2012 New Ca. Laws

With a new year come new laws for the road, and the California Highway Patrol is trying to make sure drivers know about the new rules.

The new laws - passed by the Legislature this year - will affect child safety seats, unlicensed drivers, electric vehicles, and the penalties for driving under the influence.

The California Highway Patrol offers free child-safety seat instruction.

ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER FILE PHOTO

"Our hope is by educating the public of these new traffic safety laws in advance, more lives will be saved in the New Year, said CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow in a written statement.

CHILD CAR SEATS

For drivers with young children, the requirements for children to ride in a car seat or booster seat have changed.

Beginning Sunday, children who are younger than 8 years old, and shorter than 4 feet, 9 inches, will be required to ride in the back seat with a car seat or booster seat.

If the child is older than 1 year old and weighs more than 20 pounds, the child can ride in the front seat if there is no rear seat, or all back seats are occupied by children under 8 years old.

"However, the law still maintains that a child may not ride in the front seat with an active passenger airbag if they are under one year of age, less than 20 pounds, or riding in a rear-facing child seat," read a statement on the new laws from the CHP.

CAR IMPOUNDS, DUI CONVICTIONS

The new year will also mark a change to sobriety checkpoints, where officers will no longer be allowed to tow a car when the only offense is that the driver did not have a driver's license.

"The new law requires that the officer make a reasonable attempt to identify the registered owner in order to release the vehicle," the statement read.

Drivers who have been repeatedly convicted of driving under the influence might also face harsher penalties.

Courts may now revoke the license of a driver convicted of three DUIs for up to 10 years. After five years the driver could request a limited license, but it would require them to install an Ignition Interlock Device in the vehicle.

Other laws that go into effect Sunday morning:

• Anyone convicted of reckless driving can apply for a limited driver's license before the end of their year-long suspension, but will required to use an Ignition Interlock Device in their car.

• Electric vehicles must be plugged in for refueling if they are using an EV-designated parking space. If not, they may be towed.

• Local governments can now regulate advertising signs on vehicles that are left parked on a public street, unless the sign is painted directly and permanently on the vehicle and does not extend beyond the vehicle's length, width, or height.

Phone Scam Yuma Border Area

Yuma Area Residents 11/02/11

Yuma AZ, Nov. 2 - Yuma County residents are the exclusive target of a recent phone scam claiming to be with the U.S. postal Service.

According to Paul Krenn with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service's Phoenix Division the phone scammer asks potential victims for their social security number and birth date in order to deliver a package.

Krenn says several Yuma post offices have received phone calls from residents reporting the scam, but at this time the U.S. Postal Inspection Services can't confirm anyone has fallen victim. However, he says this is unusual for the what is rated the most trusted brand in the U.S. Krenn says, "This is actually unique, it's different, in that we seldom have a situation where we have somebody reporting to be the postal service making a personal contact to customers in this case via the phone and requesting this type of information."

Krenn also says they will never ask for your social security number, but when appropriate they may ask for your birth date. However it would be in person from a uniformed employee who can present a postal service ID.

Los Algodones B.C., Mexico

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Los Algodones, Baja California, is a small Mexican town located on the extreme northeastern tip of the municipality of Mexicali, approximately 16 km (9.9 mi) west of Yuma, Arizona, USA. Its official name is Vicente Guerrero, although most people use Algodones when referring to it. It reported a population of 5,474 as of the 2010 Mexican census. It also serves as a borough seat of its surrouding area.

Los Algodones is the northernmost town in Mexico, and at its northeastern tip is the northernmost point in Mexico. Another interesting geographical distinction is that if someone were to travel in any of the four cardinal directions from anywhere in Algodones (due north, due east, due south, or due west), they would cross a U.S. border.

Situated near the borders of both southeastern California and southwestern Arizona, Los Algodones has become a popular tourist attraction in recent years due in part to inexpensive shopping and restaurants as well as inexpensive medical care and prescription medicines. The warm, dry climate of the area attracts a number of older tourists from across the United States and Canada who settle during the winter in the nearby towns of Yuma, Arizona and Winterhaven, California. Organized day trips from the Coachella Valley are popular among seniors as well.

From the US side, Los Algodones is most easily reached via Interstate 8 and south a short distance (3.33 Km / 2.07 mi) along State Route 186/Andrade Road to the international border at Andrade, California. From Andrade, visitors can elect to park their vehicles for a small fee and walk across the border or to drive across.

The popularity of both inexpensive prescriptions and medical care catering to Canadian and US senior citizens have prompted a virtual explosion of pharmacies and dental offices which have largely displaced a great deal of the open-air shops and restaurants immediately across the border and have effectively shifted the town's focus from tourism to medicine. Nevertheless, a number of shops and restaurants remain and Los Algodones capitalizes on the tourist trade with frequent fiestas throughout the year, most notably around the Christmas season.

The exact geographical location is 32°42′55″N 114°43′44″W at an elevation of 110 feet/33.5 m above mean sea level.

The Spanish-language name Los Algodones translates into English as "The Cottons (referring to the plants, not the fiber)."

CBP Agent Sent to Prison

After a complaint from the Mexican government, a U.S. Border Patrol agent has been sentenced to two years in prison for "violating" the constitutional rights of a 15-year-old drug smuggling suspect by not "lifting his arms properly." The Obama Justice Department has accused the agent of using "unnecessary force," in handling the suspect while handcuffed. From the Washington Times:

Agent Jesus E. Diaz Jr. was named in a November 2009 federal grand jury indictment with deprivation of rights under color of law during an October 2008 arrest near the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas, in response to a report that illegal immigrants had crossed the river with bundles of drugs.

