Band Members Dead

A dozen bodies have been discovered in a well near the location where members of a Mexican band went missing, authorities say.
20 people have disappeared Friday after Colombian-style group Kombo Kolombia's show, including 16 musicians and crew who were reportedly abducted by an armed group. All were wearing jeans and T-shirts with the logo of the music group - "Poderoso Kombo Kolombia."
Spokesman Jorge Domene from the Nuevo Leon State Investigative Agency says one band member who managed to escape told police that after he and the others were kidnapped. Their captors asked them if they belonged to an organized crime gang and were shot when they refused to answer. Domene said the member had fled Mexico after reporting the attack.
A total of 18 men, 12 musicians plus staff, were abducted on Thursday at a party in a bar near Monterrey. "Presumably there could be more bodies so we will extend the search as far as conditions allow it," Domene said in a press conference.
Residents near the Monterrey bar--where the band had played a private show--reported hearing gunshots around 4am on Friday, followed by the sound of vehicles speeding away. The official added that gunfire is common in the area, and that investigators found spent bullets nearby.
Relatives filed reports about their missing loved ones on Friday after losing mobile contact with them after their Thursday night performance. When family members went to the bar to investigate, the band members' cars were still found parked outside.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has vowed to reduce criminal violence that skyrocketed after his predecessor, Felipe Calderon, launched an assault on drug cartels in December 2006. Some 70,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico since then.

Slave Ring Broken at Laredo Texas

Mexico breaks up alleged border sex-slavery cult

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexican officials say they have broken up a bizarre cult that allegedly ran a sex-slavery ring among its followers on the U.S. border.

Mexico's National Immigration Institute says 14 foreigners have been detained in the raid on a house near Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas.
Those detained include six Spaniards, and two people each from Brazil, Bolivia and Venezuela. One person from Argentina and one from Ecuador were also detained, the institute announced Tuesday.
The institute said Tuesday that 10 Mexicans were also found at the house in filthy conditions, and are presumably among the victims of the cult.
The institute said the sect's leaders called themselves "The Defenders of Christ" and made members of the cult pay quotas, which they apparently paid with forced labor or sex.

Border Patrol Arrests

Border Patrol agents made more than 356,000 apprehensions along the Mexican border in the budget year that ended in September.

Agents made about 29,000 more arrests last year than in fiscal 2011, when Border Patrol apprehensions were at the lowest levels since 1971.
Agents in three Border Patrol sectors in South Texas saw the largest increases in arrests.
In the Rio Grande Valley, where agents made about 38,500 more arrests in the last year compared to 2011, apprehensions of illegal border crossers from countries other than Mexico outpaced those of Mexican nationals.
Nationwide, arrests by the Border Patrol increased about 7% from 340,252
in fiscal 2011 to 364,768 last year.

Shootout Rivaling Gangs Kills 6 in Mexico

Don't Cross Here

 At least six suspected criminals were killed and one other was wounded in a shootout in the western Mexican state of Jalisco, officials said.

The Jalisco Attorney General’s Office and state police said the clash occurred Friday afternoon on the Guadalajara-Tequila highway, where an armed commando attacked a group of men riding in several vehicles.
After the shootout involving automatic rifles and grenades, the aggressors fled in the direction of the neighboring state of Nayarit.
Several vehicles, including a motorcycle and a charred van with three bodies inside, were found at the scene.
Authorities said they suspect the shootout pitted organized crime gangs because a grenade launcher and several rifles and handguns were found inside the vehicles.

California family missing during trip to Mexico

Missing Courtesy NBC News  By Sharon Bernstein, NBCLosAngeles.com

Three members of a Southern California family have been missing for nearly a month after taking a trip to Mexico, loved ones say.
Roberto Muñoz, his wife Cecilia, and their grandson Armando Salinas, had gone to Mexico to visit relatives over the holidays. But just as the three were beginning their trip home, family members lost contact with them.
Relative Delphina Layton said the family had reached out to the U.S. Embassy and the FBI, to no avail.
Cellphones belonging to the missing group appear to have been turned off, and border records show that they never crossed back into the United States, she said.

Layton expressed frustration with the pace of the investigation.
"I need returned calls," she said. "Somebody get back to me and tell me that you're doing something."
A Palm Springs, Calif., television station reported that the family had been traveling through Chihuahua, Mexico, and passing through the rough border town of Ciudad Juarez. U.S. relatives were reported to be living in the Coachella Valley, northeast of San Diego.

Khanh Nguyen KAHN WIHN dies

Ex-general who briefly ran So. Vietnam dies in US Former South Vietnamese general Khanh Nguyen (KAHN WIHN), who briefly gained control of the government in a coup and went on to lead a "government in exile" in California, has died.

Nguyen's successor Chanh Nguyen Huu (CHAHN WIHN HOO) says the former general died Jan. 11 at a San Jose hospital after struggling with diabetes. He was 86.
In 1960, Nguyen helped stop a coup against U.S.-backed president Ngo Dinh Diem (NOH DIHN DEE'-em) when he mistook rebels for Viet Cong soldiers and rushed to the president's defense.
South Vietnamese generals overthrew Diem's regime three years later and started a period of political turmoil.
Nguyen himself took over the government in a 1964 coup, but left Vietnam the following year when other generals forced him out. He lived in France for years before settling in California in 1977.

Deal to overhaul Immigration System Close?

A bipartisan group of eight leading senators — including Marco Rubio of Florida and New Jersey’s Robert Menendez — have reached a tentative deal on a systematic overhaul of the country’s immigration system.

The agreement covers border security, guest workers, employer verification and a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants already in this country.

SUMMARY

The senators will call for accomplishing four goals:
—Creating a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already here, contingent upon securing the border and better tracking of people here on visas.
—Reforming the legal immigration system, including awarding green cards to immigrants who obtain advanced degrees in science, math, technology or engineering from an American university.
—Creating an effective employment verification system to ensure that employers do not hire illegal immigrants.
—Allowing more low-skill workers into the country and allowing employers to hire immigrants if they can demonstrate they couldn't recruit a U.S. citizen; and establishing an agricultural worker program.

The senators will present the principles of their deal to rewrite the nation's immigration laws at a news conference Monday afternoon. Sources told Fox News that they expect to finish writing the new bill and introduce it by March or April.

Although thorny details remain to be negotiated and success is far from certain, the development heralds the start of what could be the most significant effort in years toward overhauling the nation's inefficient patchwork of immigration laws.

President Barack Obama also is putting immigration reform front and center. He’s expected to travel to Las Vegas on Tuesday to lay out his vision, which is expected to overlap with the Senate effort.

The eight senators expected to endorse the new principles Monday are Democrats Charles Schumer of New York, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Michael Bennet of Colorado; and Republicans John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Marco Rubio of Florida and Jeff Flake of Arizona.

What's changed, honestly, is that there is a new, I think, appreciation on both sides of the aisle — including maybe more importantly on the Republican side of the aisle — that we have to enact a comprehensive immigration reform bill.

- Senator John McCain (R-AZ)

Several of these lawmakers have worked for years on the issue. McCain collaborated with the late Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy on a major reform bill pushed by then-President George W. Bush in 2007, only to see it collapse in the Senate when it couldn't get enough GOP support.

Now, with some Republicans chastened by the November elections which demonstrated the importance of Latino voters and their increasing commitment to Democrats, some in the GOP say this time will be different.

"What's changed, honestly, is that there is a new, I think, appreciation on both sides of the aisle — including maybe more importantly on the Republican side of the aisle — that we have to enact a comprehensive immigration reform bill," McCain said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

"I think the time is right," McCain said.

The group claims a notable newcomer in Rubio, a potential 2016 presidential candidate whose conservative chops may help smooth the way for support among conservatives wary of anything that smacks of amnesty. In an opinion piece published Sunday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Rubio wrote that the existing system amounts to "de facto amnesty," and he called for "commonsense reform."

According to documents obtained by The Associated Press, the senators will call for accomplishing four goals:

1. Creating a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already here, contingent upon securing the border and better tracking of people here on visas.
2. Reforming the legal immigration system, including awarding green cards to immigrants who obtain advanced degrees in science, math, technology or engineering from an American university.
3. Creating an effective employment verification system — the one currently used is called “E-Verify” — to ensure that employers do not hire undocumented immigrants.
4. Allowing more low-skill workers into the country and allowing employers to hire immigrants if they can demonstrate they couldn't recruit a U.S. citizen; and establishing an agricultural worker program.

The principles being released Monday are outlined on just over four pages, leaving plenty of details left to fill in. What the senators do call for is similar to Obama's goals and some past efforts by Democrats and Republicans, since there's wide agreement in identifying problems with the current immigration system.

The highest point of contention is likely to arise over how to accomplish the path to citizenship.

