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BRITAIN’S soft justice system hit a new low yesterday with plans to scrap prison sentences for burglars. Hundreds of thousands of crooks could escape jail every year under the proposals by advisers to the Lord Chief Justice. Those sentenced to short, sharp shock jail terms of less than 12 months for “less serious offences” – including burglary – should be handed community penalties instead, Even those who are likely to reoffend could walk free from court if it is believed they will go on to commit “non-serious offences”. And in a further blow, while courts must not be swayed by...

The California Democratic Party has donated $250,000 to help Don Perata pay off his legal bills, as the Senate Democratic leader continues to rack up expenses fending off an ongoing FBI corruption investigation. The party made the quarter-million dollar donation on July 1, according to campaign filings. The money comes just in time for Perata, who, according to a May disclosure, had only $273 cash on hand in his legal defense fund and $250,000 in unpaid bills. Jason Kinney, a spokesman for Perata on legal issues, said the donation -- and the continuing expenses -- are "no indication of anything."...

CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES PHOENIX — Arizonans without state permits will not be able to carry loaded guns under the seats of their cars. Gov. Janet Napolitano on Monday vetoed legislation that would have made cars and trucks the same as someone's home, where you could have a gun anywhere, visible or not. The governor said the measure "would have added to the level of uncertainty and danger law enforcement officers who make traffic stops already face in the line of duty." But Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, said existing law already allows people to carry holstered weapons in places not...

Justice Denied has uncovered documents that have been deleted or altered to obsure Congressman Arcuri from what may be a possible association with the Spitzer scandal.

Alarming numbers of children feel safer in the street when carrying knives or guns, Government inspectors warned today. A top-level report found that many children were still "very worried" about being bullied and were afraid of being on their own in public areas.

A Pakistani man accused of killing his daughter five days after she filed for divorce to end her arranged marriage wept in court Tuesday, telling a Clayton County magistrate he is innocent. "I have done nothing wrong," Chaudhry Rashid told Chief Magistrate Daphne Walker through interpreter Younis Farhat. Farhat said Rashid speaks primarily Urdu and Punjabi. But police say Rashid, 54, used a bungee cord to strangle Sandeela Kanwal, 25, early Sunday morning in the family's Utah Drive home in Jonesboro. Rashid, who is being held without bond, told the judge he wanted to observe his Muslim beliefs in the...

ZIMBABWE'S government said today that the G8 leaders' rejection of President Robert Mugabe's legitimacy and threats of financial measures against his regime are racist and an insult to African leaders. "They want to undermine the African Union and (South African) President Mbeki's (mediation) efforts because they are racist, because they think only white people think better," said Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga. "It's an insult to African leaders," Mr Matonga said. Mr Matonga insisted that Mr Mugabe, elected last month in a widely denounced one-man vote, was the southern African nation's rightful leader. The party has often said Mr Mbeki...

The Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) has issued a second warning to Trans TV for its "vulgar" comedy hit Extravaganza. "This is the last warning. If Trans TV fails to make improvements, we will order the station to stop the show," KPI commissioner Yazirwan Uyun said here Monday. The broadcasting commission also announced it had reprimanded Trans TV for two other comedies, Ngelenong Nyok and Suami-Suami Takut Istri (Husbands afraid of wives), and Global TV for its anime series One Piece. The warnings come following the KPI's 13-day review of 285 episodes of 92 comedies, variety shows and children's programs aired...

Facing bad publicity and a dwindling campaign account, U.S. Rep. Don Young last year turned to the "AK Wolfpack," a group of more than 20 lobbyists, including former Young staffers and retired former congressmen, with close ties to the Alaska Republican. Young's chief of staff, Mike Anderson, sent the Wolfpack an e-mail to tell them that national Democrats planned aggressive fundraising and claims of misconduct by Young to topple the 35-year incumbent congressman and his fellow Alaska Republican, U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens. If they succeed, Anderson warned, "you and your clients will be impacted." Anderson e-mailed the fundraising appeal on...