In a prosecution sought by the Mexican government and obtained after the suspected smuggler was given immunity to testify against the agent, Diaz was sentenced last week by U.S. District Judge Alia Moses Ludlum in San Antonio. The Mexican consulate in Eagle Pass had filed a formal written complaint just hours after the arrest, alleging that the teenager had been beaten.

Defense attorneys argued that there were no injuries or bruises on the suspected smuggler’s lower arms where the handcuffs had been placed nor any bruising resulting from an alleged knee on his back. Photos showed the only marks on his body came from the straps of the pack he carried containing the suspected drugs, they said.

The defense claimed that the smuggling suspect was handcuffed because he was uncooperative and resisted arrest, and that the agent had lifted his arms to force him to the ground - a near-universal police technique - while the other agents looked for the drugs.

The allegations against Diaz, 31, a seven-year veteran of the Border Patrol, initially were investigated by Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Office of Professional Responsibility, which cleared the agent of any wrongdoing.

Despite being cleared of any wrong doing by the I.C.E.  Office of Professional Responsibility and the DHS Inspector General, the Obama Justice Department went forward with prosecution against Diaz. Considering the Obama Justice Department is full of former ACLU lawyers, this situation is extremely disappointing but not surprising. After all, this is the same Justice Department that wanted to prosecute Navy SEALS for "punching terrorists in the stomach," prosecute CIA agents who conducted water boarding and the same department headed by Attorney General Eric Holder who thinks terrorists deserve the same rights as law abiding American citizens. The Obama Justice Department has made it clear they are more concerned with fulfilling the interests of foreign countries, in this case Mexico, than protecting American citizens. In addition, the Obama Justice Department has made it clear they have no respect for our Border Patrol agents in light of Operation Fast and Furious, the lethal operation that resulted in the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Terry's family still hasn't received an apology from the Justice Department for their role in the operation.

Border Driver News

Plates and Drivers Licenses taken by Mexican Police The AP

Miguel Angel Rodriguez had just parked his car when a Ciudad Juarez traffic officer wrote him a ticket and then unscrewed one of his license plates.

The truck driver from El Paso, Texas, argued with the officer, but soon gave up. That didn't mean he was going to pay the 165 peso ($12.50) fine.

He is one of thousands of people with U.S. cars who find it quicker and easier to just replace the plates or driving licenses that Juarez police routinely confiscate to guarantee payment.

U.S.-plated cars are common on Juarez's streets due to cross-border commuters, not to mention locals who buy cars or pickups across the border because they are cheaper.

The city says it is owed about $10 million in fines on tens of thousands of unpaid traffic citations against U.S. drivers or vehicles. More than 74,000 seized U.S. plates and drivers' licenses sit in Juarez city government warehouses and most will never be retrieved.

"The amount of plates is so big that they won't fit here anymore," said Mario Hernandez, an employee of the city's traffic department. "We had to take them to another warehouse, and we are thinking about destroying those taken before 2007."

Rodriguez argues that he should not have been cited in the first place because the no-parking zone was unmarked

"It was an unfair ticket," Rodriguez said. "The cop was waiting for me: The second I stepped out of the car he approached me."

So Rodriguez picked up new set of plates, his sixth in the last few years, at the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles office in El Paso, a city of 800,000 inhabitants just across the border from Juarez.

"It took longer to argue with that traffic cop in Juarez than the time the DMV took to give me a new set of plates," Rodriguez said.

Many cities in Mexico have banned officers from seizing plates, licenses or registrations because it gives corrupt police a potent form of pressure to extract bribes. Juarez still allows the practice, meant to force drivers to pay fines, but it doesn't seem to work very well with U.S. drivers.

It costs just $7 to replace a license plate in Texas, $11 for a new drivers' license.

In this city of 1.3 million inhabitants, a fine for running a red light is about $45 and speeding is about $40, Hernandez said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers allow cars to enter the United States with missing plates as long as drivers can prove they own the vehicles, spokesman Roger Maier said. Drivers simply report their plates or licenses stolen as they head home to the U.S. side.

Other border cities have tried different approaches.

Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, police take driver's licenses and levy cheap fines to retrieve them.

"To them (American drivers) is almost the same price to pay the fine here or get a new license," said Federico Soleci, revenue director in Matamoros.

Officials in Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas, have issued an unwritten order to "bother Americans as little as possible," said city spokesman Agustin Garcia. The goal is to keep from pushing even more tourists away from a city whose economy had been hurt by drug gang violence.

Ciudad Juarez has considered hiring a collection agency in El Paso to pester debtors, but Mexico's laws do not permit Mexican cities to contract with U.S.-based companies for such activities. Even if the city could, it would have no legal leverage to collect debts owed in Mexico from someone living in the U.S.

"There (in the U.S.), you get a ticket and if you don't pay you might end up in jail. Here, we take the license plates and they just get new ones," said Ciudad Juarez's treasurer, Antonio Salgado.

ICE officer arrested in pot smuggling

ICE officer arrested in pot smuggling

Posted: Oct 19, 2011 8:14 PM Updated: Oct 19, 2011 8:14 PM

PHOENIX (AP) - Prosecutors in Phoenix say a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation officer should be detained as allegations of pot smuggling leveled against him play out in court.

Jason Alistair Lowery was arrested on Tuesday after a confidential informant told a Department of Homeland Security investigator Lowery was involved in a "rip" crew in which he used his status in law enforcement to help steal marijuana from illegal immigrants.

The informant agreed to call Lowery and arrange for him to pick up 500 pounds of pot in the Arizona desert. Agents followed him and the Department of Public Safety says he led them on a high-speed chase in his government vehicle on Tuesday, throwing bundles of marijuana out of the window as he fled.

During a court hearing Wednesday, prosecutors argued he should remain locked up, saying he poses a risk to the community and could flee the state. Lowery's attorney declined to comment.

The Associated Press