation across civilizations." The crisis in the ravaged Sudanese region of Darfur also was on the agenda Wednesday, with the African Union's Peace and Security Council meeting to discuss breaking the deadlock over a plan to replace an AU force with U.N. peacekeepers. The Sudanese president said his country won't allow the United Nations to take control of peacekeepers in Darfur under any circumstance, claiming that rights groups have exaggerated the crisis there in a bid for more cash. But Omar al-Bashir did say that the African Union, which now runs the peacekeeping mission in Darfur, should be allowed to augment its forces with more logistics, advisers and other support.
"We want the African Union to remain in Darfur until peace is re-established in Sudan," al-Bashir said at a news conference. Those comments suggest that the African Union will not face any resistance in renewing the peacekeeping
force's mandate, which expires Sept. 30.
Associated Press writers Ian James and Edith M. Lederer at the United
Nations contributed to this story.
9/20/2006 13:46:41
a violation of due process?
For Saudi, divorce means deportation
Popular on ASU campus, he's no longer welcome in U.S.
Sarah Muench
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 20, 2006 12:00 AM
Former Arizona State University student body president Yaser Alamoodi was closing in on his college diploma. But earlier this month, just days before Sept. 11, five U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents banged on his door and placed him in handcuffs. While he sits in a detention center in Eloy, waiting to be deported to acountry he has never even visited, his lawyer and national groups arefighting to ensure he stays in the U.S.
"Never in a million years did I think what I would joke about wouldactually happen," Alamoodi said in an interview Tuesday via phone.
The detention of the 29-year-old Tempe resident, originally from Saudi Arabia, is a product of beefed-up post-9/11 immigration enforcement. Alamoodi awoke Sept. 6 at 6 a.m. to ICE agents ready to take him to the deportation center, he said. They said his immigration papers were denied after his wife, anAmerican, revoked his immigration petition in August as part of the process of their divorce, according to Alamoodi and ICE. He had to leave the country, and the agents transported him to Eloy, where he has been ever since.
His swift apprehension resulted from a newly created Compliance Enforcement Unit in Phoenix, which deals with people who entered the country legally but violated their status, such as overstayed their visas, said Russell Ahr, an ICE spokesman. "There's a dedicated unit . . . that processed that he was ineligible for residency . . . that resulted in the location and apprehension that he was in violation of laws of the United States," Ahr said.
Alamoodi thinks he was picked up so quickly because he is from Saudi Arabia, and he stressed to ICE agents that he is not a threat: "I'm extremely secular. I was the president of my university. I have a commitment to everything America stands for, women's rights to civil rights."
The outspoken, active and well-known ASU student came to the United States in 1996. His citizenship and passport are from Yemen, where his father was born, but Alamoodi has never been there, he said. If he's deported, that's where he'll be forced to go. Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, the same year he started at ASU, Alamoodi has had his share of encounters with the federal authorities.
In 2002, he returned to Saudi Arabia to visit family in the summer and was unable to return for eight months because of security checks, he said.
And in the summer of 2004, an agent from the Joint Task Force on Terrorism showed up at his Tempe home to question him, asking if he knew of any upcoming terrorist attacks, he said. Alamoodi was also a columnist for ASU's student newspaper, the State Press.
The last time he went to visit family, his name showed up on a no-fly list when he was supposed to come back, but officials changed it while he was at the airport, he said.
In August, he and his wife, Joy Hepp, whom he met at ASU, decided they would end their marriage. The marriage had guaranteed Alamoodi's stay in the United States and his pending green card. Hepp went to ICE and revoked Alamoodi's immigration papers as part of their divorce proceedings, she said, and a month later, agents arrested him.
Alamoodi and his lawyer think he has little chance to stay in the country unless his wife stops the divorce process.
"There are tons of people in a situation like his and Immigration will come into contact with them and say they don't have enough room for them and let them go," said Alamoodi's immigration attorney, Eric Bjotvedt. "To me, this is like they are singling him out."
Bjotvedt said that usually the government sends a letter saying people have a certain number of days to voluntarily leave the country before agents pick them up for deportation. Alamoodi said he never received such a letter.
Ahr said Alamoodi's quick arrest had nothing to with the fact that he is from a "country of interest," or a list of 25 predominantly Muslim countries the U.S. government created post-9/11 as part of the counter-terrorism Patriot Act.
"We are going to act on the person no matter where they come from," Ahr said. "I don't think statistically the number of people from countries of interest removed are any way skewed whatsoever. The vast majority are not from countries of interest."
Bjotvedt said Alamoodi could remain in Eloy for at least six months, possibly for years, to fight his deportation. Or he could go to Yemen and attempt to get a student visa to return to ASU to finish his studies, which could be difficult, considering his current status. Or he could regain his status if his wife stops the divorce.
An immigration attorney unrelated to the case said Alamoodi's deportation is part of the post-9/11 world.
"It's not surprising. His attorney might make a big fuss about why, why, why, but Congress and the executive branch concluded that certain people from certain countries needed to register," Randy Tunac said. "All this surprise and confusion aside, he's a clear person to be removed, and so the question now is if the laws in and of themselves are fair."
The American-Arab Anti-discrimination Committee, the Muslim American Society and friends are raising money to help pay Alamoodi's legal fees.
Mae Innabi, chair of the Phoenix chapter of the committee and a friend of Alamoodi, said she never thought it would happen to him.
"Not to Yaser. Yaser is probably one of the sweetest and kindest people you will ever meet," she said. "He stands firmly to his beliefs, and he believes in freedom and freedom of speech. He's always been a person that someone would look up to."
Stephanie McCoy
Paralegal
Cohen Kennedy Dowd & Quigley, P.C.
The Camelback Esplanade I
2425 East Camelback Road, Suite 1100
Phoenix, AZ 85016
Ph. 602.252.8400
www.ckdqlaw.com
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Popular on ASU campus, he's no longer welcome in U.S.
Sarah Muench
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 20, 2006 12:00 AM
Former Arizona State University student body president Yaser Alamoodi was closing in on his college diploma. But earlier this month, just days before Sept. 11, five U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents banged on his door and placed him in handcuffs. While he sits in a detention center in Eloy, waiting to be deported to acountry he has never even visited, his lawyer and national groups arefighting to ensure he stays in the U.S.
"Never in a million years did I think what I would joke about wouldactually happen," Alamoodi said in an interview Tuesday via phone.