Chowdhury Got Angry When Garage Door Didn't Open Quickly. A state legislative candidate from Jefferson County accused of slapping and choking his 16-year-old daughter pleaded guilty Tuesday to third-degree assault. Vince Chowdhury, 48, got angry when his wife and daughter didn't open the garage door quickly enough when he honked his car horn in their driveway on June 17, according to an arrest affidavit. The document said Chowdhury, a Jefferson County school board member, sat in the driveway several minutes honking his horn. His wife and daughter apologized for making him wait but he thought the apology insincere so he...

REDDICK - Marion County sheriff's deputies arrested an undocumented immigrant from Guanajuato, Mexico, on Sunday evening on charges of molesting an 8-year-old girl. The victim's grandmother entered a bedroom and found Martin Ramirez Garcia, 43, with the girl, sheriff's Detective Mariam Diaz said. "She didn't see the actual touching, but she saw him on top of her," Diaz said. "The grandmother beat him off of her." According to the arrest affidavit, the victim told an investigator that Ramirez Garcia touched her inappropriately over her clothing on several occasions and exposed himself to her. Diaz said the victim's 5-year-old sister also...

Mayor Daley acknowledged today that there was a gang presence at this year's Taste of Chicago, but he insisted that Chicago Police officers were powerless to stop it. "You come out of the L. You're a gang-banger. But, what is a gang-banger? Is [it] a kid that has pants, a hat and a shirt? He thinks he's a gang member. ... Can you see the police stopping every person coming down who looks like a gang-banger [based on] how people dress?" Daley said.

A group of mothers and kindergarten students at a South Austin park found the loaded gun of an Austin police officer who did not know for hours that his weapon was missing, officials said today. Austin police Lt. Donald Baker said supervisors are reviewing how Officer Daniel Eveleth's Glock handgun might have fallen from his holster while he was at Slaughter Creek Metropolitan Park training a police dog at about 5 a.m. Monday. Officials said they did not immediately know whether one of the children or a parent discovered the gun. Officers responded to the park after one of the...

The Last Hero of Tiananmen How an aging doctor became the conscience of China. Philip P. Pan,  The New Republic  Published: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 Jiang Yanyong In the second half of 2003, Jiang Yanyong sat down to write a letter about what he had seen during the Tiananmen Square uprising and share it with the party's new leaders. Jiang had had a unique view of the massacre, and the words came easily, in a flood of suppressed memory and emotion. "I am a surgeon at the PLA No. 301 Hospital," he wrote. I was chief of the department of general...

LAUDERDALE LAKES - She denied she had given birth even as she was caught holding a white garbage bag with a crying newborn in it, the Broward Sheriff's Office said today. Officials said they also placed a immigration hold on Morant, a Jamaican citizen who was in the country illegally.

Police officers in Blue Mound didn’t think much of cookies dropped off at their station Monday night — until they got a whiff of them. Overpowering the chocolate chips was the rich scent of marijuana. “It reeked of it,” said Lt. Thomas Cane, a Blue Mound police spokesman. “It wasn’t hard to tell. Anyone that’s been around marijuana before would have known.” Christian Phillips, 18, Watauga, who was serving court-appointed community service for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, dropped off the cookies in a wicker basket about 6:30 p.m. Monday, Lt. Cane said. A card from MADD was attached.

WASHINGTON — Senator John McCain told a major Hispanic group here Tuesday that he remains committed to passing the kind of immigration legislation that angered many Republican voters last year (snip)

Walt Disney World fired a security guard on Monday after he protested the company's decision not to allow people with concealed weapons permits to keep guns in their cars on Disney property. Disney terminated Edwin Sotomayor, 36, of Orlando for violating three Disney employee policies, essentially for failing to cooperate with an internal investigation, said spokeswoman Zoraya Suarez. Sotomayor vowed to continue his fight. At issue is Florida's new law that allows people with concealed weapons permits to keep firearms in their vehicles in employee parking lots. Disney advised its employees late last month that the theme-park resort is exempt...

