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PHILADELPHIA - Mark W. Potter, Special Agent in Charge of the Philadelphia Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and Patrick Meehan, United States Attorney, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, announced that Dwight Grant, known throughout the rap music industry as Beanie Sigel, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court today to violating the federal firearms and narcotics laws. ATF agents and officers of the Philadelphia Police Department arrested Sigel in July 2003, and charged him with being a felon in possession of a firearm. The arrest stemmed from an incident that occurred in April 2003, when...

WASHINGTON (April 6) - Americans may say they know a lot about sexually transmitted diseases but they do not practice what they preach when it comes to defending against them, according to a survey published Tuesday. While one in four Americans will be infected with an STD -- and up to half of younger adults will be -- most of those surveyed believed they were not personally at risk. This is precisely why STDs spread so easily and so pervasively in society, said the American Social Health Association, which published the survey. ''The findings in our survey are quite disturbing....

EDMONTON -- Corrections Canada won't let guards at maximum-security prisons wear stab-proof vests because it sends a confrontational "signal" to prisoners, says a department spokesman. "If you have that kind of presence symbolized by (a stab-proof vest), you're sending a signal to the prisoner that you consider him to be a dangerous person," said Tim Krause. "It interferes with what we call 'dynamic security.' We want staff to talk to prisoners, to see how they're doing." At Stony Mountain Institution only guards in the emergency response unit are allowed to wear the stab-proof vests, said unit manager Linda Garwood-Filbert. The...

Oregon Libertarian Tom Cox is following up on his promise: He said last year -- when he was chairman of the state Libertarian Party -- that Republican legislators in his state who voted to approve a tax hike would be opposed when they came up for re-election. He is now running against one of those Republicans. And his move has been noted -- and applauded -- by local media and lawmakers alike. The Salem Statesman Journal, in the capital city, pointed out that both Libertarians and some Republicans said they would do their utmost to kick those lawmakers out of...

When the World Health Organization (WHO) released its proposed "global strategy on diet, physical activity and health" calling for "fat taxes," the Bush administration noticed something conspicuously missing from the report -- any notion of personal responsibility. Thankfully, the former Director of Communications for WHO's European Office, Franklin Apfel, provides insight into this obvious omission. He recently told a conference in Dublin (as reported in The Irish Times): [W]e are all influenced by 'hazard merchants' selling us a false view of things like tobacco, alcohol and high density foodstuffs -- we're given the impression that these things represent personal choice,...

  January, 2004By Peter Bagge  

Feds Grab Medical Marijuana Patients from California State Courtroom Couple Arrested As Attorneys and Judge Meet in Chambers; State Charges Dismissed Press Conference, Emergency Action at Sacramento Federal Building at Noon Friday Sacramento (Wednesday, January 14, 2004) – In a stunning display of duplicitous double dealing, federal agents yesterday seized two medical marijuana patients from a California state courtroom after the local prosecutor lured the couple’s defense counsel into the judge’s chambers to dismiss the state charges filed against them. David Davidson and Cynthia Blake were in state court on a motion seeking to have charges of marijuana cultivation and...

(CBS) For years, television host Montel Williams helped guests deal with their problems. But he was forced to reveal his own problems - a battle with multiple sclerosis - to pre-empt a 1999 story in the tabloids. In his new book, "Climbing Higher," Williams writes that he had been struggling with MS symptoms for years but it wasn't until a painful episode while shooting the CBS television show "Touched by an Angel" that he was finally diagnosed. It is at this point that Williams invites his readers into an intimate account of suicide attempts, intense pain, medical procedures, sexual dysfunction...

Has the President Gone on a "Spending Spree"? Only if you think that withdrawing from the war and surrendering the world to Osama bin Laden is a viable option. A lot of conservatives have been on a tear lately (myself included). Every time you turn around, someone is screaming about government spending and the there are those who are more than happy to exploit the confusion surrounding spending issues to erode support for the President. The San Francisco Chronicle recently put out a hit piece attempting to spin the spending numbers in a way that makes the President seem like...

The nation's oldest ladder manufacturer, family-owned John S. Tilley Ladders Co. of Watervliet, N.Y., near Albany, has filed for bankruptcy protection and sold off most of its assets. Founded in 1855, the Tilley firm was profitable until a few years ago but could not handle the cost of liability insurance, which had risen from 6 percent of sales a decade ago to 29.4 percent by the end, even though the company wasn't sued often and had never lost an actual court judgment. Jury awards in product liability cases have jumped from "an average of $1.7 million in 1994 to $6...