In order to satisfy the concerns of Rubio and other Republicans, the senators are calling for the completion of steps on border security and oversight of those here on visas before taking major steps forward on the path to citizenship.

Even then, those here illegally would have to qualify for a "probationary legal status" that would allow them to live and work here — but not qualify for federal benefits — before being able to apply for permanent residency. Once they are allowed to apply they would do so behind everyone else already in line for a green card within the current immigration system.

That could be a highly cumbersome process, but how to make it more workable is being left to future negotiations. The senators envision a more streamlined process toward citizenship for immigrants brought here as children by their parents and for agricultural workers.

The debate will play out at the start of Obama's second term, as he aims to spend the political capital afforded him by his re-election victory on an issue that has eluded past presidents and stymied him during his first term despite his promises to the Latino community to act.

"As the president has made clear for some time, immigration reform is an important priority and he is pleased that progress is being made with bipartisan support," a White House spokesman, Clark Stevens, said in a statement. "At the same time, he will not be satisfied until there is meaningful reform and he will continue to urge Congress to act until that is achieved."

For Republicans, the November elections were a stark schooling on the importance of Latino voters, who voted for Obama over Republican Mitt Romney 71 percent to 27 percent, helping ensure Obama's victory. That led some Republican leaders to conclude that supporting immigration reform with a path to citizenship has become a political imperative.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Do You Have a neuroses:

Sharing their emotional struggles in Spanish

   

"Hi,I'm neurotic."

The barrel-chested man with jet black hair stops and sighs. Then, with quick cadence and a booming baritone, he shares his obsession: "I sniff my girlfriend's clothes for the scent of another lover."
"Hi, neurotic."
The buxom Latina, who wears severe black eyeliner and habitually sniffs and sprays her hair with perfume at meetings, talks about her exercise addiction and how she can't stop sobbing.
"Hi, I'm still neurotic."
The Mexico City transplant with a well-groomed mustache and pristine white Converse sneakers blinks rapidly and smiles as he explains, proudly, that it's been five years since he punched someone.
Neurotics Anonymous is in session. In Spanish.
Inside a crowded room wedged between a Zumba studio and an income tax business along Whittier Boulevard in East Los Angeles, strangers gather for two hours each night to share their struggles and anxieties. Some people come only once, others sporadically, but many show up every day to this chapter of Neuroticos Anonimos, known as Grupo Serenidad.
Members accept strangers with warmth, make small talk about their favorite Mana songs and show love by sharing good food. Speakers have 12 minutes behind the lectern. There's a timer, although no one pays it much mind.
Like Overeaters Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, the self-help program for people with emotional issues - not neuroses in the classic sense as much as a struggle to control feelings - is one of hundreds patterned after Alcoholics Anonymous' 12-step recovery plan.
Neurotics Anonymous was founded in 1964 by Grover Boydston, a psychologist who had spent years nursing his anxieties with liquor. He joined AA and sobered up but still struggled to control his emotions.
Boydston wrote the literature for his new group, weaving tidbits of personal experience with AA's standing methodology. One chapter focuses on some of his favorite lyrics - "No one would care, no one would cry, if I should live or die." He called that song, "What Now, My Love?," the most accurate description of mental and emotional illness he'd ever heard.
He scheduled the first Neurotics Anonymous meeting in the Washington, D.C., area. A small group turned out, but it grew steadily. Soon word spread into the western U.S. and south into Mexico and the rest of Latin America. The literature was translated and Neuroticos Anonimos groups cropped up.
The spread of Neuroticos Anonimos in Latin America was helped by the region's familiarity with Alcoholicos Anonimos. But in some ways, the structure of the group also aligns well with Latino culture: Because of their predominantly Catholic upbringing, admitting to personal struggles isn't out of the ordinary. (Doing so without the veil of a confessional, however, is a bit strange.)
Other hallmarks of the group are more foreign. For the women, whose mothers taught them it's impolite to meddle, listening to other people expose their problems without feeling like a metiche - a busybody - took awhile.
For the men, the public vulnerability of the meetings can be weird.
"We carry things with us from our past and from our culture," a member said through tears, as he addressed the group. "You can't cry or you won't be a man. Now I know that I'm more of a man for crying. Neuroticos Anonimos taught me that."
In the early 1970s, most of the English-language groups changed their name to what members believed was a less off-putting moniker: Emotions Anonymous.
Most Neuroticos Anonimos, however, opted to keep the old name.
"Freud is very popular when you go south of the border. They like 'neurotic,'" said Keith Humphreys, a research scientist at Stanford University who studies 12-step programs. "It has a cachet I don't think it has here anymore."
Grupo Serenidad, one of more than a dozen Neuroticos Anonimos in Los Angeles County, shares the same half-mile stretch with three Alcoholicos Anonimos meeting spots.
On a balmy Sunday, the members listened to a nuevecito, a newbie.
A short man wearing an orange tank top, a leather fanny pack and a wooden rosary stood up to speak. He introduced himself and gave the common confession: "Soy neurotico." The attentive onlookers echoed his name and said hello. (The members asked to remain anonymous.)
"I can't stand to be around gays," he said through a hiss. "They disgust me more than anything in the world." His palms clenched the wooden lectern at the front of the room as he took a series of loud, short breaths.
"But the other day, while I was walking down the street, I saw a man." He paused, bit his bottom lip and whispered. "I saw a man, and I wanted to have sex with him."
His eyes darted around the room. They stopped for a second with the smiling man in the second row and then with the nodding woman next to him. As he made his way back to his seat, a matronly voice boomed from the back row: "Gracias, pequenito. Estamos contigo." She thanked him for sharing.
Next up: J., the jealous boyfriend, who perspired under his baby blue shirt as he explained his problem.
Each day he rushes home from work to check his girlfriend's phone for text messages or her wallet for suspicious receipts. He sniffs for the lingering scent of strange cologne. He never finds anything, but he knows why he suspects.
For many years, he told the group, he judged how macho a man was by how many women he was sleeping with at once. Now he wonders if she's satisfied with just him.
Several men in the crowd laughed and shouted in agreement. "Puente," they called out, using the Spanish word for bridge to let the man know they could relate.
The timer's shrill beep interrupted him and he yelled at it: "Shut up!" He finished his thought and walked to the far end of the room for some scorched coffee and animal crackers. He stopped for a second and gazed at a phrase tacked to the wall: "I'm somebody. God doesn't make trash."
At a meeting a few weeks later, as members munched on tacos de pollo someone brought to celebrate Grupo Serenidad's 27th anniversary, a chubby cosmetologist from Mexico City picked a seat in the second-to-last row. She comes here to listen, rarely to share. And she calls it her haven.
Growing up, discipline always meant violence. When she was 6, she lost a set of keys and her mother punched her repeatedly in the stomach. That same year her mother's brother started sneaking into her bedroom. The molestation continued until she was 12, when she tried to kill herself with a kitchen knife.
For years, she felt nothing but numbness. She became a slave to sedatives and antidepressants, even though she said they didn't help much. Then she read about Neuroticos Anonimos in a Spanish-language newspaper 11 years ago. She showed up to her first meeting, heard others share and knew she belonged.
"I learned that we're brothers and sisters in our pain," she said. "And listening to one another we can get better each day."
Fellowship is much of why these groups work, Humphreys said, as is what he called the "anarchist approach" that allows for the creation of niche groups like Grupo Serenidad.
"They can be very easily culturally tailored to whatever people want," Humphreys said. "They don't have to do it the gringo way."
     A round-faced grandfather from El Salvador joined Grupo Serenidad four years ago, after a stint at a psychiatric hospital.
He said his hatred for himself and humanity stems from a conversation with his father when he was 11.
"You're not my son," he recalled his father saying. "They switched you at the hospital."
His father was always cruel. He yelled at him and hit him. He told him he was useless and that he'd never get through school.
For years, everyone irritated him profoundly. He spent much of his day screaming and scoffing at people - even the television.
Slowly, with the help of the program, he learned to accept people.
"It's not easy," he said. "It's like a kid learning to walk. You stand up and you fall. It's a process. That's why I keep coming."
     Before the group members clasped hands, bowed their heads and recited the Serenity Prayer, as they do at the end of every meeting, a trembling, teary-eyed man walked to the lectern.
"You're friends," he said. "You may not be the ones I want, but you're the only ones who want me."

Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2013/01/25/2852929/native-neuroses-sharing-their.html#storylink=cpy

Part of Old Naco Port Border Fence Replaced

A stretch of old fencing along Arizona's border with Mexico will be replaced, per the federal agency.

U.S. Border Patrol reported the wall around the Naco port of entry, south of the city of Bisbee, is due for an upgrade. Much of that fence is made of solid steel sheets that were once landing mats for military aircraft. Many parts are visibly rusting.

