By Jessica Dye – Reuters

05/17/2012

New York – A cancer-stricken judge in New York has become an unlikely voice in support of legalizing the use of medical marijuana with the admission that he smokes pot to ease the side-effects of his treatments.

Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Gustin Reichbach, who is being treated for pancreatic cancer, wrote in a New York Times article on Thursday that he had been using marijuana provided by friends at “great personal risk” to help him cope with the nausea, sleeplessness and loss of appetite from chemotherapy treatments.

“This is not a law-and-order issue; it is a medical and a human rights issue,” wrote Reichbach, 65, who has spent 21 years on the bench in Kings County Supreme Court, and continues to hear cases even as he receives cancer treatment.

In the past, admitting to taking a few puffs of marijuana has been enough to derail some judges’ careers. U.S. appeals court Judge Douglas Ginsburg saw his nomination for the U.S. Supreme Court go up in smoke in 1987 after admitting he had used marijuana several times in the 1960s and 1970s.

In 2011, a Georgia judge was removed from the bench for various infractions including publicly admitting to smoking pot regularly.

New York is not among the U.S. 16 states and the District of Columbia that allow medical marijuana. Cannabis remains an illegal narcotic under federal law.

Under New York’s Code for Judicial Conduct, judges are required to “respect and comply with the law.” First-time possession of less than 25 grams of marijuana is punishable by a $100 maximum fine.

While Reichbach’s editorial amounts to an admission he broke the law, his story is more likely to elicit admiration than condemnation, judicial ethics experts said.

“It’s brave and wonderful, but it’s heart-wrenching,” said Ellen Yaroshefsky, a law professor at the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law. “There are key moments in history where a judge makes a bold stand. This is one of the moments, and we should be proud of it.”

LEGAL CONSEQUENCES UNCLEAR

In New York, disciplinary actions involving judges are handled by the state’s Commission on Judicial Conduct, which reviews allegations of criminal activity and other wrongdoing and decides on an appropriate reprimand. That could range from a confidential cautionary letter to dismissal, although more serious forms of punishment require approval from the state’s chief judge.

Robert Tembeckjian, counsel for the commission, declined to say whether any inquiry could or would be opened into Reichbach’s statements.

“Information relating to the conduct of judges that appears in newspapers is routinely reviewed by the commission,” Tembeckjian said.

The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office did not immediately comment on whether any action was being contemplated against the judge. But first-time possession of a small amount of marijuana is classified only as a civil offense.

A spokesman for the state court system, David Bookstaver, also declined to address whether Reichbach might face consequences for the editorial, saying only that “everyone’s thoughts in the court system are with Justice Reichbach as he battles a very serious disease.”

One potential conflict that may arise from Reichbach’s comments is his ability to hear cases involving marijuana possession, said Monroe Freedman, a law professor at Hofstra University.

“He has admitted to unlawful conduct,” Freedman said. “Ordinarily, that could be a problem, but it’s a very narrow, specific situation and I would hope nothing would come of it that would be adverse to the judge.”

Support for medical-marijuana legislation is gaining support among New Yorkers. A poll from Siena Research Institute released on Wednesday found 57 percent of New Yorkers supported establishing a legal framework for allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana for cancer, chronic pain and other illnesses.

On Tuesday, a New York Assembly committee approved medical-marijuana legislation, and the Democratic-controlled Assembly appears poised to pass it for the third time in five years. A spokesman for the state Senate Republican majority said that chamber was unlikely to act on the measure this year.

(Reporting by Jessica Dye; Editing by Peter Cooney)

05/18/2012

WAVE and WDRB cameras capture the madness caused by a shootout in Louisville as people scramble for safety.

(AP) LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A chaotic shooting scene that had curious crowds running for cover in a crime-ridden area of Louisville left three people dead and three others hospitalized Thursday.

The scene unfolded about 1 p.m. EDT when two men were killed and two wounded in a shooting that attracted dozens of onlookers anxious for answers in the Russell neighborhood dotted with boarded-up houses. As police were investigating and a host of media gathered nearby, shots rang out about four houses down.