The detention of the 29-year-old Tempe resident, originally from Saudi Arabia, is a product of beefed-up post-9/11 immigration enforcement. Alamoodi awoke Sept. 6 at 6 a.m. to ICE agents ready to take him to the deportation center, he said. They said his immigration papers were denied after his wife, anAmerican, revoked his immigration petition in August as part of the process of their divorce, according to Alamoodi and ICE. He had to leave the country, and the agents transported him to Eloy, where he has been ever since.
His swift apprehension resulted from a newly created Compliance Enforcement Unit in Phoenix, which deals with people who entered the country legally but violated their status, such as overstayed their visas, said Russell Ahr, an ICE spokesman. "There's a dedicated unit . . . that processed that he was ineligible for residency . . . that resulted in the location and apprehension that he was in violation of laws of the United States," Ahr said.
Alamoodi thinks he was picked up so quickly because he is from Saudi Arabia, and he stressed to ICE agents that he is not a threat: "I'm extremely secular. I was the president of my university. I have a commitment to everything America stands for, women's rights to civil rights."
The outspoken, active and well-known ASU student came to the United States in 1996. His citizenship and passport are from Yemen, where his father was born, but Alamoodi has never been there, he said. If he's deported, that's where he'll be forced to go. Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, the same year he started at ASU, Alamoodi has had his share of encounters with the federal authorities.
In 2002, he returned to Saudi Arabia to visit family in the summer and was unable to return for eight months because of security checks, he said.
And in the summer of 2004, an agent from the Joint Task Force on Terrorism showed up at his Tempe home to question him, asking if he knew of any upcoming terrorist attacks, he said. Alamoodi was also a columnist for ASU's student newspaper, the State Press.
The last time he went to visit family, his name showed up on a no-fly list when he was supposed to come back, but officials changed it while he was at the airport, he said.
In August, he and his wife, Joy Hepp, whom he met at ASU, decided they would end their marriage. The marriage had guaranteed Alamoodi's stay in the United States and his pending green card. Hepp went to ICE and revoked Alamoodi's immigration papers as part of their divorce proceedings, she said, and a month later, agents arrested him.
Alamoodi and his lawyer think he has little chance to stay in the country unless his wife stops the divorce process.
"There are tons of people in a situation like his and Immigration will come into contact with them and say they don't have enough room for them and let them go," said Alamoodi's immigration attorney, Eric Bjotvedt. "To me, this is like they are singling him out."
Bjotvedt said that usually the government sends a letter saying people have a certain number of days to voluntarily leave the country before agents pick them up for deportation. Alamoodi said he never received such a letter.
Ahr said Alamoodi's quick arrest had nothing to with the fact that he is from a "country of interest," or a list of 25 predominantly Muslim countries the U.S. government created post-9/11 as part of the counter-terrorism Patriot Act.
"We are going to act on the person no matter where they come from," Ahr said. "I don't think statistically the number of people from countries of interest removed are any way skewed whatsoever. The vast majority are not from countries of interest."
Bjotvedt said Alamoodi could remain in Eloy for at least six months, possibly for years, to fight his deportation. Or he could go to Yemen and attempt to get a student visa to return to ASU to finish his studies, which could be difficult, considering his current status. Or he could regain his status if his wife stops the divorce.
An immigration attorney unrelated to the case said Alamoodi's deportation is part of the post-9/11 world.
"It's not surprising. His attorney might make a big fuss about why, why, why, but Congress and the executive branch concluded that certain people from certain countries needed to register," Randy Tunac said. "All this surprise and confusion aside, he's a clear person to be removed, and so the question now is if the laws in and of themselves are fair."
The American-Arab Anti-discrimination Committee, the Muslim American Society and friends are raising money to help pay Alamoodi's legal fees.
Mae Innabi, chair of the Phoenix chapter of the committee and a friend of Alamoodi, said she never thought it would happen to him.
"Not to Yaser. Yaser is probably one of the sweetest and kindest people you will ever meet," she said. "He stands firmly to his beliefs, and he believes in freedom and freedom of speech. He's always been a person that someone would look up to."
Stephanie McCoy
Paralegal
Cohen Kennedy Dowd & Quigley, P.C.
The Camelback Esplanade I
2425 East Camelback Road, Suite 1100
Phoenix, AZ 85016
Ph. 602.252.8400
www.ckdqlaw.com
The information contained in this electronic mail is intended only for
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confidential and protected from disclosure. If the reader of this
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The Catus middle finger
Right Click on the question and click on open in new window to see the picture.
Love Thy Neighbor
Claim: A disgruntled Utah homeowner installed a decorative cactus-shaped vent cover resembling an extended middle finger to get back at his neighbors.
Status: True.
Example: [Collected via e-mail, 2006]
Read the story below before you look at the pictures.
This is a true story, it happened in Utah and was on the news!
I thought each of you could use a little comic relief today. Here's the story. A city councilman, Mark Easton, lives in this neighborhood. He had a beautiful view of the east mountains, until a new neighbor purchased the lot below his house and built.
Apparently, the new home was 18 inches higher than the ordinances would allow, so Mark Easton, mad about his lost view, went to the city to make sure they enforced the lower roof line ordinance. Mark and his new neighbor had some great arguments about this as you can imagine — not great feelings. The new neighbor had to drop the roof line — no doubt at great expense.
Recently, Mark Easton called the city and informed them that his new neighbor had installed some vents on the side of his home. Mark didn't like the look of these vents and asked the city to investigate. When they went to Mark's home to see the vent view, this is what they found ... (see attached picture)
Origins: The origin of these photographs is essentially as described above, something that arose over a dispute between neighbors in the southwest Salt Lake Valley community of Riverton over an adjacent property owner's construction work on his home.
The conflict started in 2005 when Darren Wood excavated dirt from a hill on which the homes of his neighbors, Mark Easton and Stan Torgersen, sat. The Eastons and Torgersens were concerned about the stability of the hill and contacted city officials, who ordered Wood to have a soil test performed. Wood was disgruntled by the decision because the previous owner had already done a soil test, and performing it again would cost him $3,000 and delay his construction project by four months.
Then, when Wood began raising the frame for his house around mid-2006, his neighbors were again concerned because the structure rose higher than the rooftops of the other homes around his lot and partially obstructed their view of nearby mountains. Easton and Torgersen again asked city officials to intervene because they believed Wood's house exceeded the maximum height allowed by local building code. Although Wood conceded that his house might have exceeded the height limit by about a foot, he was again disgruntled because he maintained that once the house was completed and the landscaping laid out, the home would fall within the code, and, in any case, the city had already approved his plans.
