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When Louisiana's 70 elected assessors sent lists of all family-owned properties in their districts to the state Tax Commission last year, in keeping with a new law, New Orleans 4th District Assessor Betty Jefferson omitted one: a 29-unit apartment building in Central City that the tax roll says belongs to her brother, U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans.
Betty Jefferson valued the building, at 2712-16 Loyola Ave., at $45,000, or about $1,550 per unit, less than one-sixth the $290,000 William Jefferson paid for the complex 20 years ago. For many years the building was listed on the tax rolls at a valuation closer to the selling price. When she took office in 1998, Betty Jefferson slashed the assessment on the property by almost two-thirds.
Betty Jefferson did not respond to repeated requests for comment for this story.
William Jefferson disputes the tax roll maintained by his sister. He says he sold the Loyola Avenue building in 1993, along with several other parcels, to a company owned by longtime supporter Bobby Higginbotham, and he hasn't had anything to do with it since. The Registrar of Conveyances recorded a sale to Higginbotham in 1993, but it also shows that Jefferson redeemed the property in 1997 by paying overdue taxes for 1994, 1995 and 1997.
'Some huge mistake'
Jefferson said he had no idea why the tax roll shows him as the owner, or why conveyance records show he redeemed the property in 1997, an option available only to an owner.
"Honest to goodness, I can't tell you why that is, " he said. "There's some huge mistake about this redemption business. I know I didn't redeem it, because I didn't own it."
He added that he will file an act of correction clarifying that Higginbotham, who agrees with Jefferson's account, is the owner.
City finance records indicate that annual tax bills for the property are sent not to Higginbotham but to Jefferson at his home address on Marengo Street, and that they have been since at least the mid-1990s. The bills have been paid for at least the past five years, officials said, although the records don't specify who paid them.
The building's water and sewer service has been in the name of Betty Jefferson since 1991, according to the Sewerage & Water Board. That account is also up to date, water board records indicate.
A trio of names
Less than a month ago, the congressman's brother, Mose Jefferson, filed a form asking the water board not to apply a sanitation fee to the monthly bills for the property because the owners have a private garbage contract. It's a standard form filled out by many owners of apartment complexes. On the line marked "name of applicant, " Mose Jefferson wrote "William/Betty/Mose Jefferson." Higginbotham's name is not listed.
The form is dated Dec. 22, 2003, and it states that the Jeffersons have had the trash picked up by Waste Management since 1992.
Trash invoices from Waste Management are likewise addressed to "William/Mose/Betty Jefferson." They also show the account is up to date.
Several tenants of the building told The Times-Picayune that Mose Jefferson collects the monthly rent.
William Jefferson said he doesn't know why his brother listed his name on the trash-fee waiver.
"He may think this thing is still in my name, " he said. "Apparently, it is still in my name."
Assessing confusion
The congressman also could not explain why other bills associated with the property are sent to family members.
He said he doesn't remember receiving tax bills for the property and hasn't paid any. However, he added that it's possible he has forwarded them to Higginbotham.
"I have no interest in the property, " Jefferson said. "I sold it, and it's gone. I don't get any economic value from it, and I don't take any tax deductions. And I haven't since it was sent to Higginbotham."
As for his brother, William Jefferson said Mose Jefferson maintains a small office at the property that he uses to conduct political operations. He suggested that perhaps Mose Jefferson takes care of some of the bills as a result.
Higginbotham said he doesn't know who pays any of the bills associated with the building. He said all such matters are handled by his accountant.
Devona Dolliole, a spokeswoman for the congressman, said Betty Jefferson said she had never bothered to take the water bill out of her name but doesn't pay it.
Dolliole also suggested the entire confusion over the property owes to an oversight by the previous assessor, Ronnie Burke, whom Betty Jefferson unseated in 1998.
"It's the assessor's duty to get the information from the conveyance office, and apparently the previous assessor did not do that, " Dolliole said. "Assessor Jefferson was operating with the certainty that her brother did not own the property."
Drop in assessment
Records show the property has long been underassessed. But its assessed value fell sharply when Betty Jefferson took office in 1998. That year, the property's valuation -- which is controlled by the assessor -- fell by about two-thirds, reducing the annual tax obligation from $2,063 to $753.
Were the Loyola Avenue multiplex assessed for its 1984 sale price, the annual tax obligation would total roughly $5,000, meaning the congressman would have paid about $100,000 in property taxes on it since the purchase. The actual tally has been about half that, with most of the taxes paid in the first eight years of ownership.
The property, although never assessed at its full sale price, peaked in assessed value in 1991. Based on the tax bill information available, it appears the property was assessed at about $225,000 after Jefferson bought it for $290,000. Its assessed value then rose steadily for several years until it reached about $275,000 in 1991. Jefferson was sworn in as a congressman that year.
The next year, the assessed value fell by more than half, to about $120,000, and the tax bill plummeted along with it, to $753. The value stayed unchanged until 1999, when, a few months after Betty Jefferson took the oath of office, the assessment was bumped down by another 63 percent to its current level of $45,000.
Before Betty Jefferson took office, the property was assessed by Burke, whose family ran the 4th District office from 1941 until 1998.
Neighborhood values
Dolliole said Betty Jefferson explained that property values in the neighborhood have been on the decline since her brother bought the property.
Nonetheless, the Loyola Avenue property appears to be getting a significantly better deal than some other apartment complexes in the neighborhood.
For instance, the 21-unit complex at 3308 Washington Ave. is assessed at $222,000, five times the assessment of the Jefferson property. On a per-unit basis, the difference is even starker: 3308 Washington is assessed at $10,571 per unit, versus $1,552 per unit at 2712 Loyola.
Another complex around the corner from 2712 Loyola Ave., at 2219 Washington Ave., has about 20 units and is assessed at $120,000, or about $6,000 per unit.
Betty Jefferson's failure to mention the Loyola Avenue property to the state Tax Commission points out a weakness in the law, passed during the 2003 legislative session, that requires assessors to report such properties.
The law relies on assessors to give a full accounting of all properties in their districts that are owned by them or members of their immediate families, but there is no penalty for failing to do so. Moreover, the Tax Commission makes no effort to verify whether the information it receives is complete.
Taxing family matters
"I'm surprised that Ms. Jefferson wouldn't have reported it, " Tax Commission Chairman Russell Gaspard said. "But there's nothing we can do. She just didn't report it properly. There's no way we can investigate every assessor."
In the cases of family-owned property that were reported to the Tax Commission -- 661 parcels statewide -- the commission sent out appraisers to judge the value of the properties. If the value rendered by the commission's appraiser was at least 10 percent higher than the value the assessor had assigned to the property, the assessor was alerted.
In most cases, the assessor immediately issued a change order raising the assessment to the level recommended by the state. However, there was no requirement to do so, and a couple of New Orleans assessors handled the situation differently.
Second District Assessor Claude Mauberret chose to raise the value on his own home from $125,000 to $175,000, rather than the $216,700 the Tax Commission had recommended. And 5th District Assessor Tom Arnold said that he will issue change orders on the assessments for his home and those of two sons next year, citing red tape and the small amount of tax money involved.
An 'ethics dilemma'
The law's author, state Rep. William Daniel IV, D-Baton Rouge, noted that the law was not intended to expose sweetheart deals given by assessors to family members.
Rather, it was meant to resolve an inherent conflict raised by the state Board of Ethics: Assessors must live in their own districts, but if they own property, they could be accused of low-balling the assessment to help themselves financially.
"The law was intended to solve an ethics problem, " Daniel said. "The law was passed so the assessors would not get into an ethics dilemma. But by not disclosing that property, she (Jefferson) fell solidly into the ethics dilemma we were trying to avoid."
He said he'll look into tweaking the bill next year.
"We need to look at a way to deal with this. I think most assessors will likely agree that instances like this are bad for them. They don't want things like this to reflect negatively on them. For all the ones that do a good job, you don't want one oversight like this to indict everybody."