An agency spokesman said the new fencing could look like the vertical, see-through-style posts in Nogales.
"Tucson Sector Border Patrol constantly evaluates its tactical infrastructure to ensure upgrades occur as needed and as funding becomes available,” the department wrote in a statement to KGUN9.
Border Patrol does not have a timeline for the project, including when construction might start.

Mexican People who work and live in the Dump

 Maria and Jesus showed me where they want to build their house in the Tirabichi dump of Nogales when I visited there on January 17.  They used to work sweeping the streets but that job ended and they’ve been working in the dump for two years.  Maria told me they sort through the refuse for plastic, glass, tin, aluminum and other recyclable materials.  They store what they’ve found and sell it once a week to the buyers that drive up to the dump.  They earn four to five dollars a day.  Jesus’ parents built a house in the dump a year ago and his father has worked there for ten years.
     The Diario de Sonora newspaper featured a front-page article on January 12 about the families that live at the dump.  The headline read “We feel more forgotten than cold.”  Tirabichi is less than a mile from the Hogar de Esperanza y Paz (HEPAC) community center and I walked up there the next day.  The high temperature that afternoon was 45 degrees and it dropped to 14 the following morning.
     Arturo and the Molina brothers showed me the shelters they had built and I can’t imagine what it would have been like there that night.  Arturo lived in Des Moines, Iowa and his children are still in the U.S. 
     Manuel is 40 years old and he grew up in the dump.  He lived in Tucson for six years, but the rest of his life has been there at Tirabichi.
     The conversations and images from that day stayed with me.  I talked with Sandra and Larry of the Tucson Samaritans, and Liz and Tricia who were visiting from Montana, and I returned to Tirabichi with them on January 17.  The intense cold had ended the day before and the odor was more evident as we walked up the hill.
     “We’re content because we’re able to work here,” Teresa told me.  “I only finished elementary school and that’s why I’m here.”  She has four children between six and seventeen years old, and she’s been working at the dump for six months. 
     The Clinton administration built a border wall to separate Nogales, Sonora from Nogales, Arizona in 1994 (the same year that the North America Free Trade Agreement was implemented).  The Obama administration replaced it with a larger wall in 2011 at a cost of four million dollars per mile.  The people at Tirabichi live less than four miles from where all that money was spent to keep them in poverty. 
     The HEPAC community center represents a grassroots alternative to the policies of inequality and exclusion.  A team from HEPAC was at Tirabichi when we arrived there.  They were inviting people to send their children to the lunch program and to participate in the adult education classes.  Teresa had the flyer and we talked about the opportunity to get her high school education at HEPAC.

Dozens killed in Venezuela prison riot

Venezuela's top prisons official said the government was evacuating a prison Saturday after a deadly riot that reportedly left dozens of people dead amid a clash between National Guard soldiers and armed inmates.

Penitentiary Service Minister Iris Varela said officials decided to evacuate all inmates from the Uribana prison in the central city of Barquisimeto after the bloodshed on Friday in order to "close this chapter of violence." Varela said inmates were being taken to other facilities. She spoke in a televised news conference and did not immediately give a death toll.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro called the violence tragic and said Prosecutor General Luisa Ortega Diaz and National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello would lead the investigation.
"The prisons have to be governed by law," Maduro said on television early Saturday.
Humberto Prado, an activist who leads the watchdog group Venezuelan Prisons Observatory, said inmates' relatives and media accounts put the toll at 55 killed and 88 injured.
The Venezuelan newspaper Ultimas Noticias and the television channel Globovision reported more than 50 killed, both citing Ruy Medina, the director of Central Hospital in the city.
Relatives wept outside the prison during the violence, and cried at the morgue Saturday as they waited to identify bodies.
Varela said Friday that the riot broke out when groups of inmates attacked National Guard troops who were attempting to carry out an inspection.
Varela said the violence had affected a number of prisoners and officials, but said the authorities would hold off until control had been re-established at the prison to confirm the toll. She said the government decided to send troops to search the prison after receiving reports of clashes between groups of inmates during the past two days.
The death toll provided by Medina rose late Friday after he had initially reported four killed and dozens injured. Ultimas Noticias reported that the victims included a Protestant pastor and a member of the National Guard, as well as inmates.
Opposition leader Henrique Capriles condemned the government's handling of the country's overcrowded and violent prisons.
"Our country's prisons are an example of the incapacity of this government and its leaders. They never solved the problem," Capriles said on his Twitter account. "How many more deaths do there have to be in the prisons for the government to acknowledge its failure and make changes?"
The Venezuelan Prisons Observatory said in a statement that in 2007 the Costa Rica-based Inter-American Court of Human Rights had ordered the government to seize weapons that inmates had in their possession at Uribana prison and to take measures to avoid deaths in the facility. The group called for the government to release a list with the names of the dead and wounded in Friday's violence, as well as details about weapons seized in the search.
"No one doubts that inspections are necessary procedures to guarantee prison conditions in line with international standards, but they can't be carried out with the warlike attitude as (authorities) have done it," Prado told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "It's clear that the inspection wasn't coordinated or put into practice as it should have been. It was evidently a disproportionate use of force."
Prado's group says Uribana prison was built to hold up to 850 inmates but currently has about 1,400.
It was the latest in a series of bloody riots in the country's severely overcrowded prisons where inmates often freely obtain weapons and drugs with the help of corrupt guards. Venezuela currently has 33 prisons built to hold about 12,000 inmates, but officials have said the prisons' population is about 47,000.
In April and May, a prison uprising in La Planta prison in Caracas blocked authorities from going inside for nearly three weeks. One prisoner was killed and five people were wounded, including two National Guard soldiers and three inmates.
Two months later, another riot broke out at a prison in Merida, and the Venezuelan Prisons Observatory reported 30 killed.
In August, 25 people were killed and 43 wounded when two groups of inmates fought a gunbattle inside Yare I prison south of Caracas.
Chavez's government has previous pledged improvements to the prison system, but opponents and activists say the government hasn't made progress.
Varela, the prisons minister, said news media including Globovision and a local newspaper had run reports on the inspections, which she said had in fact been a "trigger for the violence."
Prado denied that, saying: "The problem isn't the work of the media. The problem is that the government hasn't disarmed the prison population."

Unlock Phone Illegal

 New Law Today Jan 26, 2013

Users will not be able to alter their cellphones to access different networks starting Saturday. But advocacy groups are questioning the law.

Starting Jan. 26, buying and unlocking a phone will no longer be legal in the United States.

The term "unlocking" a phone means to remove the security feature that prevents the phone being used on a different network. Once a phone is unlocked, it can work on more than one carrier's network. Unlocking phones is useful for those traveling internationally because it allows phones to work on different networks.
The Librarian of Congress, who determines any exemptions to a strict anti-hacking law called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), decided in October 2012 that unlocking cellphones would no longer be allowed. A 90-day window was provided during which people could still buy phones and unlock them.
Currently Apple sells an unlocked iPhone 5 starting at $649 and Google sells Nexus 4 unlocked for $300.
Mashable reports that the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is questioning DMCA's right to determine who can unlock a phone.
EFF attorney Mitch Stoltz said in a letter to TechNewsDaily.com: "Arguably, locking phone users into one carrier is not at all what the DMCA was meant to do. It's up to the courts to decide."

Obama, made Drug Smuggling Easier

In July 2011 Obama, bypassed Congress, and made a deal with the president of Mexico to allow the Mexican trucks to come into the U. S. This deal has made it easier for Mexican trucks to bring in illegal drugs from the Mexican drug cartels.

As we all know our U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers cannot inspect every truck at the local port of entries but last week they made a record-breaking seizure of seven tons of marijuana at the Nogales, Ariz. port of entry. The seizure occurred after CBP officers selected a 1994 international tractor-trailer driven by a 26-year-old man from Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, for inspection. Inside the trailer they found 600 bales of marijuana, which were packaged in boxes manifested as steel containers. The marijuana had a combined weight of 14,151 pounds and a value of up to $12 million.

Also last Friday at the Wilcox Station in the Tucson Sector border patrol agents working at state Route 90 checkpoint referred a semi tractor-trailer for a secondary section after the K-9 team alerted them of possible drugs. Upon inspection, they discovered nearly 2,900 pounds of marijuana concealed in the semi tractor trailer, the drug load was estimated to have a value at $1,450,000.00.

Unconfirmed Price complaint J.C.P.

 

After taking a stand against phony pricing last year, the embattled retailer is reportedly asking

Is JC Penney faking its prices?

 suppliers to concoct 'fake' prices to make discounts look better.

 

Just a year ago, J.C. Penney (JCP +4.20%) had a bold marketing plan: vanquish "fake" prices and offer simplified pricing that would do without markdowns and sales.
But a new report says the retailer is still faking -- and this time around, it's allegedly playing the same old mind games that it disavowed. 