Feeling that he was being unfairly harrassed by his neighbors and upset that the construction interruptions they prompted had cost him an additional $25,000, on 15 August 2006 Wood created a visible symbol of his displeasure by installing the vent covering pictured above, which he described as a decorative piece of "abstract art" representing a cactus. His neighbors, of course, viewed the vent cover as a giant hand flipping them off, sending them back to city officials to complain about Wood's home for a third time.
Wood said he would remove the vent cover art if he received apologies from his neighbors. When, a week later, Mark Easton "expressed to him that I am sorry for any discomfort that I have caused his family or him, and that I had no intent to do any harm to him when I called the city with my concern about safety," Wood apparently found that sufficient and took down the controversial abstract "cactus."
Here is the link to see this article on the website with the pictures in all their glory just copy and paste it to your address bar. I highly recommand looking at this website.
http://www.snopes.com/photos/risque/ventcover.asp
When Can an Inmate 'Volunteer' for Death?
Howard J. Bashman
Special to Law.com
09-18-2006
Related: Bashman Archive
Last week, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that an inmate on Arizona's death row had knowingly and voluntarily abandoned his federal habeas corpus action challenging the imposition of the death penalty as punishment for having committed first-degree murder, armed robbery, kidnapping, aggravated assault, sexual assault and sexual abuse.
Notwithstanding the inmate's decision to forgo any appeal from the denial of his federal habeas action and to accept the death penalty as appropriate punishment, a majority on that panel held that permitting a state to execute a capital defendant without a full adjudication, including appellate review, of the inmate's federal habeas action, would violate the 8th Amendment.
Robert Charles Comer, the inmate in question, was convicted by a jury, but it was a trial court judge, sitting without a jury, who decided whether to impose a death sentence. The majority in the 9th Circuit ruling held that because the trial judge sentenced Comer to death at a proceeding where Comer was "nearly naked, bleeding, shackled, and exhausted," the death penalty was imposed in a manner that violated Comer's due process rights and that necessitated a resentencing.
Senior Circuit Judge Warren J. Ferguson was the author of the majority opinion, in which Circuit Judge Harry Pregerson joined. The third judge on the panel, Pamela Ann Rymer, issued a dissenting opinion that begins, "We need to -- and may only -- decide one question: whether death row inmate Robert Comer is competent to withdraw his appeal from denial of his petition for writ of habeas corpus and has done so knowingly and voluntarily. All of us agree that the answer to that question is yes. ... This means that this case is over, because Comer's waiver of further review of his habeas claims leaves no live controversy remaining between Comer and the State of Arizona."
The 9th Circuit's ruling in Comer v. Schriro raises some fascinating issues. First and foremost, does a federal appellate court have an affirmative duty to prevent a death row inmate from being executed in violation of the 8th Amendment even if the death row inmate himself competently and voluntarily seeks to abandon all legal challenges to his sentence? Second, does the 9th Circuit's "no waiver" rule require that federal habeas review occur for all state death row inmates, even those inmates who knowingly and intelligently decide not to initiate any federal habeas corpus proceeding? And third, why should this limitation on the right of a potentially prevailing litigant's ability to withdraw a federal court claim be limited to death row inmates?
Under the majority's logic, it would appear incumbent on all federal judges within the 9th Circuit, when reviewing a habeas challenge to a death sentence, to consider all possible arguments for setting aside the sentence, whether or not raised by the inmate, because anything less would presumably violate the 8th Amendment.
It's ironic that this sweeping 8th Amendment ruling, rejecting the right of a death penalty volunteer to control his own fate, should issue in a case where the particular due process error was likely inconsequential and also easily remedied. Because a trial judge, sitting without a jury, decided whether to sentence Comer to death, one can presume that Comer's appearance at the sentencing hearing had very little influence over the judge's choice of penalty. In other words, trial judges are not supposed to decide whether to sentence a convicted murder to death or life imprisonment based on the convict's physical appearance at the sentencing hearing. And because the 9th Circuit's decision merely orders a new sentencing hearing, the state of Arizona will presumably have little difficulty achieving a lawful resentencing of Comer to death during a proceeding at which he is properly clothed and neither bleeding, shackled nor exhausted.
A much more difficult case would have been presented if the inmate who was now a death penalty volunteer had withdrawn his federal court challenges to a death sentence that was clearly and indisputably imposed in violation of the 8th Amendment and where no amount of further proceedings could remedy that constitutional violation. For example, imagine an instance in which an individual sentenced to death for a murder committed before age 18 had decided to abandon all federal habeas proceedings before the death sentence could be overturned pursuant to the U.S. Supreme Court's recent holding that imposition of the death penalty in such instances violates the 8th Amendment. What is a federal court to do in such an instance? That's the tough question that the 9th Circuit's recent Comer ruling fails to squarely present.
I think that the proper answer in all of these cases would be to respect a death row litigant's wishes and allow the federal habeas corpus action to be dismissed. Nevertheless, the judges could explain that, had the action not been dismissed, the law would have compelled them to overturn the death sentence as unconstitutional. Such a ruling would squarely put the relevant governing body's executive branch on notice that it would be violating its own sworn obligation to adhere to constitutional commands by allowing the death sentence to be carried out.
In that way, a federal court would respect the inmate's wishes to withdraw his habeas challenge but, at the same time, would opine that the death sentence would have been set aside as unconstitutional had the challenge not been withdrawn. I doubt that the governor of any state would permit an execution to be carried out if it was obvious that doing so would violate existing 8th Amendment jurisprudence.
Similarly, in Comer's case, the 9th Circuit's majority could have respected the inmate's wishes to withdraw his habeas corpus appeal, and thereby not overturn his death sentence, while writing in their opinion that had the appeal not been withdrawn, then would have issued a decision setting aside the death penalty and requiring a resentencing because of the due process violation that occurred at the original sentencing. Would the state of Arizona, under those circumstances, have carried out an execution of an inmate whom the majority of a 9th Circuit panel had opined had been unconstitutionally sentenced to death, even though the statement technically constituted dicta? I would think not.
I am confident that if the state of Arizona seeks further review in Comer's case, either from an en banc 9th Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court, last week's divided decision holding that it violates the 8th Amendment to abide by the wishes of a so-called death penalty volunteer will be overturned. The three-judge panel majority's unwillingness to allow an unconstitutional execution to occur may be admirable from a policy perspective, but it exceeds their power as Article III judges to issue a ruling in the absence of any actual case or controversy. For better or worse, Article III's limits on judicial power contain no
exceptions applicable to the death penalty or 8th Amendment challenges.
Howard J. Bashman operates his own appellate litigation boutique in
Willow Grove, Pa., a suburb of Philadelphia. He can be reached via
e-mail at hjb@hjbashman.com. You can access his appellate Web log at
http://howappealing.law.com/.
