Travis commissioners considering commuter shuttle for downtown workers: "By Suzannah Gonzales Travis County commissioners are expected to vote today ... use 10-passenger vans or buses running as far as Hays and Bastrop counties, ...
"
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
Bexar and Collin DA's races: Who gets to wear the bandoliers?
Bexar and Collin DA's races: Who gets to wear the bandoliers?: "Having recently rounded up some of the more interesting criminal-justice related and appellate judicial elections in the offing in 2010, I should add two District Attorneys' races to the list that I failed to mention:
Bexar County DA: Dems' time?
A couple of different folks have now told me to watch Democrat Nico Lahood out of Bexar County as a strong challenger to incumbent Republican DA Susan Reed. Offhand, his bio looks solid, and from a campaigning perspective, the fact that he sits on a major hospital board and is active with St. Mary's alumni and the local criminal defense bar perhaps indicates he can raise TV money. He'll need it. Susan Reed will be a tough opponent and that would be a big Democratic get in a year when the county party is in disarray. In 2006 Reed won with 60+% of the vote, but she's also taken a few hits since then and the countywide vote tipped consistently Democrat in 2008.
Collin County DA: Who gets to wear the bandolier?
Meanwhile, at Frisco DWI Lawyer we find the most detailed account I've seen of the candidate field for Collin County District Attorney, which is open this year after John Roach decided to call it quits. The GOP primary race looks to be a highly competitive contest: Greg Willis, a Perry appointed judge who resigned to run for DA; Jeff Bray, the senior legal advisor to the Plano Police Department; James Angelino, who is a former ADA from Denton County; and criminal defense lawyer and former Dallas ADA John Reed. Democrats have a pretty qualified challenger lined up in Rafael de la Garza, a former Dallas ADA and Western District Assistant US Attorney, but his candidacy on paper is a longshot; he'd need resources, luck, and maybe help from an inept opponent to win.
Question One to all these Collin County candidates: Do you support incumbent John Roach's efforts to outfit and deploy a DA Office SWAT-like tactical team using asset forfeiture money? Question Two: Will you rescind his decision? Really. That's not a joke or misprint. The outgoing DA is putting together his own tactical team equipped for forced entry for which he recently sought to purchase:
The Collin County Observer helpfully provides a link to the relevant agenda item and backup documentation.
"
Bexar County DA: Dems' time?
A couple of different folks have now told me to watch Democrat Nico Lahood out of Bexar County as a strong challenger to incumbent Republican DA Susan Reed. Offhand, his bio looks solid, and from a campaigning perspective, the fact that he sits on a major hospital board and is active with St. Mary's alumni and the local criminal defense bar perhaps indicates he can raise TV money. He'll need it. Susan Reed will be a tough opponent and that would be a big Democratic get in a year when the county party is in disarray. In 2006 Reed won with 60+% of the vote, but she's also taken a few hits since then and the countywide vote tipped consistently Democrat in 2008.
Collin County DA: Who gets to wear the bandolier?
Meanwhile, at Frisco DWI Lawyer we find the most detailed account I've seen of the candidate field for Collin County District Attorney, which is open this year after John Roach decided to call it quits. The GOP primary race looks to be a highly competitive contest: Greg Willis, a Perry appointed judge who resigned to run for DA; Jeff Bray, the senior legal advisor to the Plano Police Department; James Angelino, who is a former ADA from Denton County; and criminal defense lawyer and former Dallas ADA John Reed. Democrats have a pretty qualified challenger lined up in Rafael de la Garza, a former Dallas ADA and Western District Assistant US Attorney, but his candidacy on paper is a longshot; he'd need resources, luck, and maybe help from an inept opponent to win.
Question One to all these Collin County candidates: Do you support incumbent John Roach's efforts to outfit and deploy a DA Office SWAT-like tactical team using asset forfeiture money? Question Two: Will you rescind his decision? Really. That's not a joke or misprint. The outgoing DA is putting together his own tactical team equipped for forced entry for which he recently sought to purchase:
2 DPMS 'AP4' 5.56 caliber Panther CarbinesThose are gonna be the best-armed prosecutors I've ever heard of, but it could be the source of intra-office jealousy: Which prosecutors do and don't get helmets? And who gets to wear the bandoliers? I wonder if, for liability purposes, using a ram, bolt-cutter or 'hooligan tool' would qualify the DA's office for 'absolute immunity'?