Iraq has created a special task force to investigate the theft of valuable ancient Judaic manuscripts that later turned up in Israel. The rare books, confiscated during the reign of Saddam Hussein, were rescued from US bombing at the start of the 2003 war and then sent to the US for restoration but later wound up in Israel instead. At a press briefing at the National Museum in Baghdad, Minister of Tourism and Archaeology Mohammad Abbas al-Uraibi said a working group "will investigate in the US to find out if this is true or not." Among some 300 precious works...

When football superstar Michael Vick pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to run a dogfighting operation, we knew he had kept about 50 pit bulls on his 15-acre property in rural Surry County. We knew the dogs were chained to car axles near wooden hovels for shelter. And we knew the dogs that didn't fight were beaten, shot, hanged, electrocuted or drowned. But we didn't know their names. Headlines described the nameless dogs as "menacing." Some animal rights groups called for the "ticking time bombs" to be euthanized as soon as Vick's case was closed and they were no longer...

“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” is the way JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon described the impact of rumors on the downfall of investment bank Bear Stearns. Dimon appeared in a taped interview from Aspen, Colo. on the July 7 broadcast of PBS’s “The Charlie Rose Show.” He discussed the possibility of impropriety involving the collapse of Bear Stearns (NYSE:BSC), which led to the eventual JP Morgan’s (NYSE:JPM) discounted buyout of the beleaguered investment bank. “I would say, ‘Where’s smoke, there’s fire,’” Dimon said. “I’ve heard it. I don’t have evidence of it. I think the Securities and Exchanges Commission...

BOSWELL — An Indiana County trucker faces more than $1.2 million in fines after authorities said he routinely traveled the Pennsylvania Turnpike with a stolen E-ZPass. State police charged Thomas Howard Wambold, 38, of Blairsville, with 1,241 counts of using the E-ZPass to evade tolls for 21/2 years – between Sept. 23, 2005, and March 24. Wambold was scheduled to be arraigned Monday before District Judge Susan Mankamyer of Boswell. In addition to a $1,000 fine for each alleged violation, authorities contend Wambold owes $575,980 in full fares to the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. “My life is over. Thanks,” Wambold allegedly...

ABC News' Sunlen Miller Reports: Senator Barack Obama was confronted with a question at a town hall in Powder Spring, GA that has plagued him since the start of his general election campaign: has he been flip-flopping and moving more toward the center, and can he make his Iraq position clear? The question came from a former Republican, who worked for Bobby Kennedy when he was 15. Although the man called the flip-flopping charges, “nonsense,” he asked the Illinois Senator to clear up any confusion. “The people who say this apparently haven’t been listening to me,” Obama shot back quickly....

For years, the media and Democrats have sold the public an understanding that Gerorge W. Bush fabricated a story that Saddam Hussein had a WMD program in order to justify invading Iraq, which invasion then becomes "based on a lie." About 550 metric tons of yellowcake concentrated uranium were recently shipped out of Iraq. It had been part of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program. That much was recently reported by the Associated Press . I wrote an article for American Thinker that commented on that story the day it appeared. That yellowcake stockpile pre-dated 1991, and had been under the UN's...

A Hillsborough sheriff's deputy who said he had always wanted to spend his life in law enforcement used a Taser on his wife then held his service pistol to her head before he was arrested and held for mental evaluation, deputies say. Carlos Thomas Tanner, 38, a 10-year veteran of the sheriff's office, was arrested at his Dover home about 1:45 a.m. Monday. He is charged with felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and misdemeanor battery-domestic violence. Tanner was taken in under the state's Baker Act because he threatened to harm himself if he were arrested, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie...