Law.com's ongoing LEGAL MINDS article series highlights opinion and
analysis from our site's contributors and writers across the ALM network
of publications.
Stephanie McCoy
Paralegal
Cohen Kennedy Dowd & Quigley, P.C.
The Camelback Esplanade I
2425 East Camelback Road, Suite 1100
Phoenix, AZ 85016
Ph. 602.252.8400
www.ckdqlaw.com
The information contained in this electronic mail is intended only for
use of the entity or individual to whom it is addressed. This
electronic mail and the information it contains is privileged,
confidential and protected from disclosure. If the reader of this
message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any
dissemination, distribution, retransmission or copying of this message
is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error,
please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail or contact
tpatino@ckdqlaw.com .
Special to Law.com
09-18-2006
Related: Bashman Archive
Last week, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that an inmate on Arizona's death row had knowingly and voluntarily abandoned his federal habeas corpus action challenging the imposition of the death penalty as punishment for having committed first-degree murder, armed robbery, kidnapping, aggravated assault, sexual assault and sexual abuse.
Notwithstanding the inmate's decision to forgo any appeal from the denial of his federal habeas action and to accept the death penalty as appropriate punishment, a majority on that panel held that permitting a state to execute a capital defendant without a full adjudication, including appellate review, of the inmate's federal habeas action, would violate the 8th Amendment.
Robert Charles Comer, the inmate in question, was convicted by a jury, but it was a trial court judge, sitting without a jury, who decided whether to impose a death sentence. The majority in the 9th Circuit ruling held that because the trial judge sentenced Comer to death at a proceeding where Comer was "nearly naked, bleeding, shackled, and exhausted," the death penalty was imposed in a manner that violated Comer's due process rights and that necessitated a resentencing.
Senior Circuit Judge Warren J. Ferguson was the author of the majority opinion, in which Circuit Judge Harry Pregerson joined. The third judge on the panel, Pamela Ann Rymer, issued a dissenting opinion that begins, "We need to -- and may only -- decide one question: whether death row inmate Robert Comer is competent to withdraw his appeal from denial of his petition for writ of habeas corpus and has done so knowingly and voluntarily. All of us agree that the answer to that question is yes. ... This means that this case is over, because Comer's waiver of further review of his habeas claims leaves no live controversy remaining between Comer and the State of Arizona."
The 9th Circuit's ruling in Comer v. Schriro raises some fascinating issues. First and foremost, does a federal appellate court have an affirmative duty to prevent a death row inmate from being executed in violation of the 8th Amendment even if the death row inmate himself competently and voluntarily seeks to abandon all legal challenges to his sentence? Second, does the 9th Circuit's "no waiver" rule require that federal habeas review occur for all state death row inmates, even those inmates who knowingly and intelligently decide not to initiate any federal habeas corpus proceeding? And third, why should this limitation on the right of a potentially prevailing litigant's ability to withdraw a federal court claim be limited to death row inmates?
Under the majority's logic, it would appear incumbent on all federal judges within the 9th Circuit, when reviewing a habeas challenge to a death sentence, to consider all possible arguments for setting aside the sentence, whether or not raised by the inmate, because anything less would presumably violate the 8th Amendment.
It's ironic that this sweeping 8th Amendment ruling, rejecting the right of a death penalty volunteer to control his own fate, should issue in a case where the particular due process error was likely inconsequential and also easily remedied. Because a trial judge, sitting without a jury, decided whether to sentence Comer to death, one can presume that Comer's appearance at the sentencing hearing had very little influence over the judge's choice of penalty. In other words, trial judges are not supposed to decide whether to sentence a convicted murder to death or life imprisonment based on the convict's physical appearance at the sentencing hearing. And because the 9th Circuit's decision merely orders a new sentencing hearing, the state of Arizona will presumably have little difficulty achieving a lawful resentencing of Comer to death during a proceeding at which he is properly clothed and neither bleeding, shackled nor exhausted.
A much more difficult case would have been presented if the inmate who was now a death penalty volunteer had withdrawn his federal court challenges to a death sentence that was clearly and indisputably imposed in violation of the 8th Amendment and where no amount of further proceedings could remedy that constitutional violation. For example, imagine an instance in which an individual sentenced to death for a murder committed before age 18 had decided to abandon all federal habeas proceedings before the death sentence could be overturned pursuant to the U.S. Supreme Court's recent holding
I think that the proper answer in all of these cases would be to respect a death row litigant's wishes and allow the federal habeas corpus action to be dismissed. Nevertheless, the judges could explain that, had the action not been dismissed, the law would have compelled them to overturn the death sentence as unconstitutional. Such a ruling would squarely put the relevant governing body's executive branch on notice that it would be violating its own sworn obligation to adhere to constitutional commands by allowing the death sentence to be carried out.
In that way, a federal court would respect the inmate's wishes to withdraw his habeas challenge but, at the same time, would opine that the death sentence would have been set aside as unconstitutional had the challenge not been withdrawn. I doubt that the governor of any state would permit an execution to be carried out if it was obvious that doing so would violate existing 8th Amendment jurisprudence.
Similarly, in Comer's case, the 9th Circuit's majority could have respected the inmate's wishes to withdraw his habeas corpus appeal, and thereby not overturn his death sentence, while writing in their opinion that had the appeal not been withdrawn, then would have issued a decision setting aside the death penalty and requiring a resentencing because of the due process violation that occurred at the original sentencing. Would the state of Arizona, under those circumstances, have carried out an execution of an inmate whom the majority of a 9th Circuit panel had opined had been unconstitutionally sentenced to death, even though the statement technically constituted dicta? I would think not.
I am confident that if the state of Arizona seeks further review in Comer's case, either from an en banc 9th Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court, last week's divided decision holding that it violates the 8th Amendment to abide by the wishes of a so-called death penalty volunteer will be overturned. The three-judge panel majority's unwillingness to allow an unconstitutional execution to occur may be admirable from a policy perspective, but it exceeds their power as Article III judges to issue a ruling in the absence of any actual case or controversy. For better or worse, Article III's limits on judicial power contain no
exceptions applicable to the death penalty or 8th Amendment challenges.
Howard J. Bashman operates his own appellate litigation boutique in
Willow Grove, Pa., a suburb of Philadelphia. He can be reached via
e-mail at hjb@hjbashman.com. You can access his appellate Web log at
http://howappealing.law.com/.
Law.com's ongoing LEGAL MINDS article series highlights opinion and
analysis from our site's contributors and writers across the ALM network
of publications.