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The health care reform bill, passed by five votes over the weekend by the House of Representatives, was in many ways made in New Jersey. Key provisions and a number of amendments were written by representatives from the state.
Yet it was supported by an even thinner margin, 7-6, by the state delegation. U.S. Rep. John Adler (D-3rd Dist.) joined five Republicans to vote against it. Adler, a freshman in a South Jersey seat last held by a Republican, faces a tough re-election campaign next year and frequently votes against his own party.
Adler issued a long statement that based his opposition on what he termed the failure of the proposal to "make health care more affordable or protect middle-class families and small businesses.'' He declined to answer questions about how his vote might affect his chances for a second term.
Following the vote, the Democratic National Committee vowed to "target" a number of "vulnerable" Republicans who voted against the bill, including New Jersey's Frank LoBiondo (R-2nd Dist.) and Leonard Lance (R-7th Dist.). Their districts voted for President Barack Obama, and the DNC contended they voted against the wishes of their constituents.
Adler's district went 52 percent to 47 percent for Obama (and voted for Gore in 2000) but DNC spokeswoman Brandi Hoffine declined to talk about the 39 Democrats, including Adler, who voted against reform. The hope apparently is Adler will change his mind when — and if — a health care bill is passed by the Senate and returned to the House.
Many Republicans — including New Jersey's Lance, Scott Garrett (R-5th), and Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11th Dist.) — used the battle cry of "government takeover" explaining their votes against a bill that, while creating a "public option" to compete with private insurance companies, doesn't put government in charge of health care.
LoBiondo comes close to raising the "government takeover" bugbear, circuitously warning that the bill's cost "could" make employers give up their plans, leading workers to sign up for the "newly created government plan." And that plan, reasons LoBiondo, "could" offer lesser coverage than employer-provided plans.
Rep. Chris Smith (R-4th Dist.) issued a long statement that, far from warning against a government takeover, based his no vote on cuts in what comes pretty close to a government health care program — Medicare, the plan for those over 65.
"I oppose HR-3962," Smith's statement concludes, "because in many ways it jeopardizes coverage for those who already have it, especially seniors and the disabled.''
One way the Democratic leadership plans to pay for the bill, beyond a tax surcharge for those making more than $500,000, are cuts in Medicare.
Smith, a Republican who often votes with Democrats, contends the cuts are too deep.
The bill's passage clearly was a triumph for its New Jersey authors, chief among them Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6th Dist.). As chairman of the health subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, he wrote many of the law's provisions.
"It will help America live up to its promise and its ideals," says Pallone, who compared the bill to such historic efforts as Medicare, Social Security and the GI Bill. "We may be making history but we are doing it for our future.''
Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1st Dist.), chairman of the subcommittee on health, employment, labor and pensions of the House Education and Labor Committee, was another of the six "big dog" House committee chiefs who wrote the bill. He says the it will make health care both affordable and accessible.
"The plan significantly limits the costs that have been spiraling out of control for decades," he says.
Rep. Rush Holt (D-12th Dist.), also a member of the education and labor panel, wrote two amendments — one to provide grants for health care training and another to permit employers to create "pools" to provide benefits to their workers. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-8th Dist.), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, sponsored some of the "pay-for" sections of the bill.
A number of New Jersey representatives — including Donald Payne (D-10th Dist.), Albio Sires (D-13th Dist.) and Steve Rothman (D-9th Dist.) — wanted the bill to do more, even create a single-payer system to reduce administrative costs and insurance premiums. But they voted for the compromise package.
"As a strong supporter of a Medicare-for-all health insurance system, this bill will not deliver the kind of complete overhaul I prefer," says Rothman. "But it represents historic progress.''

subset: commoncrawl


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South Carolina is in position to have a solid 2014 season, but it all starts now. Gamecocks, it's time for some spring practice.
Now that the 2013 season is over and the young players have a season of experience under their belts, South Carolina can push forward in the offseason development of its players.
The Gamecocks are far from short of talent, but they will need some big performances from some of their players.
Last spring, we witnessed the emergence of Mike Davis, arguably the team's best player going into the 2014 season. Who will be this year's Mike Davis?
Even though many players are locked into starting spots, there is a lot of work to be done and many players still have a lot to gain. The sky is the limit, but these guys can make their cases this spring.
Here are the five players with the most to gain in spring practices for the Gamecocks.


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INSTTECH 6232 Selection and Integration of Instructional Technology -- 3 unit(s)
Examination of new technologies that generate need for new literacies for 21st century students. Includes procedures for selection and integration of instructional technologies to support learning involving use of both computer-based and non-computer-based materials.
Term: Fall 2012
Start/End Date: Oct 15, 2012 - Dec 14, 2012
Meeting Time: Arranged
Location (Facility ID): eLearning
Instruction Mode: Online
Gail Lovely, Instructor
Class Section: 60
Class Nbr: 35891
If two numbers are listed, undergraduate level class number is listed first, graduate level class number is listed second.
Course Notes: This course is for the 2011 Elementary Education MAE Program.
To enroll:
Click here to enroll through Continuing and Distance Education.
For more information:
Rita Gutman, Continuing and Distance Education
Phone: 800-772-1746 or 319-273-2504
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com


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Financial institutions have always been a target for criminals. But in this age of technological advancements and increases in organized criminal activity, financial institutions are finding it difficult to stay ahead of the fraudsters. Add to this the significant regulations related to the industry and it becomes clear that personnel must maintain constant vigilance in order to detect and prevent fraud at banks and other financial institutions.
This two-day, instructor-led course will address challenges and solutions related to fraud and financial institutions, including cyber frauds and privacy issues. Relevant regulations, such as anti-money laundering laws and practices, the Bank Secrecy Act, the USA PATRIOT Act and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, will be addressed along with related and applicable anti-fraud solutions. Learn what controls can be implemented to secure your data in order to minimize the threat of data and identity theft.
Upcoming Courses
Salt Lake City, UT | October 31-November 1, 2016
You Will Learn How To:
Identify common fraud schemes particular to financial institutions, including loan fraud and check fraud
Comply with applicable laws and regulations, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, Bank Secrecy Act and the USA PATRIOT Act
Implement Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) best practices
Identify the warning signs of insider embezzlement
Secure data to prevent data and identity theft
Perform due diligence and prevention
Establish fraud risk assessments and an anti-fraud framework
Who Should Attend:
Attorneys, legal professionals and law enforcement personnel
Controllers and corporate managers
Detectives and private investigators
Governance, risk management and compliance officers
Internal auditors, forensic accountants and bank examiners
Certified Fraud Examiners and other anti-fraud professionals
Members: $695
Non-Members: $845
CPE Credit
Field of Study
Specialized Knowledge
Course Level
Advanced Preparation
Delivery Method
Financial institutions have always been a target for criminals. In this opening session, you will learn the impact of fraud on financial institutions, common myths about fraud, and the elements of fraud.
Current Trends in Financial Institution Fraud
This section will discuss recent trends in regulations, enforcement actions, and assessed penalties. Sarbanes-Oxley Act, AU Section 316, Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act (FERA), Dodd-Frank Act, Suspicious Activity Reports, and Bank Enforcement Actions will be covered.
Money Laundering
The United States has enacted key legislation and regulatory standards to address various aspects of money laundering. This session will go over this legislation as well as the components of money laundering including placement, layering, and integration. Identify the indictors of trade-based money laundering and enhance your investigation by knowing the characteristics and life cycle of money laundering and by knowing your customer.
Loan Fraud
In most financial institutions, loans represent the largest asset. As such, loan fraud has the potential to not only be significant, but also, to bring financial ruin to the institution. Learn the key documents that can be forged or altered to perpetrate fraud and how to implement an effective internal control system to deter loan fraud. You will also explore the types of mortgage fraud and internal loan fraud.
Deposit and Branch Fraud
Financial institution's primary liabilities—customers' deposits—are the assets of others and, as such, have the risk of asset misappropriation. In addition, a financial institution is unique in that its branch locations have a very susceptible inventory—cash and cash equivalents. This session will cover how fraudulent transactions can occur from check forgeries, check counterfeiting, check kiting, new accounts, split deposit schemes, dormant accounts, hold mail, cash vault, and more.
Electronic Funds Transfer Fraud
Electronic funds transfers fall into five basic product lines: automated clearing houses (ACHs), wire transfers, payment cards, automated teller machines (ATMs), and telephone transfers. Learn how to deter electronic funds transfer fraud in this session.
Other Insider Risks
Insider fraud in financial institutions takes many forms, all of which can be devastating—not only in the financial loss, but also in the morale of the financial institution's employees and the institution's reputation in the community. To better understand insider fraud, this session will explore the types of individuals who commit insider fraud, the conditions that allow it to be committed, red flags that can indicate insider fraud is occurring, and insider fraud schemes.
Cyber Banking and Attacks on Banks
Cyber-banking technologies, bank accounts, and wire-transfer capabilities make financial institutions the main target for computer crime. In this session, you will learn the many forms of attacks, including social engineering, technical hacking, spyware, phishing, and pharming. These attacks not only hurt the financial position of an institution, but also damage customers' trust in the institution.
Privacy, Data Theft, ID Theft and Other Consumer Issues
Today, consumer confidence in business and the safeguarding of sensitive information is at the forefront of regulatory oversight and guidance. As identity theft continues to rise, so too does the necessity to secure sensitive information. Explore the methods and measures used to prevent this type of fraud.
Due Diligence and Prevention
Establishing an environment that supports prevention, deterrence, and detection of fraud requires three fundamental components. In this session, you will learn these components, which are the foundation for building an anti-fraud framework in an institution. In addition, learn how to establish a strong tone at the top in your workplace and implement a fraud risk assessment as a proactive way to tackle and deter fraud.
Event Cancellation Policy
cancellation policy is intended to keep costs low for attendees. Due to financial obligations incurred by ACFE, Inc. you must cancel your registration prior to the start of the event. Cancellations received less than 14 calendar days prior to an event start date are subject to a $100 administrative fee. No refunds or credits will be given for cancellations received on or after the start date of the event. Those who do not cancel and do not attend are responsible for the full registration fee.
Satisfaction Guarantee
ACFE seminars are unmatched in scope and effectiveness and backed by our unconditional satisfaction guarantee. If you attend an ACFE event and are not completely satisfied, please contact an ACFE Member Services Representative at
firstname.lastname@example.com or call (800) 245-3321 / +1 (512) 478-9000.
The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, Inc. is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be submitted to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors through its website:
If you would like to begin receiving email notifications from the ACFE, please
click here to subscribe.
Calendar of Events


