Grants Will Aid In Fights Against Gangs, Domestic Violence, Juvenile Delinquency And Drug Abuse

Gov. Mike Easley today announced that the Governor’s Crime Commission awarded $20.6 million to state and local agencies to make communities safer and assist crime victims. The money will help programs that detect and deter gang activity, assist victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, prevent juvenile delinquency and fight drug abuse.

“Preventing crime, gang activity, domestic violence and child abuse requires that we work together at the community, state and federal levels,” said Easley. “These grants help our state and local agencies develop programs and get the resources they need to keep our communities safe and secure.”

Martha Quillin, News and Observer
MySpace, the Internet equivalent of the coffee bar that never closes, has agreed to take steps to make it more difficult for sexual predators to find child victims through its site.

At a news conference Monday in New York City, N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper and attorneys general from across the country announced an agreement with the popular social networking site that they hope will serve as a template for others.

The agreement, nearly two years in the making, includes a promise by MySpace to help develop tools to verify the ages and identities of its users, a measure that advocates argue will prevent underage children from setting up profiles on the site and keep predators from gaining the trust of young users by posing as people they're not.

from WRAL

New numbers from the State Bureau of Investigation show a significant drop in illegal methamphetamine labs in North Carolina since 2005.

“We've seen a significant drop and it's good for the safety of the people of the state,” State Attorney General Roy Cooper said.

The attorney general credits changes in state law, like moving medicines with pseudoephedrine behind the counter.

"Making it harder for the criminal to get the necessary key ingredient to make meth, has been the main factor in the reduction of meth labs,” he said.

Statewide the number of meth labs were cut in half from 2005 to 2007, but three of the four counties with the most meth labs are in the Triangle area.

NCDP Chair Jerry Meek made the following statement about the James Johnson case:

"No one can erase the anguish and pain James Johnson endured for 42 months as he awaited trial for crimes he did not commit. But we can all take comfort that sometimes the justice system gets it right and sometimes the falsely accused prevail."

Read the story in the News and Observer:
A prosecutor decides that James Johnson should not face trial on charges of killing a teen in 2004
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/crime_safety/story/840418.html

Pamela Hess, Associated Press

The CIA failed to fully inform Congress that it was videotaping the harsh interrogations of terrorist suspects and that it destroyed the tapes in 2005, the bipartisan leaders of the House Intelligence Committee said Wednesday.

"Our committee was not informed, has not been kept informed and we are very frustrated about that issue," said Chairman Sylvestre Reyes, D-Texas, after a three-hour closed-door meeting with CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden. That meeting, he said, "is just the first step in what we feel is going to be a long-term investigation.

That probe will include calling other witnesses, including Hayden predecessors George Tenet and Porter Goss, and John Negroponte, the former Director of National Intelligence, said Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the panel's senior Republican. Reyes said he would also call on Jose Rodriguez, the former CIA director of operations who actually had the tapes destroyed.

Hayden acknowledged that "particularly at the time of the destruction we could have done an awful lot better at keeping the committee alerted and informed."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made the following statement today on the floor of the U.S. Senate, calling for a full accounting of the circumstances surrounding the destroyed tapes of CIA interrogations. Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery:

“As the end of 2007 continues to draw near, we have a busy week ahead of us. We hope to complete action on the appropriations process, which will require the White House, along with House and Senate Republicans, to be reasonable in the pursuit of common ground.

“We will work to complete the energy bill with a bipartisan compromise that will take our country toward lower energy prices for consumers and a cleaner environment. And we will work to complete FISA legislation to ensure we have the tools to fight terrorism with fair and Constitutional tools. And pass a Continuing Resolution by Friday to keep the government open. I look forward to a productive week of bipartisan progress.

News and Observer editorial

Ensure that a certain Republican is re-elected to the state Supreme Court and a certain lawsuit will be decided the "right" way -- that is, the way Republicans would prefer, state Court of Appeals Judge Doug McCullough suggested to a gathering of the GOP faithful last month.

That sounds partisan because it is. It sounds like something that shouldn't come from the mouth of a judge, because it gives the appearance that judicial minds are made up before the facts are in and based on what's good for the party. Forget about the law.

That's not how legal controversies are supposed to be settled in North Carolina. Yet that was the essence of McCullough's pitch to Republicans in Haywood County. He had a right to say it -- the U.S. Supreme Court has eased state restrictions on judges' speech. So a complaint lodged with the N.C. Judicial Standards Commission didn't result in McCullough being disciplined. Still, considering the implications, it was an outrageous position for him to take.

Speaker Joe Hackney of the North Carolina House of Representatives has appointed Rep. Mickey Michaux to lead a 14-member select committee that will study street gang prevention.

Rep. Michaux has been a leader in the state’s gang prevention efforts for years. This past session he was the lead sponsor of the Street Gang Prevention Act that passed the House and is still eligible for consideration in the 2008 session of the General Assembly. Rep. Michaux was also the lead chairman of the House Budget Committee that appropriated $4.8 million to the Governor’s Crime Commission for gang suppression.

“As our population grows, so does the number of gang members in North Carolina,” Speaker Hackney said. “We cannot allow this increase to continue unchecked. Not only must we invest our money into this problem, but we must uncover better ways to prosecute gang criminals and to protect our communities from them.”

“Hopefully we can fashion a deal this time that will pass the General Assembly and make the appropriations necessary to address gang prevention, intervention and suppression,” Rep. Michaux said.

By Clarke Morrison, CITIZEN-TIMES.COM

The scourge of methamphetamine was dealt a critical blow by a state law restricting sales of cold medicines, but Attorney General Roy Cooper says much more remains to be done in the fight against the highly addictive drug.

The number of clandestine meth labs found in Western North Carolina mushroomed from seven in 2001 to a peak of 183 in 2005, according to figures from the State Bureau of Investigation. But that figure dropped to 72 in 2006, and through September of this year just 23 of the makeshift labs have been busted in the state’s 18 westernmost counties.

Cooper and area law enforcement credit a state law that went into effect 20 months ago banning bulk sales of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine products — key ingredients for making the debilitating drug.

By Matthew Daly, Associated Press

Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, who has voted against gay marriage and opposes extending special protections to gay and lesbian crime victims, finds his political future in doubt after pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges stemming from complaints of lewd conduct in a men's room.

The conservative three-term senator, who has represented Idaho in Congress for more than a quarter-century, is up for re-election next year. He hasn't said if he will run for a fourth term in 2008 and was expected to announce his plans this fall.

A spokesman, Sidney Smith, was uncertain late Monday if Craig's guilty plea in connection with an incident at the Minneapolis airport would affect his re-election plans.

"It's too early to talk about anything about that," Smith said.

A political science professor in Idaho said Craig's political future was in jeopardy. And a spokesman for the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, Hannah August, said Craig's guilty plea "has given Americans another reason not to vote Republican" next year.

The married Craig, 62, has faced rumors about his sexuality since the 1980s, but allegations that he has engaged in gay sex have never been substantiated. Craig has denied the assertions, which he calls ridiculous.

The arrest changes that dynamic, said Jasper LiCalzi, a political science professor at Albertson College of Idaho in Caldwell, Idaho. He cited the House page scandal that drove Florida Rep. Mark Foley from office.