Penney is reportedly asking some manufacturers to make up "phony suggested retail markups" for their clothing, reports the New York Post.
Then, to give shoppers the perception of hitting upon a bargain, Penney's stores reportedly tag the clothes and accessories with the chain's own lower prices, the Post reports. In one hypothetical example of how the strategy works, a table with sweaters might have a sign reading $30, but the price tags on the clothing could read $22.
One thing's for sure: J.C. Penney is under a lot of pressure.
Doubts are swirling about the company's turnaround plan, with UBS analyst Michael Binett earlier this month saying he expected same-store fourth-quarter sales to drop 28%. The company is expected to report fourth-quarter results on Feb. 27.
Penney is asking manufacturers put in writing the suggested retail prices, to ensure it can back up pricing claims, according to the Post. Penney officials didn't respond to the newspaper's requests for comment.
CEO Ron Johnson, a former Apple (AAPL -12.35%) executive, has bet the retailer's turnaround on a "fair and square" pricing strategy. The company debuted splashy ads featuring Ellen DeGeneres making fun of marketing gimmicks.
So far, it appears shoppers aren't buying it.
Revenue has declined by more than 20% for three straight quarters, while the stock has slumped 47% during the past year.

Inmates on Holiday don't come back

Brazil Lets Inmates Take Holiday Vacation...

Surprisingly Some Don't Return

Brazil’s holiday season gift to its inmates turned into a bag of coal for jail administrators after thousands of prisoners granted a temporary leave to visit their families for Christmas and New Years failed to return to their cells.
Over 2,400 Brazilian inmates, or 5 percent of total inmates released, still remain at large after the government  gave them leave during the holidays.
What's surprising: Some 45,000 inmates sent free in December are willingly back behind bars, according to a survey taken by Brazilian newspaper O Globo.
Not every inmate in Brazil was sent home. Those who committed major crimes, like murderers, rapists and major drug traffickers, remained incarcerated. Only prisoners in minimum security prisons with a record of good behavior were given the chance to go home.
The crooks also had to have served at least of one-sixth of their sentences and a judge had to approve the leave request before springing them loose for Christmas.
“As the festive period escapees were housed in low-security prisons, it is unlikely many of them belonged to such feared criminal organizations,” wrote James Bargent of the Latin American security website Insight Crime.  “However there have been cases of inmates offending while on temporary release, and the sheer number of escapees suggests a serious issue.”
The state of São Paulo, home to the country’s largest city of the same name, led the way in escapees, with 1,473 inmates still at large, despite the fact that the state uses electronic monitoring devices on their inmates.
“This could be curbed by the increased use of electronic tagging devices -- a nascent technology in the Brazilian penal system,” Bargent said.
The state of Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Pernambuco and Rondônia are now expanding their use of electronic monitoring for prisoners allowed home for the holidays.

Migrant Water Station Conflict

Dying to get into America. Migrant Water Stations Create Hope and Conflict in South Texas. Brooks County, Texas, is a 944-square-mile swath of brush land, deep sand and dirt paths.

With the majority of its residents —just over 7,000— residing in the county seat of Falfurrias, the sparsely populated, bleak terrain is inhospitable during the best times of the year and, during the scorching and desiccated summer months, it’s downright brutal.
The county also sits 70 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, making it a prime route for immigrants coming in illegally from Mexico and Central America — and one of the deadliest.
“It’s a very hostile environment,” said Mike Vickers, a local ranch owner and veterinarian who sees dozens of crossers through his property on a daily basis.“There are rattlesnakes, hundreds of ways to get lost, deep sand, you name it.”
Throughout 2012 the remains of 127 immigrants were found scattered across the county, almost doubling 2011’s total and the highest death toll in recent memory there.
“The death of migrants is a very seasonal thing,” said Rev. Robin Hoover. “It’s all dependent on the elements.”
Hoover, a pastor in the Disciples of Christ Church and an immigrant advocate, said that while most migrants cross into the U.S. during the cooler months of the late winter and early spring, those who risk the trip in the blistering Texas summer are most susceptible to dehydration and ultimately death.
After learning about the number of migrants who died last year in the county, Hoover relocated from his home in Arizona to Fort Worth, Texas to fulfill his crusade to save lives.
“I was utterly appalled when I heard the numbers,” Hoover said.
In 2000, Hoover founded Humane Borders, an interfaith group in Tucson that set up water stations for migrants in Arizona’s Sonoran desert — meant to stem the growing tide of migrant deaths.
While overall crossing deaths have gone down in recent years, Border Patrol registered 357 deaths along the border between October 2011 and July 2012 — the agency’s fiscal year.
Hoover said that his watering stations — 65-gallon water tanks with spigots and a 30-foot high blue flags so they can be seen from far away — have been successful in saving hundreds of lives.
“They’re working,” Hoover said. “Where the stations are, the number of migrant deaths is greatly reduced.”
In Arizona, Hoover had the relatively easy job of negotiating the placement of water tanks on public land with government officials. In Texas, however, the task will be quite different.
Unlike the 70 percent of land in Arizona that is publicly owned, most properties along the Texas-Mexico border are privately owned by ranchers and large landowners — and most have not taken kindly to migrants crossing through their land.
“We’re real suspicious and real wary of people coming onto our private property,” said Vickers,
Many ranchers are represented by the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. The group did not want to get into specifics, but spokeswoman Carmen Fenton said she does not see many welcoming Hoover with open arms.
“It all depends on the individual landowners,” she said.
For his part, Hoover hopes to convince ranchers that they’d help save lives by allowing him to put water tanks on their land.
“They don’t want dead bodies on their property,” he said. “They don’t want migrants either, but it’s better than dead bodies and cops and investigators coming onto their land.”
The Border Patrol has actually been quite supportive of Hoover’s effort. 
They readily welcomed Humane Borders in the Arizona desert as a noble humanitarian mission. And agents in South Texas would have no problem with him setting up shop there as well.
“Anytime someone can do something proactively like this it is great,” said Henry Mendiola, spokesman for the agency’s Rio Grande Valley sector, which takes in most of South Texas. “These are human lives we’re talking about.”
The Border Patrol has its own migrants-rescue system, including EMT-trained agents, eight rescue beacons set up in the two counties and over 900 GPS-enabled signs, Mendiola said.
The Brooks County Sheriff’s Department, which actually finds most of the migrant bodies which are then turned over to Border Patrol, also had no problem with Hoover’s planned expansion.
“Anything would surely help,” said Benny Martinez, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman, echoing the same word of caution as the Cattleraisers: “Of course it all depends on the land owners.”
The issue of winning over landowners is the crux of the problem that Hoover faces. While landowners in southern Texas have allowed the Border Patrol to set up water stations and signs on their land, a private enterprise — especially one widely seen as pro-immigrant — is another story.
“He’s going to have a real tough time down here, especially because of the ranches that already have a lot of smugglers and migrants on them,” Vickers said.
He added that though he can understand many are coming in search of a better life, it’s not worth for them risking their lives — plus it creates an emotional toll and a unnecessary liability.
“In the long run we’re worried about people getting lost out there,” Vickers said. “It’s really easy to get turned around out there and bogged down, dehydrated and die.”
Hoover is quite aware of the strong opposition that’s surely going to come his way. No matter — undeterred, he insisted he will start making the rounds with ranchers and landowners in Brooks County.
He’ll keep fingers crossed that the humanitarian argument will convince at least some of them to give him a try.
“What we’re doing is pure and simple, trying to save lives,” Hoover said. “I think I have a pretty good chance of convincing people with that.”

Record drug bust made at Mexican border

NOGALES, Ariz., Jan. 23 (UPI) -- What U.S. officials are calling the biggest marijuana shipment ever smuggled from Mexico has been seized at a border crossing in Arizona.

Some seven tons of the illegal weed was found in a semi-trailer that had entered the country at Nogales.
The 600 bundles had an estimated value of $12 million, officials with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol said.
The 26-year-old driver, from Nogales, Sonora, was turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations.

Activists rally for immigration reform

SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Migrant rights activists and city of San Diego political leaders rallied Tuesday in favor of introducing comprehensive immigration reform legislation.

The demonstration, involving about 50 people at the County Administration Center, came one day after President Barack Obama called for overhauling the nation's immigration system in his inauguration speech.

Christian Ramirez, of a group called Alliance San Diego, said the legislation should include a pathway to citizenship, accountability for border enforcement agencies and labor protections for migrant workers and their families.

All people in the U.S. should be able to live with dignity and respect regardless of their immigration status, he said. He was flanked by banners that read: "No human being is illegal" and "Control the Border Patrol."

"Yesterday, President Obama spoke about the need for immigration reform and today we know that as immigrants in this country, we cannot do it alone," Ramirez said. "It takes a broad coalition of elected officials, labor leaders, faith leaders to come together and to ensure that our country affords all people the rights and the dignity that a democratic society is built upon."