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At breakfast this morning, a woman at the table next to me leaned over and said, "I hope that our talking won't disturb you." She sat with three other women and it looked as though they might be there for a work-related meeting.
I was surprised! It's usually chaotic in the cafes I like to sit in, and I've gotten used to reading or writing above all the noise. I told her not at all, and thanked her for being so considerate.
Not that anyone should have worried about disturbing me. Right now I'm obsessed with Stephen King's "Hearts in Atlantis" and that's what I was working on this morning. I just needed to get out of the apartment for a bit—partly because our house cleaner is here doing her thing—and partly because I'm going stir crazy after being holed up for almost two weeks.
On Monday the 17th my ever-present threat of lower back disaster became reality when I sneezed and threw out two herniated discs. They'd been killing me for weeks, and I knew it was coming. Sitting at the last job I had for four months, 10 to 12 hours, four days each week, really did a number on me. Not only did that aggravate my back, but it also caused some sort of problem with my left hip joint. I've had pain there as well, especially when I walk, since July.
When I finished that job on August 24th, I started working out like mad. I was up to an hour walk in the park and 30 to 40 minutes of strength training videos almost daily. I think Jillian Michaels' plank poses were the final straw. I was so proud that I had worked up to being able to do the full sets, and just starting to feel a slight change in my body, when I had to suddenly lie flat in excruciating pain for a week.
That week I missed my free memoir writing class, a day with my Kirin girls that I see only once or twice each year, and a visit with a former Columbia classmate visiting from Canada. I wasn't able to write (and never thought of a dictation app until after I was able to sit up again) so the book progress was halted-but I'm back at it now. I haven't been blogging because I've been concentrating on the book.
I've had these herniated discs since 1990 when I experienced the third of six car accidents I've had in my life, between 1975 and 1999. In this particular case, after our car was hit, I was actually personally hit by the car as I stood on the road and thrown several feet onto the embankment along the highway. If you want more details, you'll have to wait for the book. The point I'm making here is simply that my back is a hot mess.
I'm going to look into surgery. The doctors wanted to do surgery in the 90s, but I said no way. It terrified me, and still does. I think the technology is much better now though, and have heard that they can do it without an incision. We'll see. I have a lot of research to do. If any of you reading have had this surgery please feel free to comment.
I'm not getting any younger, and I'm tired of having to limit my exercise and even daily activities just because it might throw my back out. If I'm in this much pain at 42, what will my quality of life be like at 62? I've got to do something-and now while I'm not working is the perfect time.
By the way, you might remember a few weeks ago when I fell in my apartment? Well something is definitely still wrong with my big toe joint too…lots of pain there to go with the hip and back. It's ridiculous. I have an appointment next Tuesday to get the referrals to check all of this out.
I probably won't blog again for a while. I'm on a mission to really make headway with my memoir. In the meantime, please subscribe to me on Instagram or Twitter: @Teeteeinthecity.


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My friend Dov Neimand is a wiry 27-year-old with a penchant for paddling and a taste for adventure.
Last fall he embarked on an epic journey, to paddle a kayak in the Mediterranean from Spain to Israel, where he is a student. His departure was set back when his gear was stolen at his jumping-off point in Barcelona. He resupplied and set off, relying on the hospitality of strangers as he pulled ashore at night.
Scheduling problems forced Neimand to cut the trip short this month, but still he paddled about 1,000 miles and got as far as Italy.
I posed questions to him via e-mail about his trip, and the following is a synopsis of his reply:
Aside from your life jacket and paddle, what was your most important gear?
"The kayaking gear that I bought immediately after everything was stolen, what I considered the bare minimum, was limited to a spray skirt, a pump, and a single dry bag."
What kind of kayak?
"I had an Epic 18x. It was fast, sturdy, and had a lot of storage space."
Navigation material?
"I had waterproof paper charts on my deck as well as a compass and a simple GPS. This allowed me to make navigational decisions that saved me huge detours."
What was the most challenging part of the trip?
"A headwind would suck my strength out and leave me exhausted in a very short time."
What was the scariest?
"There were a number of moments when cliffs or sea walls were moving at me much faster than what's typically considered a healthy speed. For all the water in the sea, the greatest danger always came from land."
Who were the most helpful people you met?
"A lot of people were very nice and helpful. They would invite me into their homes or boat clubs and treat me as they would a member of the family. It was often very touching."
How big were the biggest waves?
"With a few freak exceptions, probably around 3 meters (about 9 feet) near the shore."
What did you wear?
"It changes around a little. I finished with a farmer john wet suit and a dry top. I also had exactly enough land clothing so that when it was cold, I was wearing all of it."
What about food and water?
"I ate mostly rice, pasta, lentils and beans while on the water. I would cook them in the morning with my portable stove and store them in a Thermos-like bottle. I would eat a little bit every hour or so. I had a 3-liter water bag with me, and when I expected to be out extra long I would have an additional liter-and-a-half bottle."
How did you prepare for the trip physically?
"The best way to train for a kayaking trip is to go kayaking. Learning to roll proved to be extremely important. I've been mentally ready for a trip like this since I was 5." (Neimand trained last summer while staying with his parents in New Jersey.)
What would you say to someone thinking of such a trip?
"When are you going? Can I come?"
What is the most rewarding aspect of the trip?
"I learned a lot. I learned about people, I learned about doing good deeds, I learned some Italian, and I learned how to kayak."
Read Neimand's blog at kayakdov.wordpress.com.
Please e-mail items of interest to this column to firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Austin, Texas-based alt-rock icons Spoon will release their eighth studio album They Want My Soul on August 5th. The effort is the group's first full length record in nearly four years and their debut with Loma Vista Recordings. On tour in the US through the beginning of October, Spoon will make an appearance in Indianapolis at the Egyptian Room on September 12th with Hamilton Leithauser. Download "Do You" from They Want My Soul and learn more about Spoon at their Official Website, "Like" them on Facebook, and follow them on Twitter.
The WTTS Free Download Of The Week is Delivered by IndyGo.


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Whole Foods Market (WFM) is again at the forefront of the movement for greater transparency in food production and processing. The supermarket chain recently announced a comprehensive ratings system for fresh produce and flowers, which parallels the color-coded animal welfare standards for meat and the sustainability standards for seafood that Whole Foods earlier pioneered. Read more
Blog Archives
Whole Foods Rapper Takes on Foodies, Self (WATCH)
Have you ever found yourself at Whole Foods shopping, for say, kale and quinoa, and felt the need to poke fun at foodie culture? Some people go even further, writing a rap song about it and posting the video on YouTube. Read more
Bill Clinton Trades Fast Food for Whole Food
Last week, when asked about his new trim physique, Bill Clinton stunned CNN's Wolf Blitzer by revealing that he has lost 24 pounds eating a mostly "plant-based" diet.
The former President told Blitzer that he mostly eats beans, legumes, vegetables, and fruit and takes a protein supplement in his morning fruit and almond milk smoothie. Clinton underwent a quadruple bypass in 2004 and had two stents put in this past February after learning that one of his bypassed arteries was blocked again. While many commentators are hung up on his dramatic weight loss and the debate about the nutritional value of veganism, they are missing the most important story: Clinton's change from a life-shortening Standard American Diet (SAD) to a plant-based diet of whole foods. Read more
Whole Foods to Use Mobile Slaughterhouses, Will it Help or Hurt Small Farmers?
Massachusetts poultry farmer Jennifer Hashley has a problem. From the moment she started raising pastured chickens outside Concord, Mass. in 2002, there was, as she put it "nowhere to go to get them processed." While she had the option of slaughtering her chickens in her own backyard, Hashley knew that selling her chickens would be easier if she used a licensed slaughterhouse. Nor is she alone in her troubles. Despite growing demand for local, pasture-raised chickens, small poultry producers throughout Massachusetts, Connecticut, and even New York can't or won't expand for lack of processing capacity.
It isn't only small producers who are feeling the pinch—a widespread lack of processing infrastructure appropriate for small farmers has caused supply chain problems for the big retailers as well. Whole Foods—the world's largest natural-foods supermarket—wants to aggressively expand its local meat sourcing, according to its head meat buyer, Theo Weening. But it faces the same limitation as Hashley. Most regions of the country have "lots of agriculture but nowhere to process," Weening told me, adding that the phenomenon is most acute in the northeast.
Whole Foods wants to change all that. In a move that has national implications, the retail giant has confirmed to Grist that it is working with the USDA as well as state authorities to establish a fleet of top-of-the-line "mobile slaughterhouses" for chicken. Starting with a single unit serving Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Hudson Valley, N.Y. area, Whole Foods hopes to offer small farmers an affordable way to process chickens as well as to vastly increase the amount of locally-sourced chicken it sells. If successful, this program could be expanded to any region of the country with similar infrastructure shortages.
Read the rest of this exclusive story at Grist
The Controversy Continues: Whole Foods Quietly Gutting Employee Free Choice
While Whole Foods CEO John Mackey recently publicly inflamed the health care debate, behind the scenes Whole Foods has been quietly dismantling a key piece of legislation that would make it easier for workers who want to form a union to do so.
Whole Foods and Starbucks are backing a "compromise" to strip the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) of a key provision. The so-called "card-check" provision would require employers to recognize its employees' union once a majority has signed union authorization cards. Currently, employers often refuse to recognize new unions even if all their employees have signed up. New contracts often take years to negotiate, meanwhile workers are frequently subject to harassment and sometimes fired. The card-check provision is so central to this legislation, it has been called "the card-check bill." Read more