Two women had been arguing and one shot and killed the other, police said. The startled crowds ran for safety and officers with guns drawn headed down the street toward the shots.

Two men — Tyson Mimms, 24 and Craig Bland Jr., 22 — were killed Thursday afternoon in a shooting that attracted dozens of onlookers anxious for answers in the city’s Russell neighborhood, which is dotted with boarded-up houses.

As police investigated and a host of media gathered nearby, shots rang out about four houses down.Makeba Lee, 24, was killed after she was shot by a woman who had gotten into an argument with her about the incident, police said.

That woman was later wounded by police and taken to the hospital, Louisville Metro Police Chief Steve Conrad. Jefferson County chief deputy coroner Jo-Ann Farmer identified the three slain people on Thursday night.

Police have not released a motive for the first shooting, which also wounded at least three other people.

There appears to be no connection between the slayings, Conrad said.

“We had people at the scene yelling,” said Conrad, who spent his day in the neighborhood west of downtown working with officers in that precinct before the shootings. “I don’t know if that played a role or not. This level of violent behavior is unacceptable.”

The shootings made the day the bloodiest in Louisville since at least July 5, 2011, when four people were killed, and Oct. 6, 2008, when a mother stabbed her two children, then killed herself on the same day two other homicides took place.

Tekeya Anderson said the female victim in the second shooting was her cousin.

“I guess she was in the wrong place at the wrong time and she got shot,” Anderson said. “She came down here and she got shot.”

05/17/2012

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — A Malaysian court convicted three Mexican brothers and two other people Thursday and sentenced them to be hanged for drug trafficking.

The Mexicans are from Sinaloa state, the cradle of their country’s drug trade, but have no criminal record at home. They were arrested at a secluded drug-making factory in 2008 and claimed they had been cleaning the place, not making drugs.

Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Mohamad Zawawi Salleh ruled the prosecution had proven its case beyond reasonable doubt and imposed the death sentence, the mandatory penalty for drug trafficking in Malaysia. The other defendants are a Singaporean and a Malaysian.

“The court finds all five accused are aware and are involved in the activity of drug-making,” Mohamad Zawawi said, adding that the verdict should be a warning to potential drug offenders.

“We are very sad. We thought we would be acquitted,” said the eldest brother, Luis Alfonso Gonzales.

The court had previously rejected the defense’s contention that some evidence discrepancies amounted to tampering after a chemist testified that seven items he received for analysis looked different from what he had seen at the factory. The prosecution denied there was any manipulation that undermined the trial.

At the factory where the men were arrested, police found more than 29 kilograms (63 pounds) of methamphetamine worth 44 million ringgit ($15 million).

Judge Mohamed Zawawi said it was clear the men were arrested at an illegal drug laboratory. Traces of drug chemicals were on their clothes, and their claim to have been cleaning the place was not logical because stains were also found on their underwear, he said.

Some of the brothers’ family, including two sisters and a wife, attended previous hearings but were not in court Thursday.

The men are the first Mexicans arrested in Malaysia on drug trafficking charges. They worked making and selling bricks in Mexico, and their family said they left for a job opportunity abroad. Relatives and neighbors insist there was no sign they were involved in the drug trade.

The men appeared calm as the judge read his verdict. They will appeal the decision, said their lawyer, Kitson Foong.

The brothers — Jose Regino Gonzales, 33, Simon, 37, and Luis Alfonso, 44 — were on trial with Singaporean Lim Hung Wang and Malaysian Lee Boon Siah.

Malaysia’s government said last year it had hanged more than 440 people in the past 50 years, many of them for drug crimes, while some 700 were on death row.

The Mexican government has not sought to intervene in the case, Isidro Alejandro Ortiz Felix, consular head at the Mexican Embassy, said after attending Thursday’s hearing.

05/17/2012

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s army said it had detained a third general for questioning on Thursday, hours after a judge placed the two other officers under a form of house arrest pending an investigation for possible links to the Beltran Leyva drug cartel.

A Defense Department statement did not say specifically whether retired Gen. Ricardo Escorcia was detained in connection with same allegations pending against the other two generals, who were brought in on Tuesday.