For the first time in recent years Cameron County's Democratic Party may not have a candidate on the ballot for a constable's race in the November general election. Precinct 1 Constable Saul P. Ochoa was to represent the party in the election, but after pleading guilty last month to a charge of distributing marijuana, it knocks him out of the race. The Democratic Party has until Aug. 26 to nominate another candidate in his place. However, with Ochoa's sentencing on the drug charge not scheduled until Sept. 22, this leaves the party without a candidate in this election. "I don't...

SODUS, NY--According to several police officers who wish to remain anonymous, it has become an unwritten policy of the Wayne County Sheriff's Office to not report illegal aliens to the U.S. Border Patrol when they are taken into custody. On April 27th of this year, Juan Casarubia-Rendon, age 24, was stopped by Wayne County Sheriff's Deputies for numerous traffic violations. He was found to be highly intoxicated, with a blood alcohol level of .32%, four times the State threshold for vehicle operation. Juan had no license and no vehicle insurance, something that would have normally called for an arraignment for...

Recently a user, Lori Drew, was charged with a felony for the heinous crime of pretending to be someone else on the Internet. Using the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Lori was charged for signing up for MySpace using a fake name. "The access to MySpace was unauthorized because using a fake name violated the terms of service. The information from a "protected computer" was the profiles of other MySpace users. If this is found to be a valid interpretation of the law, it's really quite frightening. If you violate the Terms of Service of a website, you can...

The Pinocchios of the Left By Burt Prelutsky There are good lies and there are bad lies, and not just on a golf course. Good lies are those that make me laugh. For instance, the NBA recently held its pre-draft camp in Orlando, Florida, and they discovered that the one thing these college prospects had in common, aside of course from a reluctance to play defense, was that a large number of them have been lying about their height. Memphis center Joey Dorsey, Memphis guard Derrick Pose and Duke guard DeMarcus Johnson, weren’t really 6-9, 6-4 and 6-4, as advertised,...

....U.S. law enforcement authorities helped facilitate a $32,000 ransom payment in Mexico for a relative of a U.S. congressman who was kidnapped by gunmen in Ciudad Juarez, a border city across from El Paso Texas with rampant drug smuggling, gunfights and corruption. According to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) in a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff asked for an investigation into Immigration and Custom Enforcement´s (ICE) recent efforts in procuring the release of a Mexican woman kidnapped in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The family raised the money, according to the memo. On June 21,...

Actor Donald Sutherland: Obama's Being 'Gutted' for Hillary By Noel Sheppard (Bio | Archive) July 7, 2008 - 20:45 ET As far as conspiracy theories go, the one actor Donald Sutherland posited at the Huffington Post Monday certainly doesn't rank very high. After all, there's a long line of political pundits predicting the Clintons are conspiring to steal the Democrat presidential nomination from Barack Obama. But, coming from Kiefer's dad, and the original "Hawkeye" Pierce from "M*A*S*H," the entertainment value is, well, delicious (photo courtesy NYT). Get out the popcorn, folks...you won't be disappointed (emphasis added, h/t NBer Gary Hall):...

Is Barack Obama's website conducting an outlawed-in-Minnesota raffle? The Minnesota Gambling Control Board thinks giving new donors a chance to meet Obama backstage in Denver is worth investigating. The Strib's Randy Furst says only nonprofits, not campaigns, can conduct raffles in Minnesota. The raffle standard: it costs money to participate, it's based on luck of the draw, and something of value is at stake. Obama's campaign sounds like it will argue the winners won't be random.

Frisky sun worshipers are flocking to have sex on the beach in Provincetown - but are sending horrified family vacationers packing, officals said. Angry Cape Cod National Seashore officials said they are cracking down on public sex acts along the picturesque shoreline after the number of citations for public sex acts more than tripled, from an average of 40 to 132 last year. “This is not what we’re interested in seeing,” said George Price, Superintendent of the National Seashore. “Over the last couple of years, public (sex) acts like this have been viewed by visitors.” Price said officials are baffled...