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By Josh Rochlin
As consumers around the globe increasingly turn to mobile devices to buy products, connect with their favorite brands, and discover new ones, they are fundamentally altering the role of the CMO. Today it is crucial for CMOs to arm their organizations with tools to capture mobile consumers' attention, influence their intent, and engage them with relevant content.
The key to mobile commerce success is delivering relevant, actionable content at the right time to improve mobile sales, drive in-store traffic, and engage customers.
With today's announcement of IBM's acquisition of Xtify, a leading provider of cloud-based mobile messaging tools, IBM is expanding its mobile capabilities to include mobile campaign creation, content targeting, dynamic real-time segmentation, and analytics for all mobile devices and browsers.
Xtify's campaign management platform helps marketers engage, convert, and retain mobile application users and web site visitors by notifying consumers when new or relevant content, promotions, and service alerts are available.
For instance, if I'm within a few blocks of my favorite big-box retailer here in New York, the store can notify me about a new shipment from my favorite tablet manufacturer. The possibilities extend far beyond retail. For example, when I step off a plane in Chicago, my hotel concierge can welcome me with an SMS or push notification, letting me know that my room is ready or the location of the nearest coffee shop (along with a coupon for a free snack). The list of possibilities goes on and on.
Mobile communication channels are completely transforming the way organizations interact with their customers. For example, worldwide, there are more than 300,000 mobile applications and more than 3 billion app 'events' that occur each day including application download, ticket purchases from mobile web sites, and leveling-up on a game.
Consequently, consumers are using mobile applications and web sites for everything — researching products and services, tracking online purchases, gaining new knowledge and transacting business, filling prescriptions, paying bills, and booking vacations, to name a few. They're also receiving information and services on their devices about everything from local events such to road closures.
Such penetration and adoption has changed consumer expectations. Today, people are starting to expect personalized messages and relevant promotional offers based on their expressed interests, shopping history, and browsing habits across the totality of their digital interactions with a brand.
Together, Xtify and IBM will provide marketers a new opportunity for deep client engagement anytime, anywhere, as consumers traverse across multiple digital channels – browsing in-stores, shopping on mobile web sites, or accessing mobile apps.
Xtify will be available on IBM SoftLayer's cloud infrastructure, which provides the means to deploy broadly and globally in a way that will continue to ensure that we provide the most secure, scalable, and reliable service in the market.
We are just beginning to see the endless opportunities mobile applications and web sites can afford. Xtify's mobile messaging capabilities combined with IBM's analytics and cloud infrastructure will provide marketers with global reach and an arsenal of rich content targeting capabilities to influence and inform increasingly mobile consumers.
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Twombly is the Logical Extension of the Mathews v. Eldridge Test to Discovery
Andrew Blair-Stanek
University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
Jan 1, 2010
Florida Law Review, Vol. 62, January 2010
The Supreme Court's 2007 decision in Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly has baffled and mystified both practitioners and scholars, casting aside the well-settled rule for evaluating motions to dismiss in favor of an amorphous "plausibility" standard. This Article argues that Twombly was not revolutionary but simply part of the Court's ever-expanding application of the familiar three-factor Mathews v. Eldridge test. Misused discovery can deprive litigants of property and liberty interests, and in some cases Mathews requires the safeguard of dismissing the complaint. This Article's insight explains Twombly's origins and structure, while also suggesting a source for lower courts to draw on in developing post-Twombly jurisprudence.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 46
Keywords: Twombly, Mathews v. Eldridge, discovery, pleading, procedural due process
Date posted: April 28, 2009 ; Last revised: February 8, 2010
Suggested Citation
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Sims, had rushing touchdowns of 12 and 18 yards to finish with 76 yards on five carries. He also completed 5-of-6 passes for 65 yards, gave St. Anthony (7-2) a 20-0 lead with a 21-yard touchdown pass to Damon Small.
"The way Bayonne was playing us on defense, we needed to run some play action passes and Derek did a really good job," said St. Anthony coach Sean Fallon.
Daryl Hicks had nine carries for 108 yards and a touchdown, Nile Trent had eight carries for 121 yards and Paris Crawford added a 12-yard touchdown to power the St. Anthony ground attack.
Cornerback Herb Johnson had two interceptions, while his counterpart in the defensive backfield, Hicks, added an interception. Devin Terry had nine tackles on defense.
"Our two corners really stepped up," Fallon said of Johnson and Hicks. "To get two picks with a quarterback that good and two wide recivers that good was shocking to me. They played really really well."
Bayonne quarterback Chris Wright rushed for a touchdown and threw a 41-yard touchdown to Biaggio Cancro in the third quarter.
The game, which was originally scheduled to be played in Bayonne, was moved to yesterday at Caven Point in Jersey City following Superstorm Sandy and the damage it caused to Bayonne's homefield of Don Ahern Veterans Stadium.
St. Anthony will host Queen of Peace in the first round of the NJSIAA, Non-Public, Group 1 state playoffs Saturday at a time to be determined. Bayonne dropped to 3-6 on the season.
St. Anthony (7-2)14 6 15 7 -- 42
Bayonne (3-6) 0 6 6 0 -- 12
S: Bates 8 run (Mazariego kick)
S: Sims 12 run (Mazariego kick)
S: Small 21 pass from Sims (kick failed)
B: Wright 1 run (kick failed)
S: Hicks 55 run (Mazariego kick)
B: Cancro 41 pass from Wright (pass failed)
S: Sims 18 run (Johnson pass from Sims)
S: Crawford 12 run (Mazariego kick)


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- 4 years ago
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From InfoPeople. Free webinar this week: "TEDx for Libraries: Dynamic Programming for FREE!" http://bit.ly/4L1gbm


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If you're trying to get more omega-3s into your diet, tilapia is a fantastic choice for a quick and easy meal. This low-mercury fish is available year round, and it is also Sam's Club fish of the month.
Often overlooked for the flashier salmon or the more exotic saltwater seafood varieties, tilapia can be a healthy and sustainable choice for the dinner table. Take the time to educate yourself on the facts, and pick up this time-friendly meal for yourself.
Zesty Lemon Garlic Tilapia
Delicate tilapia is the perfect foundation for a zesty blend of seasonings. This quick, easy dish takes 5 minutes to prepare. While it bakes, the rest of your meal comes together to have a healthy supper on the table in just about half an hour.
1 lemon, zested and juiced
½ teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon salt
1 clove granulated garlic
1 teaspoon minced onion
½ teaspoon dried dill or basil
2 tablespoons canola oil
4 (4-oz.) tilapia fillets
Preheat oven to 400° F. Combine zest, pepper, paprika, salt, minced garlic, onion, basil and oil in a bowl. Mix until a paste forms. Drizzle the lemon juice over the tilapia filets and then rub the herb and spice mixture over them. Place fillets on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake at 400° F for 7-8 minutes or until fillets are cooked through. Serve over rice and steamed vegetables for a quick and easy meal that will have you sitting around the dinner table after a busy day in no time at all.
Makes 4 servings.
Photo used with permission from Sam's Club, where you can find more seafood ideas and read about their 200% satisfaction guarantee.


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A successful website is not a one-time project but part of your online identity which must be cultivated and grown.
Personal, measurable, & mobile, email marketing is truly an intimate, targeted way to communicate with your audience.
The display of information can be playful, powerful, informative or pursuasive. Does your data start the right conversation?
Good tools help you focus on your business. Forms, SEO, Commerce, Email Marketing and Reports plugins for Craft CMS.


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* Mets now 5-0 since Bay's return (New York Post)
Dave Hudgens recalls March 29 all too well. "We were playing the Nationals in spring training and I remember Jason [Bay] coming up to me and saying he felt a little something in his rib cage," the Mets hitting coach recalled yesterday. "I knew how tough those injuries are, and we were really starting to see what he meant to our lineup."
Other headlines on the Metropolitans:
* 8th-inning reliever Jason Isringhausen making major, and unlikely, contribution to bullpen (New York Daily News)
* Chris Young sees the positive in short outing for the Mets (Star-Ledger)
* After career-high 3 RBIs, Thole exhales (ESPNNewYork.com)
* No excuses this time in visit with soldiers (Bergen Record)


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Essentia Health gears up for flu shot blitz
Essentia Health is offering a series of flu shot blitzes in the Fargo-Moorhead area. Flu shots will be available for adults without an appointment at Essentia Health locations: South University Clinic: Friday, Sept. 28, from 1-4 p.m.; West Acres Clinic: Wednesday, Oct. 3, from noon to 8:30 p.m.; West Fargo Clinic: Thursday, Oct. 4, from 8 a.m. to noon; 32nd Avenue Clinic: Friday, Oct. 5, from 1-4 p.m.; and Moorhead Clinic: Tuesday, Oct. 9, from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone over 6 months old get vaccinated. It's especially important for senior citizens, pregnant women and those who have compromised immune systems. While the Fargo-Moorhead flu shot blitzes are only for those ages 18 and older, parents can schedule an appointment for their children to receive the vaccine in their pediatrician's or family doctor's office.
Flu experts say getting your seasonal flu shot is the best way to help prevent you and your family from getting influenza. The flu season often peaks in January or February, but can start as early as October. That's why experts say it's important to get a seasonal flu shot as soon as the vaccine becomes available.
The cost of the flu shot is covered by Medicare Part B, Medicaid and most private insurance companies. The shot is offered at a special discounted price of $37 during the flu blitz days and times. It's a good idea for patients to wear short-sleeved or sleeveless clothing when they come for their immunization.
For more information, visit Essentia's website at www.essentiahealth.org.