But it did note that the detention order for Escorcia’s was issued “simultaneously with the two previous detentions, with the aim of having him testify in the investigations” being carried out by civilian prosecutors.

Escorcia retired from active service in 2010 after reaching mandatory retirement age. He previously served as head of the military base in Cuernavaca, a city just south of the Mexican capital that has been considered Beltran Leyva territory.

The leader of the cartel, Arturo Beltran Leyva, was killed in a shootout with Mexican marines at an apartment complex in Cuernavaca in 2009. The marines were reportedly called in to look for the capo after the army appeared to be slow to act on U.S. intelligence indicating the drug lord’s location, according to a leaked U.S. Embassy diplomatic cable from late 2009.

The army said that Escorcia was detained by military personnel and turned over to the Attorney General’s Office, which had no immediate comment on whether he is named in the same probe as the other two generals.

The office said in a statement earlier Thursday that the other two army officers, retired Gen. Tomas Angeles Dauahare and Gen. Roberto Dawe Gonzalez, will remain under arrest at least 40 days while prosecutors strengthen their case.

The investigation against Angeles Dauahare and Dawe Gonzalez is based on a case from 2009 that includes “the testimony of several people on trial, including some soldiers,” the office said.

An official at the Attorney General’s Office said the generals protected members of the Beltran Leyva group, which has been battling the Sinaloa cartel since 2008, when they ended an alliance. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not allowed to discuss the case.

President Felipe Calderon named Angeles Dauahare as assistant defense secretary in 2006. He left the post in 2008, when he retired. He is the highest ranking military official to be linked to drug traffickers under the current administration.

Dawe Gonzalez is currently assigned to a military base in the western state of Colima.

Angeles Dauahare’s lawyer, Alejandro Ortega, told The Associated Press Thursday he hasn’t been given access to court files or allowed to talk to his client. He said the general told his wife he is being accused of taking money from associates of Edgar Valdez Villareal, who was allegedly top hit man for Beltran Leyva. Valdez Villareal was arrested in 2010.

Ortega said the general supports himself with an army pension and owns a house and an apartment. He said the general’s wife also owns a house she inherited.

A few senior military officers have been arrested for alleged links to traffickers during Mexico’s long struggle to control the cartels.

Retired Gen. Juan Manuel Barragan Espinosa was detained in February for alleged links to organized crime and Gen. Manuel Moreno Avina and 29 soldiers who were under his command in the border town of Ojinaga, across the border from Presidio, Texas, are being tried on charges of torture, homicide, drug trafficking and other crimes.

In 1997, Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo was arrested when he was Mexico’s drug czar. He was charged with protecting then-cocaine kingpin Amado Carrillo Fuentes.

More than 47,000 people have been killed in drug violence since Calderon deployed thousands of soldiers to drug hotspots, according to government figures.

AP, The Washington Post

MEXICO CITY – Mexican authorities arrested eight alleged members of the Gulf cartel, related to the murders of 49 people found last weekend in the town of Cadereyta, Nuevo Leon, said the Ministry of National Defense (SEDENA).

In a statement, the Department of Defense reported that the arrests were made in the municipality of China, in the state of Nevo Leon, when staff of the 7th Military Zone performed their routine surveys.

The detainees had rifles, one handgun, three grenades, 881 rounds of ammunition, and 34 magazines.

Those captured were made available to appropriate authorities.

Authorities in Nuevo Leon analyzed a video of the time the bodies of 49 people were abandoned in the highway to Reynosa, in the municipality of Cadereyta Jimenez.

Governor Rodrigo Medina said that the technical area of ​​the attorney general of Nuevo Leon (PGJNL) is reviewing the images that spread through social networks, but this will take time. “You have to analyze it thoroughly, one must perform forensic evidence for that video and then the attorney will issue an opinion,” he said.

