DA: Prosecuting this young man would be a waste of time
By KVAL.com staff
EUGENE, Ore. - A man shot by police after firing shots at cars in a mall parking lot will not face criminal charges because he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder at the time of the incident, according to the district attorney.
Michael Thomas Mason, 27, was in the midst of a PTSD-related meltdown when he fired a gun at cars in the Valley River Center mall parking lot, District Attorney Alex Gardner said Tuesday.
"There's no reason to believe that he was even directly threatening other people," Gardner said.
Bullets hit one and possibly two cars, Gardner said. Mason or his family will pay to repair the damages, he said.
"Obviously firing a gun inside city limits puts people at risk," he added. "Obviously there has to be immediate law enforcement response to that. Obviously law enforcement has to prevent him from that.
"When he had this meltdown, it was just that," Gardner said. "It's a meltdown, and he's not recognizing family members, he's not responsive to their conversations."
Mason served in Iraq and witnessed the deaths of dozens of his fellow soldiers, his family said in a prepared statement.
"We hear a lot about post-traumatic stress, and a lot of people make claims about it and in some cases where it doesn't seem to be merited," Gardner said. "There is no question but that this was a real episode."
read more here
Prosecuting this young man would be a waste of time
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Marine home on leave, wife attacked by teens after showing of "Little Fockers"
UPDATE to this story
Attack on Marine at Florida Theater Comes Months After Brother's Death at Navy Hospital
By Cristina Corbin
Published December 30, 2010
FoxNews.com
The recent attack on a Marine and his wife outside a Florida movie theater is the latest indignity suffered by a family still reeling over the accidental death this year of a brother at a U.S. naval hospital.
Federico Freire, a 28-year-old Marine, and his wife, Kalyn, were attacked Saturday by a mob of unruly teenagers after the couple asked the group to be quiet during a movie at a Bradenton, Fla., cinema, as FoxNews.com reported Wednesday.
Police found Freire and his wife "battered" in the theater parking lot, and they arrested four juveniles and one adult in the violent altercation.
For Freire, who had just returned from Iraq, the melee that knocked his wife to the ground was the latest woe for a family still devastated by the death of his brother, Lance Cpl. Ezequiel Freire.
Ezequiel Freire, a 20-year-old Marine who spent eight months in Afghanistan, died Feb. 13 after doctors served him a deadly cocktail of narcotics and sedatives as he awaited cancer treatment at Portsmouth Naval Medical Center in Virginia, his family said.
"I was the one who found him dead," Federico Freire said in an interview Thursday. "He was my brother, my best friend."
Read more: Attack on Marine at Florida Theater
Marine, wife attacked by teens after showing of "Little Fockers"
MANATEE, Fla. (AP) — A group of unruly teenagers attacked a 27-year-old Marine and his wife who had asked them to be quiet during a Christmas night showing of "Little Fockers."
The attack happened as the couple left the theater near Bradenton Saturday night. Authorities say the fight attracted about 300 bystanders.
Federico Freire, home on leave from Afghanistan, says they left the theater shortly after the teens were asked to leave.
read more here
Marine, wife attacked by teens
Attack on Marine at Florida Theater Comes Months After Brother's Death at Navy Hospital
By Cristina Corbin
Published December 30, 2010
FoxNews.com
The recent attack on a Marine and his wife outside a Florida movie theater is the latest indignity suffered by a family still reeling over the accidental death this year of a brother at a U.S. naval hospital.
Federico Freire, a 28-year-old Marine, and his wife, Kalyn, were attacked Saturday by a mob of unruly teenagers after the couple asked the group to be quiet during a movie at a Bradenton, Fla., cinema, as FoxNews.com reported Wednesday.
Police found Freire and his wife "battered" in the theater parking lot, and they arrested four juveniles and one adult in the violent altercation.
For Freire, who had just returned from Iraq, the melee that knocked his wife to the ground was the latest woe for a family still devastated by the death of his brother, Lance Cpl. Ezequiel Freire.
Ezequiel Freire, a 20-year-old Marine who spent eight months in Afghanistan, died Feb. 13 after doctors served him a deadly cocktail of narcotics and sedatives as he awaited cancer treatment at Portsmouth Naval Medical Center in Virginia, his family said.
"I was the one who found him dead," Federico Freire said in an interview Thursday. "He was my brother, my best friend."