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TRENTON — The state Assembly's point man on the state budget indicated today that he would not support a tax on electronic cigarettes, which has been proposed by Gov. Chris Christie.
After hearing from a string of witnesses who spoke against the proposed tax at a budget committee hearing today as well as a previous hearing, Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) said he and the committee's members — Democrats and Republicans — opposed it.
"You and your colleagues seem to have caught us in the spirit of bipartisanship," Schaer, a smoker who occasionally uses electronic cigarettes, said. "It seems that both sides of the aisle find the governor's tax pretty — not what we want. Your testimony, combined with so many others, has really given us a very important perspective."
Christie called for taxing electronic cigarettes — which deliver nicotine in the form of water vapor — at the same rate as normal cigarettes, $2.70 a pack, although it was unclear how the tax would apply to the electronic cigarettes.
Christie's proposed budget, outlined in February, estimated the tax would bring in $35 million a year, which Schaer said would need to be found elsewhere.
"We need to be aware as a legislative body that this governor has proposed the tax on e-cigarettes to the tune of $35 million," Schaer said. "So although it may be this committee's intention to recommend that that not be in the budget, it will then be this committee's responsibility… to find $35 million with which to respond with a balanced budget."
Schaer's opposition does not necessarily kill the proposal. Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson) will have final say over what goes in the budget the Assembly passes, and is currently non-committal.
"This is the beginning of the budget process. I could understand his comment for how overly-taxed we are in this state," Prieto said in a phone interview. "This is something that will be taken into consideration, and we'll have a robust caucus discussion"
It was also unclear how the proposal would fare in the state Senate, where two Democrats — state Sens. Joe Vitale (D-Middlesex) and Richard Codey (D-Essex) — have introduced a bill (S1867) with their own version of an e-cigarette tax.
• Christie's NJ e-cigarette tax is hot topic at first budget hearing


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GRN Reports
Mining has been long established in Minnesota, where the nation's largest iron ore range produces taconite, essential to making steel.
But another type of mining, planned for the boundary waters wilderness area has Minnesotans and wilderness explorers fighting back against an industry they say will destroy the pristine waters and forests of the tourist region just north of Lake Superior.
The planned mining for metals such as copper, lead and zinc is in an area of sulfide rock, which is the problem. When rainfall hits the rock waste leftover from this mining, it forms sulfuric acid. The result is water contamination that's toxic to fish and wildlife.
"Not once, not anywhere in the world, has sulfide mining been done without damaging lakes and streams. The mining companies do not have a proven way to deal with the acid mine drainage that is produced by the massive piles of waste rock produced by the mines," write Dave and Amy Freeman, on their website Paddle to DC.
The Freemans are wilderness educators who take people on canoe tours and dogsledding trips in the far north, near their home near Ely, Minnesota. Dave Freeman is executive director of the Wilderness Classroom, which helps students connect with explorations going on around the world via online activities and lessons.
The couple say the mines planned for the region threaten 18,000 tourism-related jobs, and they are, as we speak, paddling by canoe to Washington D.C. to protest.
The Freemans trip through the Great Lakes and beyond will take a few months, until early December, so you've got time to follow their progress and learn about this threat to the environment.
"We are paddling to Washington, DC to protect our jobs, the long term health of our communities, as well as the world-renowned lakes, rivers, and forests of Northeastern Minnesota from sulfide mining," writes Dave on their blog.
How can you help? You can sign their petition to protect the Boundary Waters, donate directly to the Paddle to DC mission and/or send a note to Sens. Amy Kloubuchar and Al Franken.
Kids can learn more about the Freemans unique trip via the online Wilderness Classroom.
More Green Right Now
Copyright Copyright 2015 Greenrightnow | Distributed by Noofangle Media


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By winning in convincing fashion against the Cleveland Browns, the Steelers clinched the AFC North and a first round bye in the NFL playoffs. This gives the team an opportunity to rest an extra week before having to take the field. This is a welcome week off for the Steelers.
Several Steelers are battling injuries. Aaron Smith is trying to return from a torn triceps muscle that nearly ended his season. However, the Steelers did not place him on the injured reserve list in hopes that he could return during the playoffs. Troy Polamalu has been nursing a painful Achilles' tendon that forced him to miss two games. Ben Roethlisberger has a broken nose and a foot injury that has hampered him.
While the bye week is just what the doctor ordered for the Pittsburgh Steelers, it can be an anxious time for their fans. There are some important questions on the mind of Steelers fans this week.
Who will the Pittsburgh Steelers face?
As the second seed in the playoffs, the Steelers will play the highest remaining seed after the Wild Card round has been played. This means the Steelers definitely will not play the sixth seed New York Jets.
That leaves potential matchups against the Baltimore Ravens, Kansas City Chiefs, or Indianapolis Colts.
Of these three potential opponents, which team will provide the most favorable matchup for the Pittsburgh Steelers?
The following slides will discuss the two Wild Card matchups in the AFC and the possible implications for the Steelers.


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MONTGOMERY, Alabama --- The Alabama Senate today passed a proposed local constitutional amendment to dissolve the Prichard Water Works and Sewer Board and move its assets and liabilities to the Mobile Area Water and Sewer System.
The bill, by Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, now moves to the House of Representatives. If it passes there, it would have to be approved by Mobile County voters on June 3.
Voters statewide approved a constitutional amendment in 2012 to abolish the Prichard Water Board. But the state Supreme Court ruled last year that the legislation was not properly approved.
United Concerned Citizens of Prichard, a community activist group, has long campaigned to dissolve the Prichard Water Board because of high water bills.
The Prichard City Council passed a resolution last week to oppose Figures' legislation.
The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 25-0, with 3 abstentions.


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A Penn Twp. resident expressed concern over proposed utility lines along Butchershop Road at a Jan. 28 supervisors meeting.
Garry Raub said lines and poles PPL wanted to install would run past his farm, and he wasn't in favor of the proposal.
Raub told supervisors he called PPL, which said different routes were viable and that the electricity wouldn't be used for Butchershop Road residents, but to Shermans Dale.
"It's a burden," Raub told supervisors. "The poles will make it less efficient to farm. It's nice and scenic without the poles.'
Supervisors said the issue had been discussed with PPL and Embarq, which wanted to hang lines off the poles. After a brief executive session, supervisors directed secretary Helen Klinepeter to draft a letter informing PPL they would not approve the poles, but would consider underground lines.
In other business, supervisors:
— Agreed to write a letter to the niece of a Penn Twp. resident regarding a handicapped placard on Mountain Street.
The woman said her uncle is handicapped and that many park in front of his house, making it difficult to get him in and out of vehicles.
The woman wanted permission to install a handicapped placard in front of his house. Supervisors said they have yet to receive a letter from the man's doctor about his disability. Klinepeter was directed to write a letter, stating the proposal is under consideration.
– Set 7 p.m., Feb. 23, for a conditional hearing regarding Abundant Harvest Church. The Duncannon-based organization wants to move to the former Duncannon Family Health Center building.
-— Heard from Henry Holman III, former chairman of the municipal authority, who reported that municipal authority members are going door to door in the township for surveys. The surveys are required by mid-February for the purposes of grants for the next five years.
— Approved a $1,502 contract with the Humane Society for animal pick-up and drop-off services.
— Were told by Perdix Fire Company President Jodi Rissinger that the township's $27,000 donation "is not sufficient to provide adequate protection for the year.'
Rissinger asked supervisor Henry Holman when meetings regarding the proposed "fire tax' would begin. Supervisors agreed last month to discuss the proposal, to ensure adequate funding for both Perdix and Duncannon fire companies. Supervisors said they would be in contact.
Additionally, Kevin Bissonnette, a member of Duncannon Fire Company, submitted the company's annual report. The company responded to 245 calls in 2008, with 77 being in Penn Twp.
Bissonnette told supervisors the company's tower truck would be taken out of service indefinitely, due to no funding available for repairs.
— Heard from planning commission members regarding engineering costs.
Members said they would no longer have engineering firm Rettew Engineering review plans exclusively, due to the high costs. The engineers still would be contracted for hourly work, but not for plan review costs.


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UNESCO's Media Development Indicators at the Brazilian House of Representatives
The Commissions for Minorities and Human Rights and Participatory Legislation of the House of Representatives of Brazil held a public hearing on June 23th, to launch and debate the Portuguese version of UNESCO's "Media Development Indicators".
The public hearing program, chaired by Congresswoman Iriny Lopes, included presentations by senior officials, congressmen and women, researchers, and representatives of the Brazilian Association of Broadcasting (ABRA) and civil society organizations.
Participants welcomed the Media Development Indicators, endorsed in 2008 by UNESCO's International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) as a unique diagnostic tool for assessing the media system at national level. They urged Brazilian authorities to take them into account, especially during discussions on the new regulatory framework for media.
By introducing these indicators in the national debate in Brazil, UNESCO hopes to help integrate the country into the international media development agenda, and encourage it to implement actions that promote the free flow of ideas, which is an important part of the Organization's mandate.
UNESCO's Media Development Indicators offer a comprehensive view of the media landscape of a given country, focusing on five major interrelated categories: a) Legal and regulatory framework; b) Plurality and diversity of media; c) Media as a platform for democratic discourse; d) Professional capacity building; and e) Infrastructural capacity.
They are the result of an international consultation process involving specialists and media organizations from all regions of the world in an effort to ensure that the diversity and complexity of the media industry around the world be adequately reflected in the document.
The Media Development Indicators now exist in eight languages. The Portuguese version, translated with the support of Ford Foundation, is available for download on the UNESCO website.
The public hearing was recorded and can be watched here.
<- Back to: News articles