Meanwhile the investigations continue with the exchange of information between state attorneys regarding disappearances. The goal is to compare DNA samples from family members with these victims. The idea is to check “on the national DNA bank in cases of disappearance that could be related,” the governor said. “We need to complement the technical and scientific information we have with the request of citizens or institutions,” he explained.

by REBECCA LOPEZ – WFAA

DALLAS – Around lunchtime Wednesday at Reconciliation Academy, a teacher noticed her four-year-old student with something unusual.

“The teacher noticed the child putting something in his pocket and said, ‘Show me what is in your pocket,’” said Principal Michael Partain.

The child had what police say was crack cocaine.

“The student had a wrapped plastic package with a rubber band around it,” Partain said.

Dallas police narcotics officers and Child Protective Services were called to the school to investigate. Police said the little boy told them the drugs belonged to his dad, Joshua Ruiz.

According to court documents, the child said, “He left it on the table in the living room. So he [said] he put the bag in his pocket and brought it to school.”

Administrators do not believe any students ingested or used any drugs.

Police were sent to the child’s home. They say they saw Ruiz put a black plastic bag in his car. He was pulled over and inside police say they found a box with more crack cocaine and heroin.

He was arrested for child endangerment, as was the child’s mother, Christy Ruiz. Joshua Ruiz was also charged with the manufacure and delivery of both cocaine and heroin, which are both felonies.

Police said Christy Ruiz knew about the drugs and allowed it.

05/17/2012

The Atlantic – In Focus – Alan Taylor

Since Mexico’s President Felipe Calderón began an all-out assault on drug cartels in 2006, more than 50,000 people have lost their lives across the country in a nearly-continuous string of shootouts, bombings, and ever-bloodier murders. Just last weekend, 49 decapitated bodies were reportedly discovered on a highway in northern Mexico. The New York Times reports on an increasing numbness and apathy among Mexicans after years of worsening carnage, about which they’ve been able to do virtually nothing. Gathered here is a collection of recent photographs from Mexico’s drug war and the people so horribly affected by it. [44 photos]

Warning: All images in this entry are shown in full. There are many dead bodies; the photographs are graphic and stark. This is the reality of the situation in Mexico right now.

Great work. Check the photos in The Atlantic
Link: 50,000 Dead in 6 Years

MATT GUTMAN, SENI TIENABESO, and COLLEEN CURRY – ABC News

05/17/2012

Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old who was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer, had the drug THC in his system the night of this death, according to new information obtained by ABC News.

The revelation came as prosecutors in the case prepared to release to the public hundreds of pages of new evidence along with videos and crime scene photos.

Martin’s death sparked public outrage after police released Martin’s shooter, George Zimmerman, without any criminal charges for the killing.

Zimmerman, 28, is a multi-racial Hispanic man who shot the black high school junior at close range on Feb. 26, and claimed self-defense, though Martin was unarmed. Zimmerman was later charged with second-degree murder, and the killing provoked widespread debate about racial profiling.

The autopsy report shows traces of the drug THC, which is found in marijuana, in Martin’s blood and urine.

The autopsy also shows that Zimmerman shot Martin from a distance of between 1 inch and 18 inches away, bolstering Zimmerman’s claim that he shot Martin during a struggle that landed Zimmerman on his back, Martin straddling him and banging Zimmerman’s head on the ground.

Martin’s autopsy report also revealed that there was a quarter-inch by half-inch abrasion on the left fourth finger of Martin, another indication of a possible struggle. The teen, who lived in Miami, was in Sanford while serving a suspension for a bag of marijuana being discovered in his possession.

Later today, a trove of documents that are part of the discovery in Zimmerman’s trial are expected to be released on a website run by the state’s attorney, including 67 CDs worth of documents, video of Martin on the night of the shooting, his autopsy report and videos of Zimmerman’s questioning by police.

05/17/2012

Mary Kennedy, who turned to drink and drugs over rumours of her husband’s alleged philandering, hanged herself in a barn on their New York estate.

Tragedy has followed the Kennedys – regarded as political royalty in the US.

Mary’s husband is the son of former Senator Robert F Kennedy and nephew of former President John F Kennedy who were both assassinated in the 1960s.

The couple married in 1994. Pals said the 52-year-old may have killed herself yesterday because of the upset caused by her broken marriage. Her husband, 58, filed for divorce in 2010.