Read more: Attack on Marine at Florida Theater
Marine, wife attacked by teens after showing of "Little Fockers"
MANATEE, Fla. (AP) — A group of unruly teenagers attacked a 27-year-old Marine and his wife who had asked them to be quiet during a Christmas night showing of "Little Fockers."
The attack happened as the couple left the theater near Bradenton Saturday night. Authorities say the fight attracted about 300 bystanders.
Federico Freire, home on leave from Afghanistan, says they left the theater shortly after the teens were asked to leave.
read more here
Marine, wife attacked by teens
Grandparents killed in accident after mobile home fire killed 3 grandchildren
Couple killed on way to plan funerals for three grandchildren
Tragedy added to tragedy Tuesday when an Ohio couple died in an accident on their way to help make funeral arrangements for their three grandchildren.
Marc and Misty Royce of Circleville were killed in a crash on a snowy road on their way to help Marc Royce's daughter, Kacey Stacey, plan funerals for her three children, who died in a mobile home fire over the weekend, CNN affiliate WBNS-TV reported.
Couple killed on way to plan funerals for three grandchildren
Tragedy added to tragedy Tuesday when an Ohio couple died in an accident on their way to help make funeral arrangements for their three grandchildren.
Marc and Misty Royce of Circleville were killed in a crash on a snowy road on their way to help Marc Royce's daughter, Kacey Stacey, plan funerals for her three children, who died in a mobile home fire over the weekend, CNN affiliate WBNS-TV reported.
Couple killed on way to plan funerals for three grandchildren
5 teenagers celebrating a birthday die in Florida motel room
5 found dead in Florida motel room
By the CNN Wire Staff
December 28, 2010 10:39 a.m. EST
5 teens mysteriously die in hotel
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Police say the teens were celebrating a birthday
Investigators believe carbon monoxide poisoning is to blame
The teens' car was running in a garage below the room
(CNN) -- Five teenagers who died of apparent carbon monoxide poisoning in a Hialeah, Florida, motel room had gathered to celebrate a birthday, police said Tuesday.
Although an official cause of death won't be released until autopsies are completed, the investigation so far shows the teenagers apparently died because they left a car with a troublesome starter running in a closed garage beneath their room, police spokesman Carl Zogby said.
"Unfortunately, whoever could tell us what the intent of leaving the car on (was) is dead," Zogby said. "But we are being told by some friends that it probably had starter engine trouble."
"All the evidence indicates clearly a carbon monoxide poisoning," he said, noting no alcohol or drugs were found in the room the five had rented at the Hotel Presidente.
Zogby identified the dead as Juchen C. Marctial, 19; Peterson Nazon, 17; Jonas Antenor, 17; Jean Pierre Ferdinand, 16; and Evans Charles, 19. All were from the same neighborhood north of Miami, according to police.
read more here
5 found dead in Florida motel room2
By the CNN Wire Staff
December 28, 2010 10:39 a.m. EST
5 teens mysteriously die in hotel
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Police say the teens were celebrating a birthday
Investigators believe carbon monoxide poisoning is to blame
The teens' car was running in a garage below the room
(CNN) -- Five teenagers who died of apparent carbon monoxide poisoning in a Hialeah, Florida, motel room had gathered to celebrate a birthday, police said Tuesday.
Although an official cause of death won't be released until autopsies are completed, the investigation so far shows the teenagers apparently died because they left a car with a troublesome starter running in a closed garage beneath their room, police spokesman Carl Zogby said.
"Unfortunately, whoever could tell us what the intent of leaving the car on (was) is dead," Zogby said. "But we are being told by some friends that it probably had starter engine trouble."
"All the evidence indicates clearly a carbon monoxide poisoning," he said, noting no alcohol or drugs were found in the room the five had rented at the Hotel Presidente.
Zogby identified the dead as Juchen C. Marctial, 19; Peterson Nazon, 17; Jonas Antenor, 17; Jean Pierre Ferdinand, 16; and Evans Charles, 19. All were from the same neighborhood north of Miami, according to police.
read more here
5 found dead in Florida motel room2
Monday, December 27, 2010
17,000 101st Airborne soldiers coming home
17,000 101st Airborne soldiers coming home
By Jake Lowary - The (Clarksville, Tenn.) Leaf-Chronicle via Gannett
Posted : Monday Dec 27, 2010 8:43:33 EST
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — Messages are already appearing on the facades and marquees of local businesses. Many in the community are excited.