Stephanie McCoy
Paralegal
Cohen Kennedy Dowd & Quigley, P.C.
The Camelback Esplanade I
2425 East Camelback Road, Suite 1100
Phoenix, AZ 85016
Ph. 602.252.8400
www.ckdqlaw.com
The information contained in this electronic mail is intended only for
use of the entity or individual to whom it is addressed. This
electronic mail and the information it contains is privileged,
confidential and protected from disclosure. If the reader of this
message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any
dissemination, distribution, retransmission or copying of this message
is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error,
please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail or contact
tpatino@ckdqlaw.com
Prosecutor: Las Vegas teen said no one would miss murdered homeless man
By Matt Pordum
Court TV
LAS VEGAS — Before police ever asked Kirstin Blaise Lobato a single question about the mutilation and murder of a homeless man, she bowed her head and cried, saying, "I didn't think anyone would miss anybody like that." The man Lobato thought no one would miss was 43-year-old Duran Bailey, prosecutor Bill Kephart told jurors during his opening statement in Lobato's trial Thursday. The prosecutor alleges Lobato, who was then 18, encountered Bailey while she was on a three-day methamphetamine binge on July 8, 2001, when she ran out of drugs and money and attempted to exchange sex for drugs from Bailey. When Lobato, now 23, realized Bailey didn't have any drugs, she pulled out a butterfly knife, cut off his penis and killed him with a combination of stabbings and blows to the head with a baseball bat, according to Kephart. Bailey's injuries also included what the coroner determined was a postmortem stabbing to his anus. After a thorough investigation of the crime scene, however, police had no suspects, Kephart said.
They had no leads until July 20, when officers received a phone call from a woman in Northern Nevada asking if the police have any ongoing cases with a severed penis involved. The call came from Lobato's confidante and former teacher, who said Lobato came to her house "extremely upset about something she had done in Las Vegas." Kephart said police officers drove to Lobato's parents' home in Panaca, Nev., about 160 miles north of Las Vegas, and questioned the teen about the incident.
Lobato told them Bailey was "an older smelly black man, a person who smelled like alcohol and dirty diapers" whom she was trying to keep out of her mind. The prosecutor said Lobato was in her hometown for the Fourth of July celebration. But neighbors are expected to testify that, on July 5 and 6, Lobato fought with her mother about returning to Las Vegas.
Kephart contends Lobato drove to Las Vegas angry and looking for more methamphetamine when she came into contact with Bailey. The prosecutor said several of Lobato's friends will testify that she would "do anything she could do to get her hands on meth."
Other witnesses will testify that Bailey was known as someone who traded sex for drugs. But Lobato's attorney, Shari Greenberger, told jurors that Lobato never met the victim and was "160 miles away in Panaca" when the killing occurred. The defense attorney said witnesses and phone records will support her alibi. When Lobato was confiding in her former teacher and later talking to police, Greenberger said, she believed she was discussing a different incident weeks earlier in which she was sexually assaulted by another man.
The defense attorney contends the police took Lobato's story of being attacked and acting in self-defense and "twisted it into a confession" to the murder and mutilation of Bailey. She also pointed to a lack of physical evidence, saying DNA on gum at the scene, a foreign pubic hair found on Bailey, bloody shoeprints and tire tracks have all been shown to have no connection to Lobato.
Greenberger also offered another possible suspect — a woman named Diane Parker. Greenberger claims Parker was raped by Bailey one week before he was found dead, giving her or someone she knows a motive to kill him. Parker was at the crime scene and identified Bailey's body for police, Greenberger noted. Lobato was convicted of first-degree murder and sexual penetration of a corpse on May 18, 2002, and later sentenced to 40 to 100 years in prison.
In September 2004, however, the Nevada Supreme Court granted her a new trial, citing the trial judge's failure to admit evidence that could have weakened the credibility of a jailhouse informant.
Lobato's retrial is being covered live by Court TV Extra.
Copy and paste this link on your address bar to she the article on the website with any pictures it may have.
http://www.courttv.com/trials/lobato/091406_openings_ctv.html?cnn=yes
Court TV
LAS VEGAS — Before police ever asked Kirstin Blaise Lobato a single question about the mutilation and murder of a homeless man, she bowed her head and cried, saying, "I didn't think anyone would miss anybody like that." The man Lobato thought no one would miss was 43-year-old Duran Bailey, prosecutor Bill Kephart told jurors during his opening statement in Lobato's trial Thursday. The prosecutor alleges Lobato, who was then 18, encountered Bailey while she was on a three-day methamphetamine binge on July 8, 2001, when she ran out of drugs and money and attempted to exchange sex for drugs from Bailey. When Lobato, now 23, realized Bailey didn't have any drugs, she pulled out a butterfly knife, cut off his penis and killed him with a combination of stabbings and blows to the head with a baseball bat, according to Kephart. Bailey's injuries also included what the coroner determined was a postmortem stabbing to his anus. After a thorough investigation of the crime scene, however, police had no suspects, Kephart said.
They had no leads until July 20, when officers received a phone call from a woman in Northern Nevada asking if the police have any ongoing cases with a severed penis involved. The call came from Lobato's confidante and former teacher, who said Lobato came to her house "extremely upset about something she had done in Las Vegas." Kephart said police officers drove to Lobato's parents' home in Panaca, Nev., about 160 miles north of Las Vegas, and questioned the teen about the incident.
Lobato told them Bailey was "an older smelly black man, a person who smelled like alcohol and dirty diapers" whom she was trying to keep out of her mind. The prosecutor said Lobato was in her hometown for the Fourth of July celebration. But neighbors are expected to testify that, on July 5 and 6, Lobato fought with her mother about returning to Las Vegas.
Kephart contends Lobato drove to Las Vegas angry and looking for more methamphetamine when she came into contact with Bailey. The prosecutor said several of Lobato's friends will testify that she would "do anything she could do to get her hands on meth."
Other witnesses will testify that Bailey was known as someone who traded sex for drugs. But Lobato's attorney, Shari Greenberger, told jurors that Lobato never met the victim and was "160 miles away in Panaca" when the killing occurred. The defense attorney said witnesses and phone records will support her alibi. When Lobato was confiding in her former teacher and later talking to police, Greenberger said, she believed she was discussing a different incident weeks earlier in which she was sexually assaulted by another man.
The defense attorney contends the police took Lobato's story of being attacked and acting in self-defense and "twisted it into a confession" to the murder and mutilation of Bailey. She also pointed to a lack of physical evidence, saying DNA on gum at the scene, a foreign pubic hair found on Bailey, bloody shoeprints and tire tracks have all been shown to have no connection to Lobato.