Mayor Bob Filner, who represented San Diego's South Bay communities in the House of Representatives for 20 years, said no single component of immigration reform will get passed by Congress.

"Comprehensive also means there is stuff in there we may not all like, that we figure out how to get a consensus," Filner said. "So comprehensive means looking at enforcement, it means looking at legalization in a much different way, it means giving people the opportunity to work, it means all of
those things."

The mayor campaigned for election last year in part on strengthening ties with neighboring Tijuana. On Monday, he called for the region to be given one telephone area code.

"We want to look at the border as the center, and not the cul-de-sac, of our community," Filner said. "We want to look at our border as a binational place where we can all achieve - can become better - whether as Mexicans or Americans."

Councilman David Alvarez said comprehensive immigration reform should be an easy choice for members of Congress.

Councilwoman Marti Emerald did not attend but a representative of her office said she backed "true immigration reform."

Ramirez said his organization and similar groups have been discussing the issue with senators and would soon turn their attention toward members of the House of Representatives, including newly seated San Diego Democratic representatives Scott Peters and Juan Vargas.

He said the activists have been told that they will need support from local leaders if an immigration bill is to pass Congress.

I'm Smuggling Cocaine, Heroin In My Coochie

 

Woman's texts left little doubt as to her south of the border moves

                           

Cocaine In Coochie

• 
  Cocaine In Coochie

JANUARY 22--Meet Samantha Kurdilla.
The 22-year-old was walking back into the United States last week from Tijuana, Mexico when a drug detection dog “alerted to a narcotic odor” emanating from her “groin area.”
Kurdilla was walking arm-in-arm with James Perry, who announced, “I’m not with her” when the canine signaled interest in his female companion. Detained at a “pedestrian crossing facility” by Customs and Border Protection agents, Kurdilla was asked if she was “bringing anything from Mexico.”
In response, the Pennsylvania resident “gave two negative declarations,” according to a January 18 probable cause statement.
Claiming that she was returning to a Best Western hotel in San Diego, Kurdilla (seen above) told investigators that she had been partying with Perry, 44, in Tijuana, where they had been smoking marijuana.
Despite Kurdilla’s denials, federal agents later determined that she had a condom filled with 100 grams of cocaine “within her vaginal cavity.” After being read her rights, Kurdilla admitted to drug smuggling “in exchange for compensation,” adding that the cocaine--worth several thousand dollars--belonged to Perry.
When he was questioned, Perry reportedly confessed to the smuggling attempt, saying that he directed Kurdilla to hide the narcotics in her vagina so that he could resell the cocaine in the U.S..
In addition to the confessions, federal agents retrieved some particularly damning evidence during a search of Kurdilla’s cell phone. Text messages sent to an unknown individual left little doubt as to what Kurdilla was doing south of the border.
“I’m smuggling cocaine and heroin in my coochie,” Kurdilla wrote.
A felony complaint filed against Kurdilla and Perry only references cocaine, so it is unclear whether Kurdilla’s statement about heroin in her coochie was incorrect (or perhaps she was referring to a separate smuggling attempt).
Kurdilla and Perry are scheduled for separate court appearances Thursday in U.S. District Court in San Diego. According to her Facebook page, Kurdilla previously worked at the Meadows Racetrack and Casino in Washington, Pennsylvania, about 25 miles south of Pittsburgh.
 

Gunmen fire on Police and Military

Veracruz - Police and army troops squared off with presumed hitmen working for drug traffickers in two deadly incidents in Mexico that left 11 gunmen dead, authorities said on Saturday.

In Puente Nacional, in the eastern state of Veracruz, armed men attacked army troops who responded, killing six of the gunmen.

And in Culiacan, in northwestern Sinaloa state, police and army troops clashed with gunmen, and five more gunmen were killed in that incident.

Mexico's relentless drug violence has claimed more than 70 000 lives across the country since 2006.

Cholera Epidemic in Cuba

By Mary Murray, Producer, NBC News

Camilo, my 7-year old grandson in Cuba, has never been shy about asking for presents – especially when he knows I’m heading to Havana from that big shopping mall 90 miles away. His usual list includes a massive bag of M&M peanut candy, additions to what’s become a pretty pricey collection of Schleich resin animals, and goofy gags second-grade boys find funny, such as hand buzzers or that classic snake-in-a-can. When Camilo got on the phone with me last weekend, he only rattled off one item.
“Aba,” (that’s what he calls me–short for "abuela", which is "grandma" in Spanish), “bring me soap.”

soap was in short supply in Cuba was in the 1990s but, if this kid is asking for soap, the situation must be dire. He’s about as germaphobe as your average stray puppy. Like a lot of little boys, he needs to be reminded that taking a shower means actually standing under the water.
Camilo, however, didn’t want just any soap. He was looking for what he calls “the soap that melts.” He wanted me to bring him an alcohol-based instant hand sanitizer.
Then he made it clear why. “Aba, there’s cholera here,” he said.
As it turns out, Camilo had spilled the beans a full 72 hours before the Cuban Health Ministry issued a formal communiqué on what had been rumored since the start of the year -- cholera had surfaced in the city of Havana, home to 2.2 million people.
The announcement explained that 51 new cases of cholera had been diagnosed in the Cuban capital along with a spike in the number of people suffering from "diarrheal diseases." The ministry made no mention of any fatalities. The public was being advised to be more careful with personal hygiene, boil all drinking water or use purification drops and thoroughly wash all fruits and vegetables, but to stay assured that Cuba’s massive public health machine was implementing preventive measures meant to “contain” and “eradicate” the disease.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, cholera is a bacterial infection in the intestine that can range from mild to severe. In the latter case, an infected person will experience “dehydration and shock" that, if left untreated, can lead to death "within hours.” The CDC estimates that every year there are up to 5 million cases and more than 100,000 deaths from cholera worldwide.
In most cases, the disease takes about a week to run its course, and during that time, warns the CDC, cholera is highly contagious. Spread hand to mouth, the bacteria is usually found in water or food sources contaminated by an infected person’s feces.
ContaminationA single food vendor at a baseball game appears to be the cause of the Havana outbreak. In early January, apparently, contaminated sandwiches or soda were sold during a packed game in the city’s main sports arena, the Latin American Stadium, located in a neighborhood called Cerro.
"That's why people from different parts of the city tested positive for cholera at the same time,” said a medical source, not authorized to speak on the record but who claims to have first-hand knowledge of the findings from the epidemiological task force assigned to trace the origins of the outbreak.
At Wednesday's nighttime game between Havana's beloved Industriales and last year's national champs, Los Tigres de Ciego de Avila, hawkers should have been making a killing on what had been one of the season's most sought-after tickets. Instead, 80 percent of the seats remained empty. Those die-hard fans who did show up were not allowed into the stadium until they sterilized their shoes and hands. Benches were wiped down with a disinfectant, and the floors hosed down with the same 0.5 percent bleach solution. And there was nothing to munch on during the three-and-a-half-hour game. All food stands have been temporarily shut down.
The same goes for many mom-and-pop cafeterias across the capital. "Last week, officials from Health and Epidemiology inspected our place and then they closed us down," said one owner of a pizza parlor not too far from where the outbreak started. "They said it's to stop the spread of cholera but no one’s saying how long we have to stay closed." His only consolation is that this month he doesn’t have to pay taxes or his monthly licensing fee.
Upset about his loss of income, he is also irked by the fact that some state-run food establishments passed the inspections, so they are being allowed to stay open. Many though are only authorized to sell bottled water, canned drinks and commercially packaged food.
Arismael Nieto usually changes the light bulbs and fixes broken chairs at Havana’s Bus Terminal. For the last two weeks, he’s been drafted on the city’s anti-cholera campaign. He stands by the one door opened at the station and his job is to pour a diluted bleach solution over the hands of every commuter, and make sure everyone steps on a cloth soaked with the solution to clean the bottom of their shoes. No one gets on a bus or leaves the building without Nieto’s OK.
Now, picture this procedure happening at every school from kindergarten to college, every public building, factory, lunch room, hospital, health clinic, department store, train depot and movie theater.
Chlorine a "necessary inconvenience"
Over the summer, two people who live in the Havana neighborhood of Fontanar thought they had the flu but tested positive for cholera. It was believed that they were exposed on the bus ride from eastern Cuba, an area of the country that had an outbreak earlier last year. In late August, Cuba revealed that cholera had killed three people and infected 417 in Granma province, some 450 miles east of Havana.