About 17,000 soldiers — most of the 101st Airborne Division — are about to come home from war.
Clarksville is ready to offer a warm welcome. "I'm excited for Clarksville," says Mayor-elect Kim McMillan. "They're a part of our community, and we want to do what we can."
The 3rd Brigade Combat Team "Rakkasans" begin their return from Afghanistan in January. The 1st and 2nd BCTs, the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade and the 101st headquarters will be home in the spring, the 4th BCT in the summer.
This return will be the largest since 2003, when most of the division returned from the initial invasion of Iraq. Before that, the largest return came after Desert Storm and Desert Shield in the Gulf War of 1990-91, when the entire division returned, according to John O'Brien, historian for the 101st.
The summer of 2010 was a lethal one for the 101st, which lost 41 soldiers in Afghanistan between March and August. Nearly 400 were wounded during that time. Overall this year, the Army division known as the Screaming Eagles, formed ahead of the 1944 Allied invasion of Normandy, has lost 104 soldiers — or about 1 in 5 American deaths in Afghanistan. That is close to a toll of 105 deaths in Iraq during a 2005-06 deployment that was its deadliest year in combat since the Vietnam War.
By the time the 4th Brigade Combat Team deployed in August, the division's nearly 20,000 soldiers represented 20 percent of U.S. servicemembers in Afghanistan, who are battling Taliban and insurgent strongholds in advance of the planned withdrawal.
read more here
17,000 101st Airborne soldiers coming home
By Jake Lowary - The (Clarksville, Tenn.) Leaf-Chronicle via Gannett
Posted : Monday Dec 27, 2010 8:43:33 EST
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — Messages are already appearing on the facades and marquees of local businesses. Many in the community are excited.
About 17,000 soldiers — most of the 101st Airborne Division — are about to come home from war.
Clarksville is ready to offer a warm welcome. "I'm excited for Clarksville," says Mayor-elect Kim McMillan. "They're a part of our community, and we want to do what we can."
The 3rd Brigade Combat Team "Rakkasans" begin their return from Afghanistan in January. The 1st and 2nd BCTs, the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade and the 101st headquarters will be home in the spring, the 4th BCT in the summer.
This return will be the largest since 2003, when most of the division returned from the initial invasion of Iraq. Before that, the largest return came after Desert Storm and Desert Shield in the Gulf War of 1990-91, when the entire division returned, according to John O'Brien, historian for the 101st.
The summer of 2010 was a lethal one for the 101st, which lost 41 soldiers in Afghanistan between March and August. Nearly 400 were wounded during that time. Overall this year, the Army division known as the Screaming Eagles, formed ahead of the 1944 Allied invasion of Normandy, has lost 104 soldiers — or about 1 in 5 American deaths in Afghanistan. That is close to a toll of 105 deaths in Iraq during a 2005-06 deployment that was its deadliest year in combat since the Vietnam War.
By the time the 4th Brigade Combat Team deployed in August, the division's nearly 20,000 soldiers represented 20 percent of U.S. servicemembers in Afghanistan, who are battling Taliban and insurgent strongholds in advance of the planned withdrawal.
read more here
17,000 101st Airborne soldiers coming home
Bullet to back of head ruled suicide?
How does someone decide to commit suicide by putting a bullet into the back of their head?
Army says it was suicide; family of soldier not so sure
Amy Tirador: Work, life weren't easy, report says
ADAM ASHTON; Staff writer
First Sgt. Mickey Tirador’s assignment at the base meant they could share living quarters and spend the holidays together – an arrangement that most military couples would envy.
But Mickey Tirador’s arrival coincided with a decline in Amy Tirador’s temperament.
She started going to work late and leaving early, falling behind on her job of processing intelligence reports for Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division on its last assignment in Iraq. She seemed “different and defeated,” a major who knew her later told Army investigators.
Amy Tirador, 29, was found dead from a gunshot to the back of her head Nov. 4, 2009, in a small room that housed a power generator at the base. More than a year later, the cause of death – suicide or something else – is still the source of dispute between officials and her family.