Greenberger also offered another possible suspect — a woman named Diane Parker. Greenberger claims Parker was raped by Bailey one week before he was found dead, giving her or someone she knows a motive to kill him. Parker was at the crime scene and identified Bailey's body for police, Greenberger noted. Lobato was convicted of first-degree murder and sexual penetration of a corpse on May 18, 2002, and later sentenced to 40 to 100 years in prison.
In September 2004, however, the Nevada Supreme Court granted her a new trial, citing the trial judge's failure to admit evidence that could have weakened the credibility of a jailhouse informant.
Lobato's retrial is being covered live by Court TV Extra.
Copy and paste this link on your address bar to she the article on the website with any pictures it may have.
http://www.courttv.com/trials/lobato/091406_openings_ctv.html?cnn=yes
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Check out Mexican meth fills gap in U.S. market
Crystal cartels alter face of U.S. meth epidemic
International gangs fill void after cops crack down on makeshift home labs
By Kari Huus
Reporter
MSNBC
Updated: 12:28 a.m. ET Sept 18, 2006
After years of raiding “redneck labs” and arresting local methamphetamine cooks, drug squads in Georgia appeared to be gaining the upper hand on the makeshift operations in 2004, when the number of busts declined sharply from a peak of more than 800 the previous year. But the glow of success quickly faded as international drug cartels distributing a purer form of the drug known as "ice" rushed in to fill the void. “The labs start to decline and you’re happy,” said Phil Price, special agent in charge of regional drug enforcement for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. “But the imported meth has really hit us hard. ... It's cheaper now to buy it on the streets." Price said the shift has made the drug so abundant that distributors now commonly "front" up to 2 pounds of ice to street dealers on credit. It also has turned the Atlanta area into a distribution hub for the East Coast, he said. “Unfortunately, I think we’re going to go through what Miami went through with cocaine,” he said.
What is happening in Georgia is occurring in many other states, the unexpected result of a strong law enforcement push against home meth labs and new limits on the purchase of cold remedies used to make the drug. The state's dilemma also illustrates the difficulties of America’s battle with methamphetamine, which has addictive powers comparable to crack cocaine, but is in many ways harder to control.
Ingredients easy to obtain, tough to police
The so-called “precursor chemicals” used to make meth — pseudoephedrine and ephedrine —are inexpensive and widely available in common cold and allergy medications. That ubiquity makes it impossible for law enforcement to concentrate on specific regions or countries in an effort to choke off the supply. “Unlike drugs derived from organic materials, such as cocaine or heroin, (methamphetamine) production is not limited to a specific geographic region,” Anne Patterson, assistant secretary of the State Department's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, testified before the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee in June. Its effects also ensure a steady demand. Once inhaled, injected or smoked, meth creates euphoria and energy that can last for several days. But the frenzied flights are followed by depression and exhaustion that drive the need for the next fix. Eventually, the relentless pursuit of meth drives many users out of their middle- and upper-class lives into a grim existence of crime, poverty and deteriorating health on the streets.
Crackdown on medication purchases
Alarmed by the spread of the drug across the United States from its initial foothold on the West Coast, many communities have passed ordinances to made it harder for home cooks to buy large quantities of cold and allergy medications. Congress entered the fray by passing the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act in March as part of the renewal of the anti-terror Patriot Act, placing restrictions on retail pseudoephedrine purchases across the nation. The federal government also has stepped up support on the front lines, funding training for local law enforcement agencies to help them find and safely dismantle the highly toxic meth labs. As a result, lab seizures nationwide peaked in 2003 at more than 17,000 and have declined by nearly a third, to around 12,000 in 2005, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. But the battle gets tougher as it shifts to the global theater.
Crystal cartels alter face of U.S. meth epidemic
Helping police global trade
At the moment, federal drug enforcement officials say most of the meth smuggled into the United States is produced in Mexico, using chemicals diverted by the ton from pharmaceutical companies in Asia. But as the global spread of the drug illustrates, there are many routes to market. Recognizing the new international threat, Washington is taking legislative and diplomatic initiatives to ensure cooperation from the global players in the meth trade — manufacturing centers like Mexico and the world's biggest producers of pseudoephedrine and ephedrine, China, India and Germany. At the United Nations, the U.S. pushed through a resolution that calls on countries to submit a yearly estimate of their legitimate need for the chemicals and to provide information on all exports -- both bulk shipments and those of pharmaceutical preparations. Previously those ingredients were uncontrolled, a gaping loophole in regulations that allowed millions of tablets containing pseudoephedrine and ephedrine to be sold on the black market.
Under the Combat Methamphetamine act, the State Department also is required to certify that the biggest exporters and importers of the chemicals cooperate with the United States, with the threat of withdrawal of foreign aid hanging over those that do not. The U.S. initiative is working to a degree. The DEA says the U.S. has seen increasing cooperation from Mexico, China, India and Germany in sharing intelligence and conducting joint enforcement operations. The urgency of the mission is clear because they too are witnessing a rising tide of meth abuse, the DEA says. But political will doesn't always translate into control over agile drug trafficking organizations.
“We're seeing ephedrine shipped from India and China to South Africa and then from there to South and Central America,” DEA administrator Karen Tandy said in a recent speech in Canada. “Chinese ephedrine is being diverted through Cairo on its way to Mexico. And ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are being diverted in other African countries including Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya and Mozambique.”
Mexican authorities say that despite such criminal resourcefulness, limits imposed in 2004 on imports of pseudoephedrine and ephedrine and restrictions on the ports that shippers can use are paying off. The Federal Commission for Health Concerns told NBC this month that legal imports of pseudoephedrine have been more than halved, with 72 tons imported in the first nine months of 2006 compared to a total of 216 tons in 2004. Mexico also has strengthened security for movement and storage of these chemicals, though the precautions aren’t always sufficient to stop determined criminals. In late July, gunmen raided a pharmaceutical company in Mexico City, killing four guards and stealing about 2,200 pounds of pseudoephedrine. Within weeks, the Mexican authorities seized about 220 pounds of finished meth at a "super lab" near Guadalajara. Mexican officials later said the chemicals used to make it had been imported legally from China, but did not explain how they were obtained by the meth producers.