One close family friend said: “She was deeply troubled, abusing alcohol and prescription meds. She had cause. She was used up and tossed away by Bobby. That was awful.”

The mum-of-four was found by a housekeeper and left a note.

The Sun

05/16/2012

(AP) TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration confirmed Wednesday that some of its agents were aboard a U.S.-owned helicopter with Honduran police who opened fire on a small boat on a Honduran river, and a local official said two men and two pregnant women were killed.

Angry inhabitants of the largely Indian Mosquito coast region burned down several government offices in the area in response to the attack and issued a statement saying they wanted DEA agents out of the area.

The shooting took place Friday on the Patuca River in northeastern Honduras. Honduran and U.S. officials said the helicopter team was part of an anti-drug mission and the Honduran officers on board fired only after their aircraft was shot at first.

Local officials said the victims were diving for lobster and shellfish when their boat came under fire.

“These innocent residents were not involved in the drug problem, were in their boat going about their daily fishing activities … when they gunned them down from the air,” Lucio Vaquedano, the mayor of the coastal town of Ahuas, said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

Recounting the burning of government offices in the northern Gracias a Dios region, Vaquedano said, “Some of the inhabitants reacted with anger at the attack, and sought revenge against the government.”

The leaders of the Masta, Diunat, Rayaka, Batiasta and Bamiasta ethnic groups said in a press statement that “the people in that canoe were fishermen, not drug traffickers.”

“For centuries we have been a peaceful people who live in harmony with nature, but today we declared these Americans to be persona non grata in our territory,” the statement continued.

Ricardo Ramirez, the chief of Honduras’ national police force, said the operation “was carried out with the support of the DEA,” and alleged the occupants of the boat were transporting drugs and fired at the helicopter. Ramirez said an assault rifle was seized at the scene.

DEA officials acknowledged their agents were working with Honduran police aboard the helicopter. “We were there in a support role, working with our counterparts,” DEA spokeswoman Dawn Dearden said in Washington.

U.S. government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because their statements had not been authorized, said Honduran law enforcement did not initiate the shooting, but rather returned fire after being attacked. The officials said the DEA agents did not fire.

Another U.S. official speaking on the same condition of anonymity said several helicopters owned by the U.S. State Department were involved in the mission and carried members of Honduras’ National Police Tactical Response Team. The official didn’t say how many helicopters were on the mission, but said the aircraft were piloted by Guatemalan military officers and outside contractor pilots.

When asked about the shooting, U.S. Embassy official Matthias Mitman in Tegucigalpa provided a written statement saying that “the U.S. assisted Honduran forces with logistical support in this operation” as part of efforts to fight narcotics trafficking.

The State Department says 79 percent of all cocaine smuggling flights leaving South America first land in Honduras, and the U.S .has been working with the Honduran military to stop the drug dealers.

The DEA has a Foreign-deployed Advisory Support Team based in Honduras, one of five in the region, according to congressional testimony. By the end of 2011, 42 Honduran law enforcement agents had been vetted to work with the DEA, according to State Department reports.

Last year, with help from the U.S., the Honduran government stopped more than 22 metric tons of cocaine in Honduras and adjacent waters, nearly four times more than 2010, the State Department has said. Although U.S. military helicopters and personnel from Soto Cano Air Base in Honduras have been involved in previous seizures, U.S. Embassy officials said Wednesday that neither troops nor equipment from the base were involved in Friday’s incident.

George Withers, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America, which promotes human rights and democracy in the region, said his organization is concerned that DEA agents are frequently embedded with police and military throughout Central and South America for counter-drug operations. He said it’s disconcerting to have Latin American military forces engaged in police work.

“We have seen over the years that whenever the military interfaces with the populace, incidents of human rights abuses go way up,” he said. “We’re concerned that the U.S. is encouraging the use of the military for police work.”

In a written statement, the Committee of the Families of the Disappeared of Honduras, a human rights organization, said that “the so called Honduran authorities have the ethical and political duty to demand from the U.S. Department of State an explanation and a public apology, and to punish those responsible.”