Read more: Army says it was suicide
Homeless veteran says “It makes me very happy somebody cares about me”
Homeless veteran says “It makes me very happy somebody cares about me”
December 27, 2010 posted by Chaplain Kathie
“Somebody cares about me” seems like such a small thing but it is what all humans need to know. Someone cares enough about them being hungry enough to feed them. Someone cares enough about them to give them a place to sleep out of the cold. Someone cares enough about them that they help instead of judging.
read more here
Homeless veteran
December 27, 2010 posted by Chaplain Kathie
“Somebody cares about me” seems like such a small thing but it is what all humans need to know. Someone cares enough about them being hungry enough to feed them. Someone cares enough about them to give them a place to sleep out of the cold. Someone cares enough about them that they help instead of judging.
Homeless veterans get a break Group offers ex-servicemen stay at motelTwo days ago people celebrated the day Christ was born after weeks of shopping for gifts and decorating their homes. Hours spent cooking a feast to feed family and friends. All of this for the birth of Christ when the Bible does not say when He was born while the rest of the year few care about what He said.
BY R. NORMAN MOODY • FLORIDA TODAY • DECEMBER 26, 2010
TITUSVILLE — Jimmy Suggs lowered his head and wiped away tears as he spoke about spending Christmas away from his homeless camp in the woods on Merritt Island.
“It makes me very happy somebody cares about me,” he said.
The National Veterans Homeless Support with help from the community, businesses and local churches treated Suggs and 46 other homeless veterans to two nights in motel rooms, and gave them gifts of clothes, a tent, sleeping bags and other necessities for their return to wooded camps across Brevard County.
read more here
Homeless veteran
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Christmas light display honors a fallen soldier
Christmas light display honors a fallen soldier
December 26, 2010 | 2:00 pm
These lights flicker for a fallen son.
Altogether they number nearly 30,000 — tiny bulbs of red, green, white and blue that flash in sync with a melody from two speakers. Stretched around a home, a garage and the lawn ornaments in between, they make this Rancho Cucamonga residence sparkle from two streets away.
But the heart of the display is a more understated affair. Up in the small second-floor bedroom window, a projector shows hundreds of photos of military personnel. Among the young faces is Cpl. Matthew Wallace Creed, a 23-year-old with smiling brown eyes who was killed four years ago by a sniper in Baghdad.
read more here
Christmas light display honors a fallen soldier
December 26, 2010 | 2:00 pm
These lights flicker for a fallen son.
Altogether they number nearly 30,000 — tiny bulbs of red, green, white and blue that flash in sync with a melody from two speakers. Stretched around a home, a garage and the lawn ornaments in between, they make this Rancho Cucamonga residence sparkle from two streets away.
But the heart of the display is a more understated affair. Up in the small second-floor bedroom window, a projector shows hundreds of photos of military personnel. Among the young faces is Cpl. Matthew Wallace Creed, a 23-year-old with smiling brown eyes who was killed four years ago by a sniper in Baghdad.
read more here
Christmas light display honors a fallen soldier
Deadly year for Fort Campbell's casualty assistance center
Deadly Afghan year takes toll on 101st Airborne
(AP)
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) — The 101st Airborne Division, a force in America's major conflicts since World War II, is seeing its worst casualties in a decade as the U.S. surge in Afghanistan turns into the deadliest year in that war for the NATO coalition.
The Army division known as the Screaming Eagles, created ahead of the 1944 Allied invasion of Normandy, has lost 104 men this year — or about 1 in 5 American deaths in Afghanistan. That is close to a toll of 105 divisional deaths in Iraq during a 2005-2006 deployment that was its deadliest year in combat since Vietnam.
The 20,000-strong division from Fort Campbell has been fighting in two of Afghanistan's most violent regions, the south and the east, since it began deploying in February under President Barack Obama's plan to roll back the Taliban with more troops. This is also the first time the division has deployed in its entirety since Gen. David Petraeus led them during the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Few are as directly involved in dealing with each soldier's death as Kimberley McKenzie, the chief of Fort Campbell's casualty assistance center.
Among the first to be notified after a combat death, McKenzie and her nine staffers ensure families are swiftly informed, then help them over ensuing weeks and months to navigate a bureacratic maze of paperwork and decisions.
"We can get the calls at 2 o'clock in the morning, and that happens seven days a week," she said.
In her office, signs of the somber work are everywhere. Electronic bugles — which now replace live renditions of taps at many military funerals — are lined up in cases. A folded American flag, ready to be presented to a wife or a mother, sits on a desk. Wooden ceremonial display cases for a soldier's awards and decorations are stored atop filing cabinets. A large whiteboard on one wall displays the names of dozens of soldiers who have died this year.