Oh, it's good to be the king. You float high above the law and plunder your subjects with impunity. Or so it seems in Routt County, where the local cops bring along a federal drug agent on their raids in hopes that his presence will immunize them from the sticky strictures of the Colorado Constitution. It's time someone told them they answer to state law, not the whims of a federal agent who happens to be hanging around. Last October a drug "task force" of nine, count 'em nine, agents, acting on a tip and armed with a warrant, raided...

CHICAGO (Jan. 1) - Despite a sharp drop in homicides, Chicago has regained a title it didn't want: America's murder capital The city finished 2003 with 599 homicides, police said Thursday. That was down from 648 a year earlier and the first time since 1967 that the total dipped below 600. Still, the nation's third-largest city outpaced all others for the second time in three years. New York, with about three times the population, ended the year with 596 homicides. Los Angeles, which had the most murders in 2002 at 658, wound up 2003 with an estimated total just under...

West Virginia Libertarians received an early Christmas present when a federal judge in Clarksburg struck down a confusing state law that made it more difficult to convince voters to sign ballot-access petitions. On December 23, U.S. District Court Judge Irene Keeley ordered the secretary of state's office to stop enforcing a law that made it illegal for state residents who sign a third-party candidate's petition to vote in the state's next primary election. In 1999, the state legislature had dropped the legal penalties for signing such a petition and then voting in a primary -- but kept the language that...

SEATTLE (Dec. 9) - The King could be your cabbie under the city's new taxi driver dress code. The City Council voted Monday to approve legislation that would allow drivers to sport rhinestone capes, blue suede shoes or whatever other appropriate costume they wish. "Uh, a-thank you verrah much," cabbie Dave Groh, an Elvis Presley impersonator, said after the vote. It was Groh's case that prompted the change to the city's 1997 taxi dress code. Adopting an Elvis look after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in hopes of bringing some levity to the city, Groh pleased many passengers, but...

<p>Neal Easterbrook considers himself lucky for the number of deer he brought back to his Shelby Township home and the time spent with family during this year's hunting season.</p> <p>Easterbrook, who went hunting with his brother and father in Michigan's Thumb, bagged a 7-point buck and two does during the 15-day firearm season that concluded Sunday.</p>

SUMMIT, N.J. (Nov. 29) - Sports vs. church: It's become the Sunday morning dilemma in homes across the nation. With weekend sports leagues growing in popularity, schedules have stretched further into those Sunday morning hours that were once the exclusive domain of churches. Now, clergy of many faiths are pushing back, asking coaches and time-starved parents to keep Sunday morning holy, even if it means their children's teams have to play some other time. "I don't want my kids to grow up with great football memories and no Biblical knowledge," said Rev. Chuck Rush, senior minister at Christ Church in...

FARWELL – After more than a two-year ordeal, a Parmer County jury Thursday found Ronnie Puckett, 47, innocent of possession of marijuana, a charge that came after police found an estimated 250 pounds of the drug on his Lazbuddie farm in October 2001. His fight continues, however, to keep the state from seizing his land. Puckett was arrested on June 14, 2002, after an investigation into the cultivation of marijuana plants on about 10 acres of cornfield. Police also seized marijuana from a barn on the property. Puckett’s then-74-year-old father, William Vernon Puckett, was arrested during a raid on the...

A parent of a high school student asked local school officials last week (Nov. 14) to reconsider a Sept. 22 decision that paved the way for students to choose clothing that displays the Confederate flag. Stella Moore told members of the Jackson County Board of Education that her son had heard racial slurs at Smoky Mountain High School and described an incident where students ran across the football field (during a pep rally) carrying a Confederate flag and yelling "KKK." "Your decision was made without regard for the feelings of those who think that flag represents racism and slavery," Moore...

Can you imagine a bill that intentionally forces marijuana users to inhale a greater amount of tar and carbon monoxide? What about a bill that dramatically increases penalties on medical marijuana providers who develop high-quality strains of marijuana for seriously ill patients? The Drug Sentencing Reform Act, scheduled to be introduced by U.S. Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN) within the next few days, would accomplish these "goals." Please call your U.S. representative today and urge him or her not to cosponsor this bill. See below for details about how to do this. While the most prominent objective of this bill is...

<p>VaxGen's experimental AIDS vaccine couldn't block HIV infection among volunteers in Thailand, the Brisbane company said Wednesday, in another blow for the closely scrutinized drug.</p> <p>The vaccine, dubbed AIDSVAX, had no noticeable effect on infection rates among the 2,546 intravenous drug users in Bangkok who volunteered for the study. Nor did it slow the disease's progress among volunteers who took the vaccine and later contracted HIV.</p>