2 Remington Model 870 12 gauge shotguns with 7 round magazines, pistol grips and folding stocks.
2 LED lights for the shotguns
2 Tactical Ballistic shields
10 Ballistic helmets
2 shoulder ammo bandoleers (a la Pancho Villa?)
2 Blackhawk Tactical backpack kits, includes a heavy duty ram, a bolt cutter and a hooligan tool (for breaking down doors).
6,000 rounds of 5.56 caliber NATO ammunition.
etc....
The Collin County Observer helpfully provides a link to the relevant agenda item and backup documentation.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Canadian Researcher “Crime is genetic”
Canadian Researcher “Crime is genetic”: "
Crime
Criminals might be “born to be bad,” genetically and inextricably pre-programmed at birth to engage in violent and other criminal behaviour, accumulating evidence suggests.
The concept of a “crime gene,” and the explanation “my genes made me do it,” are gaining in acceptance among many researchers. This development is generating novel challenges in criminal prosecutions.
In 1907, Sir Francis Galton first put forward the theory of “inheritance of criminal tendancies.” Since then, sophisticated studies have increasingly confirmed a genetic basis for some criminal actions.
“Genetics and molecular biology have provided some significant insights into behaviour associated with inherited disorders,” confirmed Joseph McInerney of the Foundation for Genetic Education and Counseling.
Recently, the Italian judiciary reduced the sentence of a convicted murderer on the grounds that his genes predisposed him to commit homicide.
“The odds of becoming a criminal are not equal at birth,” suggested Irving Gottesman of the University of Virginia.
Preliminary information indicates that most criminal behaviour could be inescapably inherited.
“Individuals with these genes could find themselves engaging in criminal activity,” suggested Caitlin Jones at Rochester Institute of Technology. “There is a genetic component to criminal behaviour.”
Increasingly, defence attorneys are requesting that judges admit evidence suggesting clients are genetically predisposed towards violent or other criminal actions — the so-called “DNA defence.”
At issue is a body of research linking criminal behaviour to certain inherited genes. A 2008 study at Hebrew University in Israel identified argenine vasopresser receptor-1 (AVPR1 gene) as a cause for “ruthless” behaviour. Research in 2009 by Rose McDermott at Brown University uncovered a “warrior gene” responsible for high levels of aggression in response to provocation.
In 1995, a Dutch study showed that males in a family whose members repeatedly engaged in crime had a mutated monoamine oxidase-A (MAOA) gene. Recently, Kevin Beaver’s research confirmed that boys with mutated MAOA genes are more likely to join gangs.
Last year, Guang Guo and colleagues showed the same MAOA variant generates violent delinquency. Research at the Civic Research Institute suggests MAOA is a “disinhibiting” gene, and mutations make people more likely to commit crimes.
According to Debrah Denno at Fordham Law School, “many people who commit homicides also have… relatives who are incarcerated.”
She explained that “genetic mitigation” can show that an offender might not be responsible for his actions.
Sarnoff Mednick at the University of California confirms that adopted children whose biological parents are criminals are much more likely to become criminals themselves, even if their adopted parents are law-abiding.
If criminals are genetically pre-programmed to commit crimes, then the assumption that incarceration might reshape criminal behaviour could be flawed. According to a 2003 ruling of the New York Supreme Court, genetic predispostion evidence raises the ugly matter of “future dangerousness.”
Of critical significance, as pointed out by philosopher Don Brock, is the conundrum that if an individual’s genes are a principle cause of behaviour, and if those genes are unalterable, and their effects unchangeable, is it justifiable to be held responsible for the resultant actions?
Robert Alison has a PhD in zoology and is based in Victoria, B.C.
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Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Police say man called 911 to report he murdered his mother
Police say man called 911 to report he murdered his mother: "SAN ANTONIO (AP) - Police say a 57-year-old San Antonio man who is accused of killing his mother called 911 to report the slaying.
Ralph Wayne Nunley remained in the Bexar County Detention Center on Wednesday on a murder charge. A jailer, who..."