McKenzie, 46, has been doing this job at Fort Campbell on the Tennessee-Kentucky state line since the 1990s, through the Desert Storm and Desert Shield operations against Iraq in 1990 and 1991 to the current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"I have been here so long, which can be a blessing and a curse because you know so many of the soldiers," she said.
After the initial call, her team hurries to find a soldier's family. From the moment the death of a soldier is confirmed with the Department of the Army, regulations give them just four hours to notify the primary next of kin.
Often it's a nationwide search for parents or spouses who are far from Fort Campbell. A family may have moved and not told the Army, listed information may be incorrect or the soldier may be estranged from relatives. Too often, she says, a family member is listed as "address unknown."
read more here
Deadly Afghan year takes toll on 101st Airborne
(AP)
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) — The 101st Airborne Division, a force in America's major conflicts since World War II, is seeing its worst casualties in a decade as the U.S. surge in Afghanistan turns into the deadliest year in that war for the NATO coalition.
The Army division known as the Screaming Eagles, created ahead of the 1944 Allied invasion of Normandy, has lost 104 men this year — or about 1 in 5 American deaths in Afghanistan. That is close to a toll of 105 divisional deaths in Iraq during a 2005-2006 deployment that was its deadliest year in combat since Vietnam.
The 20,000-strong division from Fort Campbell has been fighting in two of Afghanistan's most violent regions, the south and the east, since it began deploying in February under President Barack Obama's plan to roll back the Taliban with more troops. This is also the first time the division has deployed in its entirety since Gen. David Petraeus led them during the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Few are as directly involved in dealing with each soldier's death as Kimberley McKenzie, the chief of Fort Campbell's casualty assistance center.
Among the first to be notified after a combat death, McKenzie and her nine staffers ensure families are swiftly informed, then help them over ensuing weeks and months to navigate a bureacratic maze of paperwork and decisions.
"We can get the calls at 2 o'clock in the morning, and that happens seven days a week," she said.
In her office, signs of the somber work are everywhere. Electronic bugles — which now replace live renditions of taps at many military funerals — are lined up in cases. A folded American flag, ready to be presented to a wife or a mother, sits on a desk. Wooden ceremonial display cases for a soldier's awards and decorations are stored atop filing cabinets. A large whiteboard on one wall displays the names of dozens of soldiers who have died this year.
McKenzie, 46, has been doing this job at Fort Campbell on the Tennessee-Kentucky state line since the 1990s, through the Desert Storm and Desert Shield operations against Iraq in 1990 and 1991 to the current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"I have been here so long, which can be a blessing and a curse because you know so many of the soldiers," she said.
After the initial call, her team hurries to find a soldier's family. From the moment the death of a soldier is confirmed with the Department of the Army, regulations give them just four hours to notify the primary next of kin.
Often it's a nationwide search for parents or spouses who are far from Fort Campbell. A family may have moved and not told the Army, listed information may be incorrect or the soldier may be estranged from relatives. Too often, she says, a family member is listed as "address unknown."
read more here
Deadly Afghan year takes toll on 101st Airborne
ABC News:9 thousand homeless veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan
Coming Home Homeless: The New Homeless Among Veterans
Veterans From Iraq and Afghanistan Wars Seek Homes Upon Returning to America
2 comments By BOB WOODRUFF and IAN CAMERON
WASHINGTON, Dec 26, 2010
Jose Pagan is a decorated veteran who survived two tours of duty in Iraq as a road clearance specialist. Just three days after leaving the military he was homeless and living on the streets of the Bronx.
Jose says being homeless after his service is something he never would have imagined. "It was embarrassing," Pagan says.
"Honor, pride, duty, loyalty, all these things that we -- that kick in as a soldier, you know. And then to find yourself here," as he points to the park benches where he slept for almost two months.
Pagan is one of an estimated nine thousand returning servicemembers from Iraq and Afghanistan that the Department of Veterans Affairs estimates have been homeless.
read more here
The New Homeless Among Veterans
'This Week' Transcript: Gen Peter Chiarelli
Plus, the story of a New York Times reporter captured by the Taliban
AMANPOUR: IN THIS SEASON OF GIVING, SOME OF THOSE WHO HAVE GIVEN THE MOST, FIGHTING FOR THEIR COUNTRY HAVE COME UPON HARD TIMES.