Cuba’s cholera treatment protocol has doctors knocking on doors and testing anyone with possible cholera symptoms. A positive test means an automatic trip to one of the city hospitals for a more comprehensive test. While most suspected cases go to Havana’s Tropical Medicine Institute, known by its initials IPK, a pediatric hospital and a maternity hospital have also been designated to admit cholera cases. In addition, the protocol mandated that all of Havana’s 85 neighborhood health clinics set aside a room with ventilation and a closed door as a place to quarantine suspected cholera cases until an ambulance arrives to transport the patient to the hospital.
Once hospitalized, a comprehensive history is taken that focuses on identifying all the people the patient has come in contact with over the past weeks. Health workers are dispatched to locate those persons to test them for cholera and administer a free prophylactic dose of doxycycline.
Although none of the guidelines cited by the CDC recommend using antibiotics for cholera prevention, the Cuban Health Ministry believes otherwise. Hundreds of thousands of Doxycycline tablets, apparently readied in warehouses for just such an emergency, were distributed to hospitals and health clinics one morning earlier this week—another sign that Cuba is well-prepared to tackle this outbreak.
Are people complaining? You bet. They hate the chlorine smell. They say the solution stings but many would agree with Angela Linares, a nurse raising a 13-year old daughter alone, who said: “It’s a necessary inconvenience.”
“No one wants cholera, especially since we know so little about this disease,” she said.
Linares was right. Until last year, the last reported cholera outbreak in Cuba was recorded almost a century ago.
Upon learning this fact, I became even more baffled that my 7-year-old grandson mentioned cholera days before the government admitted the outbreak.
As it turns out, his primary school had been put on alert early last week, and the kids learned about the intestinal bug and prevention at a school assembly. Community physicians were dispatched to all of the city’s 650 schools to not only give a crash course on cholera but hand out soap to every classroom.
Still, it wasn’t until after the Health Ministry’s warning that Cuban state media began running public service announcements -- considerably behind the curve of Havana's second graders.

 

“Soap? You want soap?” I repeated, convinced I must have heard him wrong.
“Si”, he insisted. “Jabon!”

Now he has me worried that I need to make an emergency supply-run for detergent, shampoo, dishwashing soap and other basics. The last time soap was in short supply in Cuba was in the 1990s but, if this kid is asking for soap, the situation must be dire. He’s about as germaphobe as your average stray puppy. Like a lot of little boys, he needs to be reminded that taking a shower means actually standing under the water.

Camilo, however, didn’t want just any soap. He was looking for what he calls “the soap that melts.” He wanted me to bring him an alcohol-based instant hand sanitizer.
Then he made it clear why. “Aba, there’s cholera here,” he said.
As it turns out, Camilo had spilled the beans a full 72 hours before the Cuban Health Ministry issued a formal communiqué on what had been rumored since the start of the year -- cholera had surfaced in the city of Havana, home to 2.2 million people.
The announcement explained that 51 new cases of cholera had been diagnosed in the Cuban capital along with a spike in the number of people suffering from "diarrheal diseases." The ministry made no mention of any fatalities. The public was being advised to be more careful with personal hygiene, boil all drinking water or use purification drops and thoroughly wash all fruits and vegetables, but to stay assured that Cuba’s massive public health machine was implementing preventive measures meant to “contain” and “eradicate” the disease.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, cholera is a bacterial infection in the intestine that can range from mild to severe. In the latter case, an infected person will experience “dehydration and shock" that, if left untreated, can lead to death "within hours.” The CDC estimates that every year there are up to 5 million cases and more than 100,000 deaths from cholera worldwide.
In most cases, the disease takes about a week to run its course, and during that time, warns the CDC, cholera is highly contagious. Spread hand to mouth, the bacteria is usually found in water or food sources contaminated by an infected person’s feces.
ContaminationA single food vendor at a baseball game appears to be the cause of the Havana outbreak. In early January, apparently, contaminated sandwiches or soda were sold during a packed game in the city’s main sports arena, the Latin American Stadium, located in a neighborhood called Cerro.
"That's why people from different parts of the city tested positive for cholera at the same time,” said a medical source, not authorized to speak on the record but who claims to have first-hand knowledge of the findings from the epidemiological task force assigned to trace the origins of the outbreak.

Roberto Leon

Officials from Cuba's Health and Epidemiology department inspected this pizza parlor located not too far from where the outbreak started in Havana and closed it down.

At Wednesday's nighttime game between Havana's beloved Industriales and last year's national champs, Los Tigres de Ciego de Avila, hawkers should have been making a killing on what had been one of the season's most sought-after tickets. Instead, 80 percent of the seats remained empty. Those die-hard fans who did show up were not allowed into the stadium until they sterilized their shoes and hands. Benches were wiped down with a disinfectant, and the floors hosed down with the same 0.5 percent bleach solution. And there was nothing to munch on during the three-and-a-half-hour game. All food stands have been temporarily shut down.
The same goes for many mom-and-pop cafeterias across the capital. "Last week, officials from Health and Epidemiology inspected our place and then they closed us down," said one owner of a pizza parlor not too far from where the outbreak started. "They said it's to stop the spread of cholera but no one’s saying how long we have to stay closed." His only consolation is that this month he doesn’t have to pay taxes or his monthly licensing fee.
Upset about his loss of income, he is also irked by the fact that some state-run food establishments passed the inspections, so they are being allowed to stay open. Many though are only authorized to sell bottled water, canned drinks and commercially packaged food.
Arismael Nieto usually changes the light bulbs and fixes broken chairs at Havana’s Bus Terminal. For the last two weeks, he’s been drafted on the city’s anti-cholera campaign. He stands by the one door opened at the station and his job is to pour a diluted bleach solution over the hands of every commuter, and make sure everyone steps on a cloth soaked with the solution to clean the bottom of their shoes. No one gets on a bus or leaves the building without Nieto’s OK.
Now, picture this procedure happening at every school from kindergarten to college, every public building, factory, lunch room, hospital, health clinic, department store, train depot and movie theater.
Chlorine a "necessary inconvenience"
Over the summer, two people who live in the Havana neighborhood of Fontanar thought they had the flu but tested positive for cholera. It was believed that they were exposed on the bus ride from eastern Cuba, an area of the country that had an outbreak earlier last year. In late August, Cuba revealed that cholera had killed three people and infected 417 in Granma province, some 450 miles east of Havana.

Roberto Leon

Signs such as this one are posted everywhere in Havana, alerting people to go to the hospital as soon as they experience any of the symptoms of cholera.

Cuba’s cholera treatment protocol has doctors knocking on doors and testing anyone with possible cholera symptoms. A positive test means an automatic trip to one of the city hospitals for a more comprehensive test. While most suspected cases go to Havana’s Tropical Medicine Institute, known by its initials IPK, a pediatric hospital and a maternity hospital have also been designated to admit cholera cases. In addition, the protocol mandated that all of Havana’s 85 neighborhood health clinics set aside a room with ventilation and a closed door as a place to quarantine suspected cholera cases until an ambulance arrives to transport the patient to the hospital.
Once hospitalized, a comprehensive history is taken that focuses on identifying all the people the patient has come in contact with over the past weeks. Health workers are dispatched to locate those persons to test them for cholera and administer a free prophylactic dose of doxycycline.
Although none of the guidelines cited by the CDC recommend using antibiotics for cholera prevention, the Cuban Health Ministry believes otherwise. Hundreds of thousands of Doxycycline tablets, apparently readied in warehouses for just such an emergency, were distributed to hospitals and health clinics one morning earlier this week—another sign that Cuba is well-prepared to tackle this outbreak.
Are people complaining? You bet. They hate the chlorine smell. They say the solution stings but many would agree with Angela Linares, a nurse raising a 13-year old daughter alone, who said: “It’s a necessary inconvenience.”
“No one wants cholera, especially since we know so little about this disease,” she said.
Linares was right. Until last year, the last reported cholera outbreak in Cuba was recorded almost a century ago.
Upon learning this fact, I became even more baffled that my 7-year-old grandson mentioned cholera days before the government admitted the outbreak.
As it turns out, his primary school had been put on alert early last week, and the kids learned about the intestinal bug and prevention at a school assembly. Community physicians were dispatched to all of the city’s 650 schools to not only give a crash course on cholera but hand out soap to every classroom.
Still, it wasn’t until after the Health Ministry’s warning that Cuban state media began running public service announcements -- considerably behind the curve of Havana's second graders.

Death warrant for killing a Florida trooper.

Death Warrant for Man Convicted of Killing Trooper

 TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Gov. Rick Scott has signed a death warrant for a man convicted killing a Florida state trooper.

The governor's office announced Friday that 47-year-old Paul Augustus Howell is scheduled to die by lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Raiford at 6 p.m., Feb. 26.
Trooper Jimmy Fulford was blown apart when he opened a booby-trapped package during a routine traffic stop on Interstate 10 in February 1992. The pipe bomb, hidden in a gift-wrapped microwave oven, was intended to kill two women in Marianna because they knew too much about a drug-related murder in 1991. The death led to federal and state investigations that exposed a drug trafficking ring based in South Florida.
Howell was convicted of building the bomb and sentenced to death in 1995.