The corner of 800 West and Fremont Avenue (1100 South) was the scene of horrific violence Sunday. On Monday, it was the scene of hugs and prayers as a neighborhood still in shock tried to do what it could to begin healing. A 7-year-old girl was killed during a drive-by shooting Sunday while she played on the corner in front of her house. Investigators said Sunday they did not believe the girl was an intended target. Monday, however, police said that part was still being investigated. Maria Del Carmen Menchaca, who went to Riley Elementary School, was shot about 6:30...

UK: CONSERVATIVE LEADER David Cameron called for "a presumption to prison" for people found carrying knives yesterday as he launched his party's campaign in what he called Britain's "broken society by-election" in Glasgow East. FRANK MILLAR , London Editor reports Scottish first minister Alex Salmond claimed a political earthquake could see his Scottish National Party win the previously "safe" Labour seat, amid speculation that failure to hold his Scottish stronghold could finally precipitate a challenge to prime minister Gordon Brown's leadership.

What prompted Pembroke Pines police to conduct a dawn paramilitary raid that ended with the June 12 shooting death of homeowner Vincent Hodgkiss? In its application for a narcotics search warrant, police cited an anonymous complaint of drug dealing, surveillance of high-turnover visitors and two searches of Hodgkiss' trash by detectives, who found scraps of paper with handwritten numbers and trace amounts of "green, leafy substance" that tested positive for marijuana. Police conducted the raid with its Special Response Team (similar to SWAT) two days after Broward Circuit Judge Dale Cohen approved the search warrant. As a result of the...

NEW YORK -- Phillip R. Bennett, Refco Inc.'s former chief executive officer, was sentenced to 16 years in prison Thursday for his role in a scheme to hide the commodities broker's financial troubles. At a hearing, U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in Manhattan said white-collar defendants such as Mr. Bennett often "just don't think they'll get caught." "You and others like you play a truly high-stakes poker game," the judge said. The judge didn't impose a fine and said restitution will be discussed at a later date. Mr. Bennett has agreed to forfeit essentially all of his assets. The...

The domestic violence industry operates under the cloak of secrecy and anonymity, maintaining such policies are necessary to shield victims from their abusers. But every now and then a crack appears in the façade, revealing a sordid panorama of corruption, fraud, and abuse. On February 28, 2007 the Naples, Fla. citizenry opened their morning newspapers to the jolting headline, "CEO Out at Women's Shelter: Investigation into Battery Complaint Prompts Departure." Over the next several months, details would spill out of a woman's rights activist who had evolved into a self-serving "tyrant," as one of her colleagues later described her. The...

The domestic violence industry operates under the cloak of secrecy and anonymity, maintaining such policies are necessary to shield victims from their abusers. But every now and then a crack appears in the façade, revealing a sordid panorama of corruption, fraud, and abuse. On February 28, 2007 the Naples, Fla. citizenry opened their morning newspapers to the jolting headline, “CEO Out at Women’s Shelter: Investigation into Battery Complaint Prompts Departure.” Over the next several months,...

CANNES, FRANCE - EUROPEAN Union ministers backed French proposals for a common policy to stem illegal immigration and said they expected it to be adopted in October, despite accusations of xenophobia from outside the bloc. Spain said it was happy with changes to the 'European Pact on Immigration and Asylum' discussed by interior ministers from the 27 EU states in Cannes on Monday, having previously expressed concern about proposals to ban mass legalisations of migrants. France has made harmonising the bloc's immigration policy a priority of its six-month EU presidency that began this month. <A HREF="http://ads.asia1.com.sg/event.ng/Type=click&FlightID=16226&AdID=19599&TargetID=2065&Segments=1,81,238,564,999,1779,1780,1784,1891,2000,2061,2099,2355,2410,2428,2433&Targets=2065,1720,2838,2847&Values=25,30,50,60,82,91,100,110,130,150,155,196,266,942,962,990,1480,2253,2762,2807,2862,2918,3913,4072,4074,4082,4083,4084,4085,4103,4118,4119,4221,4333,4337,4342,5633,5640,5663,5696&RawValues=&Redirect=" target="_blank"><IMG SRC="http://adimage.asia1.com.sg/2003/dot.gif" WIDTH=300 HEIGHT=250...