RETURNING TO THE HOME OF THE BRAVE, FOR THOUSANDS OF MILITARY VETERANS, HAS MEANT NO HOME AT ALL.
MANY VETERANS OF AMERICA'S WARS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN ARE FINDING THEIR TRANSITION TO CIVILIAN LIFE OVERWHELMING.
SOMETIMES COMPLICATED BY POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER, SUBSTANCE ABUSE, UNEMPLOYMENT AND DIFFICULTY ADJUSTING TO ORDINARY LIFE AFTER THE EXTREME ENVIRONMENT OF COMBAT, THOUSANDS OF VETERANS HAVE BEEN LEFT HOMELESS.
read more here
'This Week' Transcript: Gen Peter Chiarelli
Veterans From Iraq and Afghanistan Wars Seek Homes Upon Returning to America
2 comments By BOB WOODRUFF and IAN CAMERON
WASHINGTON, Dec 26, 2010
Jose Pagan is a decorated veteran who survived two tours of duty in Iraq as a road clearance specialist. Just three days after leaving the military he was homeless and living on the streets of the Bronx.
Jose says being homeless after his service is something he never would have imagined. "It was embarrassing," Pagan says.
"Honor, pride, duty, loyalty, all these things that we -- that kick in as a soldier, you know. And then to find yourself here," as he points to the park benches where he slept for almost two months.
Pagan is one of an estimated nine thousand returning servicemembers from Iraq and Afghanistan that the Department of Veterans Affairs estimates have been homeless.
read more here
The New Homeless Among Veterans
'This Week' Transcript: Gen Peter Chiarelli
Plus, the story of a New York Times reporter captured by the Taliban
AMANPOUR: IN THIS SEASON OF GIVING, SOME OF THOSE WHO HAVE GIVEN THE MOST, FIGHTING FOR THEIR COUNTRY HAVE COME UPON HARD TIMES.
RETURNING TO THE HOME OF THE BRAVE, FOR THOUSANDS OF MILITARY VETERANS, HAS MEANT NO HOME AT ALL.
MANY VETERANS OF AMERICA'S WARS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN ARE FINDING THEIR TRANSITION TO CIVILIAN LIFE OVERWHELMING.
SOMETIMES COMPLICATED BY POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER, SUBSTANCE ABUSE, UNEMPLOYMENT AND DIFFICULTY ADJUSTING TO ORDINARY LIFE AFTER THE EXTREME ENVIRONMENT OF COMBAT, THOUSANDS OF VETERANS HAVE BEEN LEFT HOMELESS.
read more here
'This Week' Transcript: Gen Peter Chiarelli
Gov. Elect Scott needs to look at Veteran's Courts
This is a good start in addressing the growing justice crisis but while Scott's advisors are looking at pro-active ways of reducing the inmate population, they also need to look at a huge factor they are not talking about. Our veterans.
20 States already have them. According to the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs 1.7 million veterans were residing in Florida in 2009 which would make sense for Florida to have Veterans Courts added to what they want to do to take care of veterans instead of locking them up.
Scott team: Ease prison policy
By DARA KAM
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
TALLAHASSEE — Conservatives have been known to be tough on crime. Now they're saying they have to be tough on criminal justice spending as well.
Rick Scott's "law and order" team is telling Florida's incoming governor, who considers himself a conservative's conservative, to cut costs by diverting nonviolent offenders to drug treatment and requiring inmates to get an education and vocational training.
Those actions, which the transition team said could reduce the number of criminals returning to prison and allow the state to stop building new prisons, sound more like past Democratic suggestions than traditional conservative approaches to criminal justice.
But that's exactly where Florida may be headed, following a new national movement heralded by conservatives such as Newt Gingrich, Grover Norquist and William Bennett.
They are among a host of dramatic changes that Scott's transition teams for Florida's government proposed last week as he prepares to take office . His inauguration is Jan. 4 in Tallahassee.
But the criminal justice ideas also are unique among the teams' recommendations in their departure from traditional Republican views. Instead of the "lock 'em up" approach to crime, the new recommendations echo the advice social progressives have been trying, unsuccessfully, to put in place for years - spend less on prisons and more on treatment, intervention and prevention.
Scott's advisers suggested a radical revamp of the state's criminal justice system, which houses more than 100,000 prisoners and has swelled by more than 1,000 percent during the past four decades.
Faced with bulging prison populations and a rate of one in three prisoners winding up back behind bars, the advisers concede that being tough on crime hasn't worked.