Prison behind him, former Tower of Power singer set to perform Thursday

By Rich Freedman Contra Costa Times

 

ANTIOCH -- Garlic chicken. Potato salad. Macaroni salad.

That first meal after 36 years behind bars was as good as a gold album for Rick Stevens.

"Real food," he said. "In the pen, we call it fuel. That's all it was. Fuel, not food."

Today is the six-month anniversary of Stevens' freedom, his parole signed off by Gov. Jerry Brown after seemingly endless rejections by the state parole board.

It was half his life ago that the former lead vocalist for "Tower of Power" was convicted of one count of manslaughter and two counts of murder after a drug deal horribly bad.

Only the Supreme Court's decision eliminating the death sentence in California saved Stevens, his punishment commuted to seven to life.

On the inside, it was his status as singer for the Oakland funk group that kept him alive, said Stevens, the smooth voice behind "You're Still a Young Man."

Because of the case's publicity -- the Seattle Times called it one of history's Top 11 Most Notorious Rock 'n' Roll Crimes -- "everyone knew I was coming" when Stevens arrived in prison.

"Music served me well," Stevens said. "It was a blessing. I could walk among the Crips, the Bloods, the Nortenos, the Skinheads, bikers."

Not that Stevens was impervious to those who may not have been one of his devoted fans.

"I've had my back up against the wall. In prison, you might find yourself in a cell with a guy who is a complete a-hole," Stevens said. "You don't sleep until you ask the guards if it's cool. Sometimes you have to ask for a 'cell swap.' A lot of times, that happened."

Stevens said he not only deserved the conviction, but the original death sentence.

"Absolutely, he said. "It was fair. The jury found me guilty. I was ready for the gas chamber. I said to them, 'I know this was not an easy decision for a lot of you who felt I deserved it. I have no ill will toward you. God bless you all. Thank you.'"

Stevens talked by phone earlier this week, continuing his transition to freedom in Antioch where he lives with his oldest son. Stevens makes his first publicized appearance Thursday in San Francisco, delivering his trademark song on behalf of autism awareness and The Voices of Latin Rock concert at Bimbo's.

Stevens is a long-time friend of the event's other founder, Bernie Gonzales, whose 12-year-old son has autism. The event, coordinated by Vallejo residents Jeff Trager and Ron Sansoe, should show that Stevens still has the pipes, Trager said.

"Rick did his time. And now he's back singing one of the most requested Tower of Power songs in the group's 40 years," Trager said.

Emilio Castillo, the co-founder and still-leader of TOP, said in 2002 that Stevens "was one of the greatest singers that ever lived. If it hadn't been for the drugs, he'd have been a star."

Though Stevens was a few years removed from departing Tower when the murders occurred, his former colleagues were still stunned when the shootings went down, Castillo said this week from his Arizona home.

"We were all in total shock," Castillo said. "All of us were hanging out with some pretty heavy hitters in the drug scene, so stuff like that could happen at any time."Stevens served time in San Quentin, Vacaville, Folsom, and the California Men's Colony in San Luis Obispo. He did his last 21 years at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione.

Stevens read to pass the time. The Bible. The torah. The Koran. Daily newspapers. And watched PBS.

"It was an education," he said. "Some people study at Penn State. I studied at the state pen."

As the warden's assistant at Folsom and "quasi counselor" for other inmates, Stevens had a leash few prisoners had, much like Tim Robbins' character in "The Shawshank Redemption."

"I saw it with a bunch of guys in the penitentiary," said Stevens, incarcerated only a short time when he saw the film. "It was an eye-opening experience. You make the wrong move or say the wrong thing and you can get your head taken off."

The film, Stevens said, "was on the money. There is just as much stupid stuff going on in prison as here (in freedom)."

Castillo and other Tower players reunited with Stevens at a Sacramento recording studio a few months after the singer's release.

"Really emotional," Castillo said. "He was very apologetic and I just told him that I was glad he was OK."

Castillo, as a born-again Christian, said he was "personally overwhelmed by the power of God."

Castillo last spoke with Stevens in 2008 in prison.

"I was trying to get him a special leave to come and participate in our 40th anniversary DVD, but the prison wouldn't allow it," Castillo said.

Stevens said his 10 children from four marriages were never angry or bitter with their father.

"Unconditional love," Stevens said. "They saw the news and read the papers. I was always vocal about what happened."

Perhaps the toughest part of incarceration was quitting drugs cold turkey when Stevens first arrived. After three weeks, he was able to eat a candy bar and keep water down. He started working out. He entered prison life at 150 pounds on his 5-foot-9 frame and emerged 36 years later a solid 170.

Still, "you always had to be aware," Stevens said. "Always look behind you."

A movie about his life story is in the works by a Hollywood producer, with Terrence Howard possibly in the lead role, Stevens said.

For now, he's looking to start a new band, new recording career, and a new life.

"I'd like another shot at the golden ring," he said. "One more gold record, one more platinum."

"Rick is a really talented singer with a great presence and he has an extremely unique story, so I think the sky's the limit," Castillo said.

No matter how big a movie about his life could be or how well his music career recovers, Stevens said he'll never erase what he did or its memory.

"I'm sorry for what I did," he said. "I'll always remember it and it will always be with me."

One can't change history, Stevens said.

"It's all brought me back to this day," he said, laughing, "I'm still a young man."

Killer shows some humanity before execution

 He gave a nod and a wink before he sat down in the electric chair, then he uttered two statements as contradictory as the man himself: a Gaelic expletive and "God bless."

Robert Gleason Jr. was playful and vicious, a protector and a predator. He was likeable and reprehensible. He sent Christmas cards and made me laugh on a bad day.
He was also a killer. And on Wednesday night I watched him die.
I couldn't help but smile as Gleason strung together his last words, a mix of movie and song references that baffled the men in dark suits that lined the death chamber and the citizens and reporters with me listening intently from our green and white plastic chairs. He and I had talked several times over the past three years about what he'd say when he got there. It changed a few times. It got much shorter as the day drew closer, as he feared he'd trip over his own meticulously chosen words.
In the end, he settled on lines from the Johnny Cash version of "Jackson," which reminded him of the woman he regretted losing, and "Take it to the Limit" by the Eagles because it represented the final motorcycle ride he never got to take. I knew the expletive was coming - he'd repeated it often in his thick Boston accent. I must say I was surprised by the "God bless," though.
Gleason flashed a thumbs up as they put the metal helmet on his head and clamp on his calf, perfectly censoring a large pinup girl tattoo. He went out on his own terms, choosing 1,800 volts of electricity over lethal injection partly because he didn't want to go lying down.
It's easy to call Gleason a monster. I'm not even sure those who knew and loved him would disagree. He killed at least three men - strangling the last two while locked up in the state's most secure prisons. He'd been imprisoned for killing a man whose son was cooperating with the probe of a drug ring he was involved in.
But there was something about him that made me want to know more. And he was more than willing to oblige.
I'll never know exactly why Gleason opened up to me. It wasn't infatuation. He only crossed the line once, sending me a flirtatious letter. I told him to cut it out, and he never did it again.
Nor was it to convince me that he was innocent or to ask for my help, like countless other letters I've received from prisoners as an AP reporter. Rather, he openly discussed the graphic details of each of his crimes, and he believed passionately that he deserved to die for them.
What he wanted from me, I believe, was someone to hear him out and to tell his story. I think he also liked that I didn't tell him what he wanted to hear. We had disagreements ranging from how I wrote my stories about him to how he treated his lawyers. Several times he told me I was one of the only people in the world he trusted.
I'd first written to Gleason to request an interview after he killed his cellmate, Harvey Watson Jr. in 2009. To my surprise he wrote back within a week and was more than willing to talk. As I sat across from him at Red Onion State Prison months later, he vowed that he would keep killing until the state put him to death - a threat he would repeat many times as he sought to speed up his execution.
He was moved to a prison where inmates spend 23 hours each day in segregation, but months after he first made the threat he managed to strangle another inmate, Aaron Cooper, through a separate recreation cage. I've kept in contact with Cooper's mother, Kim Strickland, since then. Although she had religious objections to capital punishment, Gleason persuaded her to testify that he deserved to die by sending her excerpts from the Bible preaching an eye for an eye.
We tell ourselves those sentenced to death are not like us. How could they be? What would that say about us?
But in Gleason I found someone who was, in many ways, like the rest of us.
This killer loved his family and was fiercely protective of them. He talked often of his mother, who died of cancer when he was young, and of his children and how he wished he'd been a better father.
He joked with my colleagues who answered when he phoned from death row and complained about the "lousy Red Sox." He helped organize a motorcycle ride to raise money for a kid with cancer, and he took pride in the tattoos he spent years drawing on sailors, bikers and drunk coeds, and also in those that covered his own body.
We laughed about our accents, and how his Boston inflection was as distinguishable as my Appalachian twang. He signed almost every letter "Bobby from Boston" and reminisced about growing up in nearby Lowell, Mass.
As his execution neared, Gleason returned to Lowell in his dreams. He said he wished he'd gone back there one last time before getting locked up.
He was self-deprecating, sarcastic and always ready with a joke at an inappropriate time. He once quipped during court proceedings, "Even Ray Charles can see that, your honor."
After killing Cooper, he wrote to tell me about it and included a drawing of a man peeking over a prison wall saying, "Here we go again." Inside, he signed it "The new and improved Boston Strangler." He didn't laugh, though, when I put that in my story. It was one of several times the killer and the reporter didn't see eye to eye.
Still, it's difficult to reconcile the guy who fretted over pictures of oil-drenched pelicans after the Gulf oil spill with the one who could kill so easily that he once likened it to grabbing a beer from the refrigerator.
Gleason was adamant that he had no remorse for the lives he'd taken. He believed that before you killed a person, you'd better be able to live with what it will do to their mothers, their kids and other loved ones. If you can't live with that, you have no business killing, he said.
He once asked why I stuck with him and his story for so long, writing to him and taking his calls when most others had long tired of him. It was my job, I told him, adding that I'd stick around through his execution. Plus, I told him, he was quite fascinating.
So on Wednesday I was there again, this time to tell the world his punishment had been carried out.
And I was there to say goodbye.
Can I call Bobby Gleason a friend? As a reporter I'm not sure I should. After all, we're taught that you go into every story with an open mind, that you keep your feelings and beliefs from interfering. And this was a murderer, a man who not only took life but took it more than once - and was well aware of what he was doing.
This is real life, though, with all the grays between the black and the white of evil and good. There's simply no way to spend that much time interacting with someone, anyone - to learn about them and their fears and their history - and not gradually begin to see them as more than just a cold killer identified by a number.
I do know one thing: I may eventually forget Prisoner No. 1059266. But I doubt I'll ever forget Bobby Gleason.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/01/19/4019734/va-killer-shows-bits-of-humanity.html#storylink=rss#storylink=cpy