Beijing battles local interests
China also is cracking down on the diversion of the chemicals from its massive pharmaceutical industry by beefing up security and regulations on pseudoephedrine producers, in part because domestic use of synthetic drugs including methamphetamine and ecstasy is climbing. In a marked change, U.S. officials say Beijing has started conducting joint investigations with U.S. drug agents and sharing trafficking intelligence. In a 2005 crackdown on the meth trade, China says it seized more than 130 tons of smuggled pseudoephedrine in nine months. But chaos and corruption at the local level frequently undermine Beijing's regulations and policies. A news report in June gave a glimpse of what Beijing is up against: Hong Kong's South China Morning Post said government drug agents arrested 100 police officers in Shenyang for protecting a local meth smuggler. Reports like that suggests the government's crackdown will have a limited impact, said David Bachman, a professor of Chinese affairs in the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington.
"It is the type of problem as in software piracy … where there are strong incentives not to comply … (including) profits, jobs," he said. "We’ve seen the stink the U.S. can make on (intellectual property rights), and how little progress has been made." The challenges of the global meth trade help explain why local officials in the United States still consider meth to be their biggest problem, according to a recent survey by the National Association of Counties. That certainly holds true in the greater Atlanta area, where officials are seeing clear evidence of the involvement of the Mexican gangs in the meth trade. On Aug. 16, officers seized a U.S.-record 174 pounds of the drug in Buford, Ga., about 30 miles northeast of Atlanta. The mark didn’t last long, as a week later police in nearby Gainesville arrested dealers with 341 pounds of ice — a stash worth an estimated $50 million on the street.
From Mexican ‘super labs’ to U.S. streets
Authorities said organized gangs had smuggled the drug into the U.S. from Mexico, where it was probably manufactured at "super labs." farther to the north, Sheriff Steve Wilson of Walker County, Ga., isn’t contemplating laying off any jailers even though his jurisdiction on Georgia's northern border with Tennessee is currently experiencing a breather in the meth epidemic. At the height of what he calls the war against “redneck” labs” making meth, Wilson said his jail — capacity 210 — was jammed with 230 inmates, most of them in for meth production and related crimes. But even though the inmate population is down to 150, Wilson is bracing for the next wave of meth crime, convinced that the Mexican gangs that are plaguing counties to the south are even now reversing Sherman’s march on Atlanta during the Civil War.
"What we believe is going to happen is that we’ve become so strict on the purchase of pseudoephedrine … that we will see a lot more Mexican meth,” he said. “They’ll make it by hundreds of pounds. I know it’s coming."
NBC's Federico Adlercreutz and Laura Saravia contributed to this report from Mexico City.
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International gangs fill void after cops crack down on makeshift home labs
By Kari Huus
Reporter
MSNBC
Updated: 12:28 a.m. ET Sept 18, 2006
After years of raiding “redneck labs” and arresting local methamphetamine cooks, drug squads in Georgia appeared to be gaining the upper hand on the makeshift operations in 2004, when the number of busts declined sharply from a peak of more than 800 the previous year. But the glow of success quickly faded as international drug cartels distributing a purer form of the drug known as "ice" rushed in to fill the void. “The labs start to decline and you’re happy,” said Phil Price, special agent in charge of regional drug enforcement for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. “But the imported meth has really hit us hard. ... It's cheaper now to buy it on the streets." Price said the shift has made the drug so abundant that distributors now commonly "front" up to 2 pounds of ice to street dealers on credit. It also has turned the Atlanta area into a distribution hub for the East Coast, he said. “Unfortunately, I think we’re going to go through what Miami went through with cocaine,” he said.
What is happening in Georgia is occurring in many other states, the unexpected result of a strong law enforcement push against home meth labs and new limits on the purchase of cold remedies used to make the drug. The state's dilemma also illustrates the difficulties of America’s battle with methamphetamine, which has addictive powers comparable to crack cocaine, but is in many ways harder to control.
Ingredients easy to obtain, tough to police
The so-called “precursor chemicals” used to make meth — pseudoephedrine and ephedrine —are inexpensive and widely available in common cold and allergy medications. That ubiquity makes it impossible for law enforcement to concentrate on specific regions or countries in an effort to choke off the supply. “Unlike drugs derived from organic materials, such as cocaine or heroin, (methamphetamine) production is not limited to a specific geographic region,” Anne Patterson, assistant secretary of the State Department's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, testified before the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee in June. Its effects also ensure a steady demand. Once inhaled, injected or smoked, meth creates euphoria and energy that can last for several days. But the frenzied flights are followed by depression and exhaustion that drive the need for the next fix. Eventually, the relentless pursuit of meth drives many users out of their middle- and upper-class lives into a grim existence of crime, poverty and deteriorating health on the streets.
Crackdown on medication purchases
Alarmed by the spread of the drug across the United States from its initial foothold on the West Coast, many communities have passed ordinances to made it harder for home cooks to buy large quantities of cold and allergy medications. Congress entered the fray by passing the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act in March as part of the renewal of the anti-terror Patriot Act, placing restrictions on retail pseudoephedrine purchases across the nation. The federal government also has stepped up support on the front lines, funding training for local law enforcement agencies to help them find and safely dismantle the highly toxic meth labs. As a result, lab seizures nationwide peaked in 2003 at more than 17,000 and have declined by nearly a third, to around 12,000 in 2005, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. But the battle gets tougher as it shifts to the global theater.
Crystal cartels alter face of U.S. meth epidemic
Helping police global trade
At the moment, federal drug enforcement officials say most of the meth smuggled into the United States is produced in Mexico, using chemicals diverted by the ton from pharmaceutical companies in Asia. But as the global spread of the drug illustrates, there are many routes to market. Recognizing the new international threat, Washington is taking legislative and diplomatic initiatives to ensure cooperation from the global players in the meth trade — manufacturing centers like Mexico and the world's biggest producers of pseudoephedrine and ephedrine, China, India and Germany. At the United Nations, the U.S. pushed through a resolution that calls on countries to submit a yearly estimate of their legitimate need for the chemicals and to provide information on all exports -- both bulk shipments and those of pharmaceutical preparations. Previously those ingredients were uncontrolled, a gaping loophole in regulations that allowed millions of tablets containing pseudoephedrine and ephedrine to be sold on the black market.
Under the Combat Methamphetamine act, the State Department also is required to certify that the biggest exporters and importers of the chemicals cooperate with the United States, with the threat of withdrawal of foreign aid hanging over those that do not. The U.S. initiative is working to a degree. The DEA says the U.S. has seen increasing cooperation from Mexico, China, India and Germany in sharing intelligence and conducting joint enforcement operations. The urgency of the mission is clear because they too are witnessing a rising tide of meth abuse, the DEA says. But political will doesn't always translate into control over agile drug trafficking organizations.