On top of that, there are ever-tightening budgetary constraints.
Fiscal conservatives realized that "we were not only not getting good value for the money being spent, but getting bad value and bad results," said Linda Mills, a criminal justice consultant who served on Scott's transition team for law and order.
Then law-and-order conservatives began to accept similar conclusions about mandatory- minimum sen tences and other tough-on-crime laws, Mills said. Some, she said, even have publicly asked for forgiveness for having played a part in exploding prison growth. Now they are leading the charge toward rehabilitation.
read more here
Scott team Ease prison policy
20 States already have them. According to the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs 1.7 million veterans were residing in Florida in 2009 which would make sense for Florida to have Veterans Courts added to what they want to do to take care of veterans instead of locking them up.
Contact: Sandy Adkins
Communications Specialist
National Center for State Courts
757.259.1515
State courts honor veterans by providing specialized programs
Williamsburg, Va. (Nov. 11, 2010) — Throughout the U.S. today, ceremonies, parades, and other special events are taking place to honor the nation's war veterans. But every day, a growing number of our country's state courts are recognizing veterans in a very different and significant way — by establishing specialized courts and programs designed to address the social and legal issues associated with servicemen and women.
Currently at least 20 states have veterans courts: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. At least 10 other states are considering the issue either through studies or proposed legislation.
read more here
State courts honor veterans
Tacoma native awarded Silver Star in Afghanistan
Tacoma native awarded Silver Star in Afghanistan
MIKE ARCHBOLD; THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Published: 12/25/10
It was a typical morning in Afghanistan and Spc. Nicholas Robinson was just about finished with a six-hour guard duty shift at an Afghan police compound near his combat outpost.
Then all hell broke loose.
A mortar round landed roughly 20 meters in front of his guard tower.
“It knocked me back and when I got up I saw an explosion like nothing I had ever seen before going off,” the Tacoma native told a public affairs writer with the 101st Airborne Division’s Task Force Leader Rakkasan. “Then gunfire erupted from every possible side you could imagine.”
Over the next seven minutes in the first combat action he had seen, Robinson killed one insurgent carrying a rocket launcher and then held off 15 to 20 insurgents, killing two of them. One of them was a suicide bomber who got to within 50 feet of Robinson.
For his heroism and bravery, Army Chief of Staff George Casey presented Robinson Thursday with a Silver Star, the Army’s third highest award for valor in combat.
Read more: Tacoma native awarded Silver Star in Afghanistan
MIKE ARCHBOLD; THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Published: 12/25/10
It was a typical morning in Afghanistan and Spc. Nicholas Robinson was just about finished with a six-hour guard duty shift at an Afghan police compound near his combat outpost.
Then all hell broke loose.
A mortar round landed roughly 20 meters in front of his guard tower.
“It knocked me back and when I got up I saw an explosion like nothing I had ever seen before going off,” the Tacoma native told a public affairs writer with the 101st Airborne Division’s Task Force Leader Rakkasan. “Then gunfire erupted from every possible side you could imagine.”
Over the next seven minutes in the first combat action he had seen, Robinson killed one insurgent carrying a rocket launcher and then held off 15 to 20 insurgents, killing two of them. One of them was a suicide bomber who got to within 50 feet of Robinson.
For his heroism and bravery, Army Chief of Staff George Casey presented Robinson Thursday with a Silver Star, the Army’s third highest award for valor in combat.
Read more: Tacoma native awarded Silver Star in Afghanistan
A military hospital's all-encompassing mission
A military hospital's all-encompassing mission
By David Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 26, 2010
AT KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, AFGHANISTAN Most of the time, this war-theater hospital crackles with danger and expertise, its staff members working to keep alive people who would be dead if they ended up almost anywhere else in the world.
But some of the time, often in the morning, it's quiet and almost empty, except for a few recuperating Afghans stoically watched over by family members and, today, a young girl in a pink robe exploring the corridor outside her room in a wheelchair.
The hospital, which opened in May and is owned by NATO, is an odd mix of urgency and relaxation. It features patients whose stays inside its $40 million walls are both shorter and longer than any in contemporary U.S. hospitals.
American soldiers critically injured on the battlefield spend only a day or two here, many unconscious and on ventilators, before being sent to Bagram air base, then to a hospital in Germany and on to the United States.