Authorities,158 Police Officers Arrested in Mexico

Posted Friday, January 18, 2013-4:48 pm
        

Authorities arrested 158 police officers in two northern Mexican towns over alleged links to drug traffickers Friday, forcing the army and state police to fill the security void, prosecutors said.

The army, federal and state police rounded up 110 municipal officers in the town of Lerdo and another 48 in neighboring Gomez Palacio, including their two chiefs, said Durango state attorney general Sonia de la Garza Fragoso.
The army and state police had to take over security in both towns since the remaining municipal officers will undergo training and background checks to ensure that “links with criminal groups are eradicated,” her office said in a statement.
The massive purge highlights the often cozy relationship between local police and drug cartels in Mexico, a country plagued by drug-related violence that has left more than 70,000 dead since 2006.
The powerful Sinaloa cartel controls drug trafficking in the state of Durango, which has endured a bout of violence in recent months.
The detained officers “are part of a structure within organized crime,” de la Garza told local radio, adding that some of the officers took part in kidnappings.
Authorities had already stripped the municipal officers of their weapons to investigate their possible use in crimes.
Some detained officers told investigators that a gang launched a wave of robberies in the towns last week in a ruse to make residents put pressure on authorities to return the guns to the municipal cops, de la Garza said.
Authorities had already fired 145 Gomez Palacio officers in November after they failed vetting tests.

Georgia Child Killer Arrested in Mexico

A man who allegedly beat his 2-year-old daughter to death, then hid her body in an attic before fleeing to Mexico in 2007 is now in the Gwinnett County jail.

Mr. Christian Vasquez was booked into the jail Thursday night, about six months after Mexican officials arrested the fugitive in the town of Puebla, located in south central Mexico, according to FBI-Atlanta.

Investigators said Mr. Vasquez struck his daughter, Prisi, with an object, fracturing her skull in January or February 2007 at his family’s home at 729 Stillwater Lane.

Mr. Vasquez allegedly hid the child’s body in the attic, and that night fled with his then-20-year-old wife and her child from a previous marriage to Mexico.

The body lay wrapped in plastic in the attic for about 16 months, while unrelated occupants lived in the apartment beneath, police said.

Location: 729 Stillwater Lane, GA

33.926193237305 ; -84.102981567383

Police didn’t find out about the body until June 2008 when the child’s mother, Ms. Amy Ruiz, called her parents in Gwinnett County.

"In 2008, the parents of the victim's mother contacted police and told them that Christian had killed the daughter and hidden her body in the attic," Gwinnett County police Cpl. Jake Smith has said. "Detectives went to the location and discovered the body.”

The following month, Prisi Vasquez was buried in an infant grave at White Chapel Memorial Gardens in Duluth, alongside her great-uncle, according to a media report.

Officers issued a warrant for Mr. Vasquez’ arrest and in August, he was indicted on murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and cruelty to children, the Gwinnett County sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Sean Smith has said.

Investigators also secured federal UFAP — Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution — warrants for Mr. Vasquez. They partnered with the Gwinnett District Attorney’s Office, the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice to obtain a provisional arrest warrant for Mr. Vasquez in Mexico in 2010, Lt. Smith said.

Mr. Vasquez, who was caught in July by Mexican officials, remained in the Gwinnett County jail without bond, according to booking records.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals Inc. has recalled dozens of lots of its generic version of cholesterol drug Lipitor because some may contain tiny glass particles, the latest in a string of manufacturing deficiencies that once led U.S. regulators to bar imports of the Indian company's medicines.
Ranbaxy, a subsidiary of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd., India's biggest drugmaker, is operating under increased scrutiny from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration because of quality lapses at multiple Ranbaxy factories over the past several years. The FDA also has alleged the company lied about test results for more than two dozen of its generic drugs several years ago.
On Friday, Ranbaxy posted a notice on its U.S. website, saying it's recalling 10-, 20- and 40-milligram doses of tablets of atorvastatin calcium. That's generic Lipitor, the cholesterol fighter that reigned for years as the world's top-selling drug.
The recall includes 41 lots of the drug, nearly all with 90 pills per bottle, but three lots contain 500 pills per bottle. It's unclear how many bottles are in each lot, but medicine batches typically contain many thousands of pills. The 80-milligram strength tablets are not affected.
Ranbaxy spokesman Chuck Caprariello did not answer questions or provide any additional information beyond the statement on the company's website.
"Ranbaxy is proactively recalling the drug product lots out of an abundance of caution," the website statement read. "This recall is being conducted with the full knowledge of the U.S. FDA."
The company also filed a two-sentence statement with the Bombay Stock Exchange stating Ranbaxy's investigation would be completed within two weeks, but that after that temporary disruption to the U.S. supply, the company expected to resume shipments here.
Patients who've filled a prescription can contact their pharmacy to determine whether it was made by Ranbaxy or another generic drugmaker and, if it's from Ranbaxy, whether it came from a recalled lot.
Ranbaxy's manufacturing deficiencies, dating to 2006, led to a lengthy investigation and sanctions by the FDA. During the probe, federal investigators found Ranbaxy didn't properly test the shelf life and other safety factors of its drugs and then lied about the results.
In mid-2008, the FDA barred Ranbaxy from shipping into the U.S more than 30 different drugs made at factories in India. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice demanded Ranbaxy turn over internal documents, alleging the company lied about ingredients and formulations of some medications.
In early 2009, the FDA said it would not consider any new applications from Ranbaxy to sell in the U.S. any products made at the troubled factories.
As FDA discussions with Ranbaxy continued, it appeared Ranbaxy would lose its shot at a revenue windfall when Lipitor's generic U.S. patent expired last Nov. 30. At the time, Lipitor brought in almost $8 billion a year in U.S. sales.
As often happens when patents first expire, for the first six months only one generic rival could compete with brand-name Lipitor. Ranbaxy had that right, although an authorized generic from Lipitor maker Pfizer Inc. and partner Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc. went on sale on Dec. 1. With competition so limited, the generic prices only declined a bit from brand-name drug's price of about $115 a month — until several other generics entered the market six months later.
The FDA finally ended the suspense, deciding just before midnight on Nov. 30 to let Ranbaxy sell generic Lipitor made at the company's Ohm Laboratories factory in central New Jersey. It was unclear Friday whether the recalled Ranbaxy pills were made there or elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Ranbaxy is operating under a settlement with the FDA, called a consent decree, signed on Dec. 20, 2011. It requires Ranbaxy to improve manufacturing procedures, ensure data on its products is accurate and undergo extra oversight and review by an independent third party for five years. Ranbaxy at the time set aside $500 million to cover potential criminal and civil liability stemming from the Justice Department investigation.