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I am disturbed by the speedy release of the Saudi national. It takes longer than 15 hours to investigate all of Abdul al-Harbi's relatives, friends, acquaintances, and business and school friends.
Dan F opined, " If it turns out that the demon who carried out this atrocity was motivated by Islamic political doctrine (jihad), will our Islamophile president come clean and give us all the facts, wherever they may lead? This may sound impertinent but it's not. We have any number of examples of Obama running interference for Islamist motivation, including "work accidents" such as Major Nidal Hasan's shooting rampage at Fort Hood and Obama's ongoing cover-up of Benghazi, to name just two." ...... one liberal idiot writing for Salon hoped for out loud, "A white American." Who can say for sure? We'll just have to wait for the authorities to tell us. Then see how the Administration and their media-arm spin it"
Saudi terror cell, possibly al Qaeda, behind Boston Marathon bombings. Manhunt for escaped suspect Debka
FBI Special Agent Richard Deslauriers told reporters Tuesday, April 16, that the probe had no leads 18 hours after two explosions blew up at the annual Boston Marathon's finishing line, killing three people and injuring 176 – 17 critically. debkafile's counterterrorism sources can disclose however that the investigation has in fact homed in on a suspected terror cell of three Saudi nationals, very possibly tied to Al Qaeda.
The flat they share in the Revere, Massachusetts, near Boston, was searched after the questioning of one of the suspects, a Saudi student, who was hospitalized with badly burned hands. One of his flatmates was taken into custody over "visa problems." A third is on the run. All three hail from a prominent Saudi family belonging to a tribe from the Asir province bordering on Yemen.
The search for the wanted man led to the grounding of a plane at Logan International Airport Tuesday. The investigation has meanwhile broadened out to places in and outside Boston in a search for the cell's accomplices.
The origins of the Saudi cell, if confirmed, strongly suggest that Al Qaeda of Arabia – AQAP –succeeded in planting a cell in the United States for the bombing attack in Boston – and possibly more than one in other parts of the US. Asir Province is known as a hotbed of resistance to the Saudi throne in Riyadh.
US law enforcement authorities in charge of the probe are refusing to confirm any suspects are in custody, or even leads to whoever carried out the bombings. President Barack Obama said in his second statement in 24 hours: "…we don't know if who was behind the bombings were foreign, domestic or individual." The President was forced to admit for the first time that the FBI was investigating "an act of terror."
Here's what we know.
The pressure-cooker bombs that exploded in the viewing area of the Boston Marathon have long been favored by terrorists across the globe. The two used in Monday's attack are similar to devices in the failed 2010 Times Square bombing and the 2006 Mumbai train bombings that killed more than 200 people, officials said.
"This is done just to harm people. It's the explosive pressure that explodes out and tears the metal at like 200 mph."
Pressure cookers have become terrorists' bomb casing of choice because security teams usually remove garbage cans and mailboxes in advance of high-profile or sensitive events, Horace added. Pressure cookers are common in South Asia and the Middle East and don't usually arouse suspicion there, according to an Interagency Counter Terrorism Task Force advisory sent out to NYPD and other first-responders yesterday.
When American citizen Faisal Shahzad tried to blow up Times Square with a SUV-load of explosives in 2010, he used a pressure-cooker bomb packed with 120 firecrackers as part of the payload.
Authorities also found two pressure cookers — along with other bomb-making materials — in the Texas hotel room of Naser Jason Abdo, an Army private arrested in 2011 for allegedly plotting to blow up a restaurant full of GIs.
The inexpensive bomb casings are used with greater frequency outside the United States, especially in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. (NY Post)
Walid Shoebat raises a number of important questions here and here.
""Innocent" Saudi has ties to several Al-Qaeda Terrorists" on April 17, 201
A couple of weeks ago we warned America about the very serious problem of Saudi infiltration; many of these Saudi nationals are criminals and terrorists.
After the bombings, a Saudi by the name of Abdul Rahman Ali Al-Harbi was hospitalized and became a 'suspect', then a 'person of interest'. His apartment was searched by federal and local authorities. No confirmation has been given so far to his involvement. The Media were quick to claim his innocence, of course.
This brings us to the Boston marathon bombings. Foreign Policy is reporting that he's 'no longer a person of interest', which means he's "innocent", right?
Perhaps a quick look at the Arabic sources should raise the eyebrows of every American relative to the extent of the problem at hand. Many from Al-Harbi's clan are steeped in terrorism and are members of Al-Qaeda. Out of a list of 85 terrorists listed by the Saudi government shows several of Al-Harbi clan to have been active fighters in Al-Qaeda:
#15 Badr Saud Uwaid Al-Awufi Al-Harbi
#73 Muhammad Atiq Uwaid Al-Awufi Al-Harbi
#26 Khalid Salim Uwaid Al-Lahibi Al-Harbi
#29 Raed Abdullah Salem Al-Thahiri Al-Harbi
#43 Abdullah Abdul Rahman Muhammad Al-Harbi (leader)
#60 Fayez Ghuneim Humeid Al-Hijri Al-Harbi
Source: http://aalhameed1.net/vb/showthread.php?t=1565
Then you have Al-Harbi clan members in Gitmo:
Salim Salman Awadallah Al-Sai'di Al-Harbi
Majid Abdullah Hussein Al-Harbi
Muhammad Abdullah Saqr Al-Alawi Al-Harbi
Ghanem Abdul Rahman Ghanem Al-Harbi
Muhammad Atiq Uwaid Al-Awfi Al-Harbi
Source: http://www.muslm.net/vb/showthread.php?169019-أسماء-(90)-سعودياً-لا-زالوا-محتجزين-في-جوانتانامو
There are specific Saudi clans that are rife with members of Al-Qaeda, which makes it quite alarming as to why nearly a hundred thousand student visas are issued to these. Americans are clueless as to clan ties when it comes to terrorism.
Lesson one: Terrorism and crime by the Saudis is interlinked extensively within families, as we see in the Harbi clan.
Let me explain. Americans will never find the Kaczynski Clan official website supporting Ted Kaczynski.
Saudi Arabia is a far different story.
Take Khalid Aldawsari, a Saudi national. He is a student and an Al-Qaeda terrorist who planned to use weapons of mass destruction in the U.S., to include an attempted assassination of president Bush. Aldawsari was not a lone wolf; he was backed by an entire system. The wealthy and powerful Aldawsari clan, which includes the powerful Sheik Saud Bin Mut'ab who hosted a support group for the terrorist defending him publicly while funding his legal team.
Just translate "We are all Khalid Dawsari" into Arabic and see how much support the terrorist gets. The Aldawsari clan's main website (alduwasser.net) keeps track of everything that goes with every comment in support for the terrorist linking to other supporting groups.There are several "Aldawsari" troublemakers. Mohammad al-Wada'ani Aldawsari openly calls for the removal of the Saudi Kingdom and Khalid Aldawsari does not mind relying on the help of his enemies, stating (see page 10) that he was admitted into the United States with the help of what he termed "the traitor of the two holy places". This would be a reference to the King of Saudi Arabia himself, which sends a hundred thousand of his students to the United States, Aldawsari's favorite target.


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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Browns have said farewell to linebacker D'Qwell Jackson, their undisputed team leader and the longest-tenured member of the team.
Jackson, an eight-year veteran of the Browns, was released by the club before they had to pay him a $4.1 million roster bonus on March 15.
Jackson, the Browns second-round pick in 2006 out of Maryland, is now free to sign with any NFL team.
He issued this statement Wednesday afternoon following the news of his release:
To the people of Cleveland and Browns fans everywhere: 8 years ago I began a journey that blessed me with the opportunity to be a part of a wonderful organization and community. I want to take this time to thank each and every one of you for opening your arms and hearts to my family and I, and for making Cleveland an easy place to love and call home. Its been an honor playing in front of you.
I also would like to thank the Browns players, coaches, and staff for their tireless work and commitment. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you all and will always carry you with me.
D'Qwell Jackson
Browns general manager Ray Farmer also issued a statement through the team:
We had positive discussion with D'Qwell and his agent over the last several days, and we came to the mutual agreement to go in different directions.
D'Qwell is the epitome of class, leadership and professionalism. Every day of his NFL career, D'Qwell has been a solid representative of the Browns and the City of Cleveland, both between the lines on Sundays and off the field in our area community. We want to thank him for his eight years of service and wish him nothing but the best in his future endeavors."
At the NFL Scouting Combine last week in Indianapolis, Browns coach Mike Pettine declined to comment on whether or not the Browns would pay the bonus, but raved about Jackson's leadership ability.
"He came into town. It was within the first week I was hired…he bounced right up to the office and you could tell he's special,'' said Pettine. "He and I sat down and had a great meeting. It's easy to see why he's so highly thought of, the leadership ability and the intangibles to me are off the chart.''
Jackson signed a five-year extension last year through 2016 worth $42.5 million -- including $19 million in guarantees and bonuses. In addition to the $4.1 million roster bonus, Jackson was set to make $3.93 million this season. His salaries for 2015 and 2016 were $7.73 million and $7 million, respectively.
During the last week of the season, Jackson said he would be "absolutely'' shocked if he wasn't back in 2014.
"I don't even like talking about it,'' Jackson said Dec. 27. "I know it's a business and things change all the time, but as far as I'm concerned, I haven't thought about that one time. I feel good in my position where I am. From what I know, I'm part of the plans, I'll be here next year.''
Jackson was arguably the most beloved member of the Browns by players and coaches alike.
"D'Qwell has been a coach's dream as far as leadership, intelligence,'' then-defensive coordinator Ray Horton said last season. "He demands a lot from himself and his teammates. He really is a locker room coach (with) some of the things he says after the game and at halftime."
Jackson and his agent Brian Mackler weren't anticipating the Browns to ask him to restructure his deal (his salary-cap number is $8.1 million next season) based on the fine season he had, "but if that was the case, I trust my team would get something done,'' Jackson said in December.
The Browns and Jackson are believed to have discussed a restructure, but Jackson and his agent ultimately decided it was best for him to move on.
Despite the Browns' 41-87 record in Jackson's eight seasons, he was still determined to return after last season -- at least before coach Rob Chudzinski was fired following a 4-12 mark.
"We've got a good, solid foundation here, I love what we're doing,'' he said in December. "I've said it all year long, the things that we're doing are first-rate, so that's been an improvement from years past. So I'll be the first in line to say I want to be here for the future. No one from the front office has let me know or my agent know that I wasn't a part of their plans. so that's the best way I can say it.''
Jackson said it would be hard to imagine playing anywhere else.
"Now I'm stuck to Cleveland,'' he said. "It's going to be hard to go somewhere else and play. I know it's the nature of the business, things may change and I'm fully aware of that. Right now, I'm a Cleveland Brown through and through.''