At the other end of the continuum are the Afghans who make up about half the patients.
read more here
A military hospital all encompassing mission
By David Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 26, 2010
AT KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, AFGHANISTAN Most of the time, this war-theater hospital crackles with danger and expertise, its staff members working to keep alive people who would be dead if they ended up almost anywhere else in the world.
But some of the time, often in the morning, it's quiet and almost empty, except for a few recuperating Afghans stoically watched over by family members and, today, a young girl in a pink robe exploring the corridor outside her room in a wheelchair.
The hospital, which opened in May and is owned by NATO, is an odd mix of urgency and relaxation. It features patients whose stays inside its $40 million walls are both shorter and longer than any in contemporary U.S. hospitals.
American soldiers critically injured on the battlefield spend only a day or two here, many unconscious and on ventilators, before being sent to Bagram air base, then to a hospital in Germany and on to the United States.
At the other end of the continuum are the Afghans who make up about half the patients.
read more here
A military hospital all encompassing mission
Firefighters, Santa bring Somersworth Marine home for Christmas
Firefighters, Santa bring Somersworth Marine home for Christmas
BY AIMEE LOCKHARDT
alockhardt@fosters.com
Sunday, December 26, 2010
SOMERSWORTH — Four-year-old Anthony Griffin's eyes lit up when he saw the fire engine climb the hill toward his apartment on Winter Street.
Then suddenly a grin stretched across his face when he noticed who was inside. Right in the front was Santa Claus, waving at him.
As Santa stepped from the engine, Anthony rushed over and into his arms, and that's when he noticed the figure who had followed Santa out of the fire engine. The man knelt on the ground, trying to hold back tears, as Anthony then flew into his arms.
This would be the first Christmas he'd spend with his uncle since 2008.
The Somersworth Fire Department, with help from Santa and an elf, made a special trip on Christmas Eve day to deliver 22-year-old Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Sanborn home after he was away for two and a half years.
"I'm supposed to be the toughest of the tough, and I'm about to cry," Sanborn said about seeing his family again.
A couple of weeks ago, firefighter James Drakopoulos was on duty when he received a phone call from Sanborn asking for help surprising his nephew with his homecoming.
"A lot of the guys (on the fire department) are veterans," Drakopoulos said, adding that he didn't hesitate to assist. "And we usually try to help whoever we can with what they need ... Everyone was willing to do whatever they could. These guys are serving our country."
Sanford spent his first year away from home in training, and then during his second year, he was deployed with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit. He spent time in Haiti after the earthquake hit, and then wen to Djibouti, Africa, and Jordan. He returned to the states in August, where he was stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
"Not a day goes by when I don't think about them or what they're doing," the lance corporal said.
read more here
Firefighters, Santa bring Somersworth Marine home for Christmas
BY AIMEE LOCKHARDT
alockhardt@fosters.com
Sunday, December 26, 2010
SOMERSWORTH — Four-year-old Anthony Griffin's eyes lit up when he saw the fire engine climb the hill toward his apartment on Winter Street.
Then suddenly a grin stretched across his face when he noticed who was inside. Right in the front was Santa Claus, waving at him.
As Santa stepped from the engine, Anthony rushed over and into his arms, and that's when he noticed the figure who had followed Santa out of the fire engine. The man knelt on the ground, trying to hold back tears, as Anthony then flew into his arms.
This would be the first Christmas he'd spend with his uncle since 2008.
The Somersworth Fire Department, with help from Santa and an elf, made a special trip on Christmas Eve day to deliver 22-year-old Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Sanborn home after he was away for two and a half years.
"I'm supposed to be the toughest of the tough, and I'm about to cry," Sanborn said about seeing his family again.
A couple of weeks ago, firefighter James Drakopoulos was on duty when he received a phone call from Sanborn asking for help surprising his nephew with his homecoming.
"A lot of the guys (on the fire department) are veterans," Drakopoulos said, adding that he didn't hesitate to assist. "And we usually try to help whoever we can with what they need ... Everyone was willing to do whatever they could. These guys are serving our country."
Sanford spent his first year away from home in training, and then during his second year, he was deployed with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit. He spent time in Haiti after the earthquake hit, and then wen to Djibouti, Africa, and Jordan. He returned to the states in August, where he was stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
"Not a day goes by when I don't think about them or what they're doing," the lance corporal said.
read more here
Firefighters, Santa bring Somersworth Marine home for Christmas
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