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Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Sheriff accused in murder scheme urged to resign
Sheriff accused in murder scheme urged to resign: "
"
Federal charges that the longtime sheriff of Gallatin County in southern Illinois sold marijuana while in uniform seemed odd enough to county board chairman Randy Drone. But new allegations the sheriff plotted from jail to have someone killed made the case even stranger.
CIA agents a 'menace to themselves'
CIA agents a 'menace to themselves': "
• Attacks expose long-term US intelligence failings
• Obama launches inquiry into Christmas jet bomb
Long-term weaknesses in US intelligence-gathering have been ruthlessly exposed over the last fortnight by the Christmas Day airline plot and the Afghanistan suicide bombing that killed seven CIA officers, according to former and serving intelligence officers.
They are scathing about the way the operation in Afghanistan has been run and say it is part of an institutional weakness on the part of the CIA and other intelligence-gathering agencies.
The biggest crisis in intelligence-gathering since 9/11 has been brought about mainly because no single agency is in charge, they say, creating a situation in which about a dozen US intelligence agencies fight for their own turf.
The former officers were speaking as Barack Obama held an inquest at the White House into the communication breakdown between the CIA and other agencies that allowed the Nigerian bomb suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to come close to blowing up a US passenger plane on Christmas Day.
A report published on the eve of that meeting by the deputy head of military intelligence, Maj Gen Michael Flynn, offered a damning assessment of intelligence-gathering in Afghanistan. He said the vast apparatus there was only marginally relevant. Analysts in Washington were so starved of information, that 'many say their jobs feel more like fortune-telling than detective work'.
Larry Johnson, a former CIA officer and counterterrorism agent, said the CIA had become 'sloppy' in its field intelligence gathering, and the suicide bombing at Khost in Afghanistan was part of that.
The CIA thought they had turned Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi, a Jordanian doctor, into one of their agents and it allowed him on to the base after he asked for a meeting, promising to provide information about al-Qaida. He then blew himself up.
A school friend, Mohammed Yousef, said Balawi had deceived family and friends, telling them in March he was going to Turkey for further medical studies when he in fact travelled to Afghanistan to join the militants. He had wanted to die in a holy war, and wrote angry articles on the web calling for jihad against the US and Israel.
Johnson pointed to tactical failures at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Afghanistan, where the attack was made. He said an intelligence source as significant as Balawi should never have been brought inside the base, because it risked exposing him. Balawi should also have been debriefed by a much smaller group than the dozen or so CIA employees present when he set off the bomb.
He described those errors as symptomatic of a larger trend within the agency of putting desk workers into the field. 'You have a lot of inexperienced people being shoved out into the field without adequate mentoring and without proper training,' Johnson said.
The CIA has suffered one crisis after another since its inception in the middle of the last century. One of its high points was its claim to have contributed to winning the cold war, but a low point was reached with the failure to prevent 9/11. Last year the Obama administration revealed details of waterboarding and other torture, and there were newspaper reports about links between the CIA and the private contractor Blackwater.
Pat Lang, a veteran of military intelligence, who was head of the analysis and clandestine human intelligence for the Defence Intelligence Agency, echoed Johnson's criticism of the Khost operation.
'A number of basic rules were violated. One that comes to mind is you never trust foreign agent assets,' he said.
'I think it is a very big crisis. It shows that the level of skill in operations has declined so far that they are a menace to themselves,' said Lang.
According to Lang, one of the major flaws in intelligence gathering was the failure of the Bush administration after 9/11 to put one agency in overall charge.
Gary Berntsen, a former senior CIA officer who served in the Middle East, said a hiring freeze under President Clinton had left the CIA with a lack of experienced senior intelligence gatherers.
'When a bunch of guys like me retired all at 50, there's a gap. And now we've got a lot of inexperienced people coming on who are being forced into senior positions in the field before they're ready.'
But he disputed suggestions that the bombing at the base in Khost indicated systemic problems within the agency. 'The agency deals with these sorts of things every single day successfully, and this is an individual case where they failed. They got beat on this case, they got beat bad ... My heart goes out to the families, but this does not indicate that the agency is in crisis in any way.'
He also criticised Obama's selection of Leon Panetta to head the CIA, noting his lack of intelligence experience. 'I'm sure he's learning every day, but you don't need to be learning on the job. For anyone to say it doesn't have an effect is dishonest.'
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