Falmouth, July 08: A man was ordered held without bail Monday for allegedly beating a New York man with a baseball bat because he thought the man was a Yankees fan. As it turned out, the New Yorker allegedly beaten in the land of the Red Sox isn't even a big baseball fan. Police say Robert Correia, 20, and others spotted a car with New York license plates leaving a fireworks display Friday. The group approached the car and began yelling about the Yankees, according to the police report. Police did not identify the victim, but the New York Post...

Karen Coughlin, a psychiatric nurse in Taunton, Mass., remembers the evening four years ago when her 14-year-old son asked her if any patients had tried to kill her that day. “I was astounded, but he was serious because he’d heard about co-workers going to the hospital for injuries,” Ms. Coughlin said. “I’ve been hit, I’ve been kicked and spit on. I’ve had a knife pulled on me. I love what I do and many of the patients I work with, but I don’t love the conditions I work in.” Three years ago, an enraged patient — 6 feet 4 inches...

Whatever side of the Second Amendment controversy you may be on, the clear winner in District of Columbia v. Heller (striking down a Washington, D.C., ban on hand guns) was intentionalism, the thesis that a text means what its author or authors intend. The text in dispute is 27 words long, and it is cited in the opening pages of each of the three opinions: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” None of the words in this sentence is...

FORT SAM HOUSTON - In his first public remarks since he and two other American hostages were freed in Colombia, a US defense contractor on Monday branded their captors as terrorists and praised the Colombian army for a daring rescue. Keith Stansell, one of three US defense contractors freed on July 2 after five years as a rebel-held hostage in Colombia, holds his twin 5-year-old sons at a news conference at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, July 7, 2008. [Agencies] American defense contractor Marc Gonsalves appeared with fellow hostages Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes at a...

PHILADELPHIA: Anheuser-Busch Cos on Monday raised the political and emotional stakes in its fight against an unwanted $46.3 billion (23.5 billion pound) takeover bid by highlighting its foreign suitor's ties to Cuba. Belgium-based InBev wants to buy Anheuser-Busch to create the world's largest beer brewer, but its overtures have been rejected repeatedly by the St. Louis-based brewer of Budweiser. InBev on Monday moved ahead with plans to try to replace Anheuser-Busch's board with its own nominees. In rejecting InBev's offer as too low and uncertain, Anheuser-Busch on Monday also called attention to InBev's operations in Cuba. InBev, through a subsidiary,...

Last week in Denver, almost all the values of the post-1960s Left were exhibited in one act. It happened on the Denver mayor's most important day -- the one in which he was to deliver his annual State of the City Address. The day was to begin with the singing of the National Anthem by the black jazz singer Rene Marie. But Ms. Marie had, by her own admission, long had other plans. Instead of the National Anthem, she sang "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," a song written in 1899 and often referred to today as the Black National Anthem....

Software programmer Hans Reiser on Monday led authorities to the body of his missing wife off a hiking trail in the Oakland hills not far from his home, sources confirmed. Authorities declined to make any official comment on the discovery of the body, which was believed to have been in some sort of a bag and possibly buried. Reiser, accompanied by his attorney William Du Bois, led Oakland Police and Alameda County District Attorney's officials to the body early Monday afternoon. The body was down a steep hillside that runs next to a hiking trail in the 8200 block of...

DENVER -- A man who allegedly shot and killed a small dog told police that the terrier shot itself while playing with his pistol. Ryan Hayes was arrested last week on charges of possessing a weapon while under the influence, animal cruelty and reckless endangerment. Lakewood police said Hayes, 49, shot the Jack Russell mix in the head. Marlys Duggan told the Denver Post she is the owner of the dog, called Patches, and she was visiting Hayes when the dog was shot. He is "my across-the-street neighbor. I usually go over three or four times a week to visit,"...