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HOLMDEL – Authorities are investigating suspicious food tampering incidents connected to a Route 35 market.
On two occasions between Jan 20 and Jan. 27, the Holmdel Township Police Department received reports of "suspicious incidents" of razor blades being found inside a stick Kerrygold butter, Lt. Keith Cannata of the Holmdel Police Department said in a press release Thursday night.
Both of the sticks of butter had been recently purchased from Best Market in the Commons at Holmdel on Route 35, Cannata said.
The Food and Drug Administration and Best Market were notified, and all butter was removed from local stores, police said.
The Holmdel Township Police Department is asking anyone who has had a similar incident or who may have additional information on these instances to contact Detective Andrew Kret at 732-946-4400 ext. 1713.More Monmouth County news: NJ.com/monmouth | Twitter | Facebook


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The Oregonian
Willamette Week
Over the past year and a half, The Oregonian has dedicated itself to exposing the rise of methamphetamine addiction. Beginning with its five-part series "Unnecessary Epidemic" in October 2004 and continuing through this month, reporters have hunted down the causes of the outbreak, revealing a web of international suppliers and offering solutions that previously languished because of a lack of political will.
Devoting at least 261 stories to the subject in the past year and a half, The Oregonian's ongoing investigation is an example of what can happen when a newspaper decides to lead a campaign against a social ill. In part because of the daily's coverage, Congress has passed tough anti-meth laws and Oregon has become the home base for a rising national uproar over the powerful stimulant.
But there is a darker side to the newspaper's achievement.
In its effort to convince the world of the threats posed by meth, The Oregonian has sacrificed accuracy. According to an analysis of the paper's reporting, a review of drug-use data and conversations with addiction experts, The Oregonian has relied on bad statistics and a rhetoric of crisis, ultimately misleading its readers into believing they face a far greater scourge than the facts support.
Few local media watchers are willing to criticize The Oregonian's coverage of the meth problem. But skepticism about the growing frenzy has begun to appear in the pages of major papers across the country, from The Wall Street Journal to The New York Times, where columnist John Tierney recently wrote that politicians have become so meth-obsessed, "they've lost sight of their duties."
Miami Herald media critic Glenn Garvin, who is critical of national drug reporting, says he is disappointed in The Oregonian's reliance on shaky numbers.
"This idea that we are in a meth hell, it is just not right," he says. "It does not comport to the numbers. It's nonsensical."
The implications of The Oregonian's meth obsession are twofold.
Through its focus on meth as the cause of so much pain and loss, the paper has skewed the truth at a time when journalism's integrity faces increased scrutiny. In addition, the constant coverage, with a wide reach into Salem and even into Washington, D.C., has rearranged governmental spending priorities, perhaps without justification, amid continued budgetary belt-tightening that has already forced cuts in education and health care.
The Oregonian defends its reporting, which has earned national and local awards for investigative journalism. Others, especially addiction-treatment experts, worry that the coverage has focused too narrowly on the evils of one drug.
Dr. Jim Thayer, medical director of the Portland addiction-treatment center Hooper Detox, says The Oregonian's reporting has helped create this "feeling of hysteria. The media latched onto this thing that's been going on for years. I just worry that they'll take resources away that have been working for years and just put them into meth."
Any reader of The Oregonian over the past 18 months would have to conclude that we stand at the epicenter of an incomparably profound and growing epidemic, a human tragedy perpetrated by a single drug that acts on the central nervous system to produce an hours-long high of unmatched euphoria, energy and well-being. Coming down off a long high can leave users depressed and physically exhausted.
The sentiment of The Oregonian's coverage was established in the title of its 2004 series, "Unnecessary Epidemic," and buttressed by subsequent stories in language that beat the drum of crisis.
The newspaper's editorials sounded the loudest alarm.
The editorials refer to "communities ravaged by an epidemic of meth-fueled crime and social breakdown" (Nov. 20, 2005) and describe the stimulant as a "plague" ravaging Portland neighborhoods and reaching almost every state in the country (Sept. 30, 2005).
Such characterizations by the paper's editorial board draw on conclusions reached in the daily's news stories. The first paragraph of the "Unnecessary Epidemic" series' first story said meth "was devastating the West." Stories both local and national in scope refer repeatedly to an "epidemic." The word has appeared in 91 Oregonian stories on meth since October 2004.
On Feb. 20 of this year, columnist S. Renee Mitchell wrote, without offering data to back up her claim: "The number of meth addicts—and the crimes they commit to support their habits—is exploding."
The Oregonian's reporting even prompted the investigative television program Frontline to visit Portland in the summer of 2005 to shoot a documentary for public broadcasting. The Meth Epidemic was produced in cooperation with The Oregonian and Oregon Public Broadcasting. Oregonian reporter Steve Suo, who has done much of the paper's meth reporting, says he collaborated on the project and reviewed the script line by line.
The resulting hourlong broadcast paints Portland as a war zone of marauding meth-heads. Against the crackling backdrop of a police scanner, an officer arrests a man who says his mother introduced him to meth. The voiceover intones, "This is the story of a disease that is sweeping across America. It begins here, in Portland, Oregon, where an epidemic is raging, an epidemic of methamphetamine abuse."
One haggard-looking woman sitting inside a Portland trailer says, "I think meth has destroyed this community. I think, in all reality, I think they need to take a bomb and blow it all up. It's that bad."
Maybe not.
In fact, meth use during the past four years has either declined or stayed flat, according to two major national drug-use studies. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health shows that meth use did not increase at all from 2002 (two years before The Oregonian started its carpet-bombing coverage) through 2004, the last year for which there is data. The University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future Study, which examines drug use among youth, actually shows a decline in meth use among high-school students from 1999 to 2005.
In its defense, The Oregonian insists its coverage has hinged on a long-term rise in meth abuse, not the trends of the past several years. But a review of The Oregonian's coverage found no reference to the evidence that meth use had begun to plateau or even decline before its ongoing coverage began in 2004.
Asked if an average reader of The Oregonian would be likely to conclude that meth use was continuing to rise, Suo said, "I don't know. That's a good question."
A chief way The Oregonian makes the case for rising meth abuse is by pointing to drug-treatment data compiled by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which conducts the national drug-use survey. The administration has published several studies showing a steady increase in the number of people receiving treatment for meth from 1993 through 2003.
Oregonian crime-team editor Tom Maurer, who oversees a good deal of the paper's meth coverage, cited the most recent report as an indicator of increased meth use.
Problem is, a rising number of people receiving treatment is far from proof that the number of addicts is also rising.
In fact, a footnote in the very study cited by The Oregonian cautions that the rise in treatment comes primarily from an increase in the number of arrestees ordered by drug courts to enroll in addiction programs.
The Oregonian has not mentioned this fact. Nor has it explored other factors that make it hard to draw conclusions from treatment data, like the rising and falling availability of state-funded services.
Suo says he and his editors reviewed the issues with treatment data and decided they didn't change the paper's conclusions.
"We explored those potential problems and addressed them to our own satisfaction," Suo says.
Locally, the size of the meth epidemic is even less clear. There is no good count of the total number of Oregon meth users, nor any clear measure of whether that number is growing. While local treatment numbers also show an increase, that barometer suffers from the same pitfalls afflicting national treatment data, including a rising number of people coerced into treatment by drug courts.
The Oregonian has also blurred the distinctions among recreational users, regular users and addicts, suggesting a far higher level of dependence than actually exists.
On March 3 of this year, The Oregonian described meth as "a potent stimulant now consumed by 1.4 million Americans from Oregon to the Carolinas."
A reader could draw several conclusions from this sentence: that 1.4 million people use meth every day, use it regularly or have tried it once.
In fact, the number, which comes from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, refers to those people who report using meth at least once in the past year. They may have used it one time or 100.
According to the same study, fewer than 600,000 people report using meth within the past month—a closer approximation of addiction, according to drug-abuse experts.
Multnomah County addiction-program director Ray Hudson says it would be inaccurate to say all of the 1.4 million people who reported using meth in the past year are "users" or "addicts."
"It's a very coarse yardstick," he says, adding that most meth addicts would never go off the drug for an entire month.
As evidence of the social costs of the epidemic, The Oregonian has often reported that meth "fuels" 85 percent of the state's property crimes. The statistic—which has fluctuated between 80 and 90 percent—has appeared in at least 14 stories over the past four years, each time without any skepticism and four times without any attribution.
It's an amazing detail. And it's probably false.
When asked where the number came from, The Oregonian credited Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who used it in an op-ed piece published Oct. 5, 2004. Contacted by WW, the governor's office couldn't remember where the stat originated but said it was confirmed by Craig Durbin, the former state police commander for drug enforcement.
Durbin says the figure had been in wide circulation during the summer of 2004 and he decided to verify its accuracy on his own. "So I made an informal poll," he says. Durbin says he called several of Oregon's three dozen district attorneys (he cannot recall which ones or how many), and all agreed that meth caused about 85 percent of property crimes.
Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schrunk—who oversees the state's largest, most urban court system—says he can't remember Durbin calling to conduct a poll on meth and property crime. Nor could Schrunk's two deputy district attorneys assigned to prosecute drug cases and felony property crimes. All three men say they are well aware of a strong correlation between property crime and meth, but they are unaware of any statistical analysis to prove that connection.
Despite The Oregonian's reliance on this figure, there is no good evidence that meth causes 85 percent of the property crimes in Oregon.
Portland State University criminology professor Kris Henning says the number just doesn't make sense. Department chair Annette Jolin says the unsupportable statistic has become "something of a joke"among statistical researchers in the department.
For one thing, Oregon property crimes are much lower than they were 10 or even 20 years ago, the time period of the supposed meth "epidemic."
"If meth causes property offenses, and meth use has gone up," Henning says, "then property offenses should have gone up. And they haven't. It's either that, or all the people who commit property crimes have disappeared and been replaced by a small number of meth users."
Henning also wonders how a prosecutor could know for a fact that meth had been the underlying motivation for a crime. He adds, "A lot of the people committing the property crimes would probably be doing them regardless of whether they were addicted to methamphetamines."
Still, Durbin believes the 85 percent figure is accurate. He says his personal experience working the drug detail reinforces his belief in the accuracy of the statistic.
"I worked on the street for four and a half years," he says. "The unique thing about methamphetamine is that you can't work [because of the nature of the high]. You either produce it yourself, deal it, or you steal to support your habit."
Unlike marijuana or ecstasy, Durbin says, meth can hook users the first time. "Most often within a couple times of use, you're addicted," he says. "Some people, it's the first time they use."
Hudson, the addiction-program manager for Multnomah County, cautions against such blanket statements. People can use meth and not get addicted, he says, adding, a little nervously, "I'm not going to go around saying you can do these drugs and not get addicted. That would be crazy."
Hudson recalls the 1937 movie Reefer Madness, which linked smoking marijuana with an instantaneous plunge into crime and debauchery. He says the movie is now held up as a way not to talk about drugs.
"Trying to scare people with things that really aren't true," he says, "is really self-defeating."
Tom Bivins, who teaches journalism ethics at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication, says it's irresponsible for a newspaper to publish statistics without fully understanding how researchers obtained them. Bivins commented on The Oregonian's use of statistics after WW presented him with specific examples.
"If there's no study, it baffles how you can report a statistic like that," Bivins says, adding that in order to come up with the 85 percent statistic, researchers would need to keep track of the motivations of every crime, a near-impossibility. "Other than that, it's basically hearsay."
Oregonian crime-team editor Maurer says Portland and state police have repeatedly told his reporters that the number is accurate. Maurer admits they have not always attributed the number to police and, in an emailed response to WW's questions, wrote, "We should have."
Reporter Suo admits the 85 percent figure cannot be backed up with data. "I don't think it's a perfect figure," he says. "It's a piece of anecdotal evidence."
The children of the meth epidemic have become the emotional center of The Oregonian's coverage. On Aug. 28, 2005, The Oregonian's Sunday edition ran a front-page story with the headline, "Oregon's meth epidemic creates thousands of 'orphans.'"
Reporter Joseph Rose cited a new study by the state Department of Human Services that linked half of the state's foster-care cases to meth. He wrote, "Last year, roughly 2,750 children—more than half of all foster cases—were taken from parents using or making the potent drug, the study found" (WW's emphasis added).
The only hitch: There was no study. "We don't have a formal report," DHS spokeswoman Patricia Feeny says, adding, "When I use the word 'study.' I think there's going to be a product, a report."
Not only is there no document, DHS doesn't even track whether children are taken from their homes because of meth.
Instead, DHS coordinator Jay Wurscher compared a list of 2004 foster-care cases—containing the names of parents and other adults—with a database of people who had received treatment for meth. He came up with a roughly 50 percent match.
Wurscher's comparison did not show whether meth use specifically caused the children to be taken from their homes. The analysis did, however, reveal a possible correlation between the drug and child abuse.
But The Oregonian did not describe the findings as a correlation or an association. The paper wrote that "meth creates thousands of orphans," and later that meth "fuels" 50 percent of the state's foster-care cases.
The Oregonian's reports suggested to many readers, Wurscher concedes, that if meth were eliminated, 50 percent of the state's foster-care cases would evaporate as well. After the media began linking meth with foster care, Wurscher says, DHS employees have had to explain that getting rid of meth would not solve the problem of bad parenting.
The story ran with a picture of a child being removed from her home, with a caption that said police were investigating her parents for meth abuse. More than a week later, The Oregonian's public editor wrote a column explaining that the child's parents were not associated with the drug and that the photo had been misleading.
Surprisingly, nearly a year before crediting DHS with the statistic, reporter Rose stated it as fact. In November 2004, he wrote, "Methamphetamine is the leading reason Oregon children are removed from their homes."
Rose did not return calls for comment.
Like the 85 percent statistic, the large percentage of meth-related foster care cases would suggest a recent surge in the number of children being intercepted by social workers—which has not happened, according to state foster-care data.
Jacob Sullum, a senior editor at the libertarian Reason magazine, says he understands the temptation to print big statistics. Sullum has been a frequent critic of meth hyperbole and the war on drugs in general.
"It makes a better story," he says. "It's certainly striking. That makes it seem like a really big problem and something to write about and something to read about. There's always a chemical menace of the day that people focus all their fears on. At another time it was crack, at another it was marijuana. The hazards are always exaggerated, and the response is not necessarily rational."
The response is often to focus on one drug as the main cause of spiraling social ills rather than one of many causes.
University of California-Santa Cruz sociologist Craig Reinarman, who has studied the war on drugs for 30 years, says media reports fuel a governmental reaction that emphasizes imprisonment and law enforcement over social services and health care.
"These stories are pointed to as evidence of the epidemic and the horrible things that are caused by the epidemic," Reinarman says. "And tax dollars are diverted away from the underlying sources of people's troubles."
The Oregonian's reporting has indeed inspired increased spending on meth-focused law enforcement.
In August 2005, the Oregon Legislature passed a bill requiring cold medications containing a raw ingredient for meth—psuedoephedrine—to be sold behind the counter. Just this month, the U.S. Congress passed the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act, which will regulate the sale and importation of pseudoephedrine and ephedrine, another precursor ingredient, and devote more than $100 million to fight the drug, mostly with beefed-up law enforcement.
When the law passed, Indiana Republican Rep. Mark Souder told an Oregonian reporter, "You became the source of information for members in Washington. If they were following meth, they were following to see what you were writing."
A very visible consequence of The Oregonian's coverage has taken place on the state's political battlefield, where meth has squeezed out issues that are equally or more important. Political hopefuls in Oregon regularly deliver get-tough-on-meth pledges worthy of the war on terror. Gov. Ted Kulongoski has incorporated meth into his maneuvering for the upcoming May primary. Earlier this month, his staff summoned television news cameras to a children's center in Oregon City, where the governor had heart-to-hearts with "meth moms" and called for more money for drug courts and treatment programs.
A Republican contender for governor, Ron Saxton, has joined the rush to battle. In a campaign ad on his website, Saxton calls meth a plague and promises to give "law enforcement the tools to fight this war."
And in perhaps the most far-flung example of shifting priorities, a partnership lobbying to build a new private casino in east Multnomah County (at the old greyhound track) has pledged to give 2 percent of all revenues to the fight against one drug: meth.
THE NUMBER OF AMERICANS WHO REPORT USING METH IN THE PAST MONTH tops heroin, but is less than cocaine, hallucinogenics, and non-medical use of prescription painkillers.
In 2003, 35 percent of the people arrested for property crimes in Multnomah County tested positive for methamphetamine. About 37 percent of those charged with violent crimes tested positive for the rage-inducing super drug marijuana.
Since police make an arrest in only about 15 percent of property crimes, criminologists say it's difficult to draw conclusions about perpetrators or their motivations based on arrest alone.
In April 2005, The Oregonian published a story on the so-called "meth tax," a calculation by economists that said every Multnomah County household paid an extra $363 for losses including $88.4 million in stolen property and $6.1 million to care for the meth orphans in foster care. The stats are misleading, however, because they rely on the O's faulty statistics linking the drug with crime and child abuse.
Steve Suo's reporting did a good job revealing the ties between overseas pharmaceutical factories and the mega-labs in California and Mexico that convert over-the-counter cold medication into the potent street drug. Suo makes the case for stemming rates of addiction by imposing restrictions on factories that produce meth's precursor ingredients.
Drug-abuse experts stress that property crimes have long been associated with drug use. While crooks' drug of choice may change from time to time, they say, the central problem is still that desperate people do desperate things.
There is little evidence that the total number of illicit drug users is on the rise.