“We're seeing ephedrine shipped from India and China to South Africa and then from there to South and Central America,” DEA administrator Karen Tandy said in a recent speech in Canada. “Chinese ephedrine is being diverted through Cairo on its way to Mexico. And ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are being diverted in other African countries including Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya and Mozambique.”
Mexican authorities say that despite such criminal resourcefulness, limits imposed in 2004 on imports of pseudoephedrine and ephedrine and restrictions on the ports that shippers can use are paying off. The Federal Commission for Health Concerns told NBC this month that legal imports of pseudoephedrine have been more than halved, with 72 tons imported in the first nine months of 2006 compared to a total of 216 tons in 2004. Mexico also has strengthened security for movement and storage of these chemicals, though the precautions aren’t always sufficient to stop determined criminals. In late July, gunmen raided a pharmaceutical company in Mexico City, killing four guards and stealing about 2,200 pounds of pseudoephedrine. Within weeks, the Mexican authorities seized about 220 pounds of finished meth at a "super lab" near Guadalajara. Mexican officials later said the chemicals used to make it had been imported legally from China, but did not explain how they were obtained by the meth producers.
Beijing battles local interests
China also is cracking down on the diversion of the chemicals from its massive pharmaceutical industry by beefing up security and regulations on pseudoephedrine producers, in part because domestic use of synthetic drugs including methamphetamine and ecstasy is climbing. In a marked change, U.S. officials say Beijing has started conducting joint investigations with U.S. drug agents and sharing trafficking intelligence. In a 2005 crackdown on the meth trade, China says it seized more than 130 tons of smuggled pseudoephedrine in nine months. But chaos and corruption at the local level frequently undermine Beijing's regulations and policies. A news report in June gave a glimpse of what Beijing is up against: Hong Kong's South China Morning Post said government drug agents arrested 100 police officers in Shenyang for protecting a local meth smuggler. Reports like that suggests the government's crackdown will have a limited impact, said David Bachman, a professor of Chinese affairs in the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington.
"It is the type of problem as in software piracy … where there are strong incentives not to comply … (including) profits, jobs," he said. "We’ve seen the stink the U.S. can make on (intellectual property rights), and how little progress has been made." The challenges of the global meth trade help explain why local officials in the United States still consider meth to be their biggest problem, according to a recent survey by the National Association of Counties. That certainly holds true in the greater Atlanta area, where officials are seeing clear evidence of the involvement of the Mexican gangs in the meth trade. On Aug. 16, officers seized a U.S.-record 174 pounds of the drug in Buford, Ga., about 30 miles northeast of Atlanta. The mark didn’t last long, as a week later police in nearby Gainesville arrested dealers with 341 pounds of ice — a stash worth an estimated $50 million on the street.
From Mexican ‘super labs’ to U.S. streets
Authorities said organized gangs had smuggled the drug into the U.S. from Mexico, where it was probably manufactured at "super labs." farther to the north, Sheriff Steve Wilson of Walker County, Ga., isn’t contemplating laying off any jailers even though his jurisdiction on Georgia's northern border with Tennessee is currently experiencing a breather in the meth epidemic. At the height of what he calls the war against “redneck” labs” making meth, Wilson said his jail — capacity 210 — was jammed with 230 inmates, most of them in for meth production and related crimes. But even though the inmate population is down to 150, Wilson is bracing for the next wave of meth crime, convinced that the Mexican gangs that are plaguing counties to the south are even now reversing Sherman’s march on Atlanta during the Civil War.
"What we believe is going to happen is that we’ve become so strict on the purchase of pseudoephedrine … that we will see a lot more Mexican meth,” he said. “They’ll make it by hundreds of pounds. I know it’s coming."
NBC's Federico Adlercreutz and Laura Saravia contributed to this report from Mexico City.
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Homeland security: what do you think of this case?
‘Humiliation aside, the system worked’
Chicago prosecutors drop charges in penis pump-bomb airport mix-up
Updated: 2:57 p.m. ET Sept 14, 2006
CHICAGO - Prosecutors dropped all charges Wednesday against a man who claimed an airport security guard misheard him when she thought he'd said a sexual device in his backpack actually was a bomb. Mardin Amin, who appeared in a Cook County Circuit Court Wednesday, has said he actually told the female security guard at O'Hare International Airport last month that the small, black object was a "pump" — as in a penis pump. His attorney, Eileen O'Neill-Burke, said Thursday that "humiliation aside, the system worked" and the case has had the right outcome. Prosecutors chose to follow the lead of the Transportation Safety Administration, which recently concluded that the matter did not warrant prosecution, said Cook County state's attorney spokesman John Gorman. Amin, 29, of Skokie, had been charged with felony disorderly conduct and faced up to three years in prison if convicted. O'Neill-Burke explained earlier that her client was embarrassed to explain the object to the security guard in front of his mother, who was traveling with him — so he whispered. The guard misunderstood, and thought he had said "bomb," she said. The attorney added that Amin, an Iraqi, has a thick accent and she herself had trouble understanding him until he brought the pump to her office. She said she recently learned Arabic speakers sometimes have trouble distinguishing "p" and "b" sounds. O'Neill-Burke said Thursday that Amin's focus now is joining his two young children, ages 2 and 3, who traveled on to Iraq without him after the incident.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Chicago prosecutors drop charges in penis pump-bomb airport mix-up
Updated: 2:57 p.m. ET Sept 14, 2006
CHICAGO - Prosecutors dropped all charges Wednesday against a man who claimed an airport security guard misheard him when she thought he'd said a sexual device in his backpack actually was a bomb. Mardin Amin, who appeared in a Cook County Circuit Court Wednesday, has said he actually told the female security guard at O'Hare International Airport last month that the small, black object was a "pump" — as in a penis pump. His attorney, Eileen O'Neill-Burke, said Thursday that "humiliation aside, the system worked" and the case has had the right outcome. Prosecutors chose to follow the lead of the Transportation Safety Administration, which recently concluded that the matter did not warrant prosecution, said Cook County state's attorney spokesman John Gorman. Amin, 29, of Skokie, had been charged with felony disorderly conduct and faced up to three years in prison if convicted. O'Neill-Burke explained earlier that her client was embarrassed to explain the object to the security guard in front of his mother, who was traveling with him — so he whispered. The guard misunderstood, and thought he had said "bomb," she said. The attorney added that Amin, an Iraqi, has a thick accent and she herself had trouble understanding him until he brought the pump to her office. She said she recently learned Arabic speakers sometimes have trouble distinguishing "p" and "b" sounds. O'Neill-Burke said Thursday that Amin's focus now is joining his two young children, ages 2 and 3, who traveled on to Iraq without him after the incident.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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