Here are the 21 reports of police misconduct tracked in our National Police Misconduct News Feed for this Monday, September 12, 2011:
- Buena Vista MI police officer arrested on premeditated murder charges related to the strangulation death of a woman who was weeks away from giving birth to what police believe is his child. [0] http://is.gd/FZ2xEt (Corrected from being listed as “Saginaw County previously)
- Northside TX ISD cop with a history of 16 reprimands is the subject of a lawsuit by the family of a 14-year-old student who was fatally shot in a questionable incident where the officer’s report was contradicted by a witness [3] bit.ly/nuVvtL
- Cottageville SC is citing budget pressure as their reason for firing a cop who had been fired or forced to resign from a number of other police departments for excessive force and misconduct who is now being investigated for fatally shooting that town’s ex-mayor with a shotgun. [2] bit.ly/qGwUwj
- Charleston WV police are being sued for unreasonable force by the widow of cop who was killed by friendly fire during a car chase involving a man suspected of misdemeanor crimes. [0] bit.ly/q7MwyX
- New Orleans LA cop sentenced to 210 years in prison after pleading guilty to 7 counts of rape, 6 of those counts involved the teen daughter of his girlfriend. [0] bit.ly/nY90Az
- San Francisco CA cop was videotaped hitting a photojournalist’s camera twice during the latest BART police brutality protest [3] bit.ly/rhhUwv
- Montreal QC police under investigation over videotaped incident where woman was thrown into metal pole [0] bit.ly/pqwkzG
- Haines FL sued by an innocent man who lost job and home after he was arrested, strip searched & jailed for 2 days due to a warrant made out to the same-name except that it was for a woman [0] bit.ly/qaOJil
- Maui HI cop sentenced to 18mo prison for stealing $1500 from motorist during a traffic stop and for extorting sex from a female detainee [0] bit.ly/pRvouD
- Edinburg TX police sued by strip club owners after police confiscate cash & property in raid that found nothing [4] bit.ly/o2R5Lg
- Meigs GA cop fired after arrested on statutory rape charges following a local & state investigation [1] bit.ly/mRaC27
- West Memphis AR cop arrested on domestic battery charge after teachers report suspicious marks on his stepchild [0] bit.ly/qoorD2
- Los Angeles CA USD cop convicted on false evidence & other charges for fake shooting incident that sparked lockdown and manhunt [0] bit.ly/mPTXDn
- Edison Twp NJ settles discrimination & retaliation suit for $250k to cop suspended after complaint about fellow cop [0] bit.ly/n8TdW8
- US District Court for Eastern District New York overturns ruling allowing stopping & searching vehicles on hunch [0] bit.ly/p9qIn2
- Pinal Co Sheriff’s dpt admits policy error as Prison Legal News files suit over refusal to deliver mag to prisoners [0] bit.ly/odAb54
- Perry Twp OH cop remains on duty after arrested on assault charge involving unspecified woman [2] bit.ly/olUHTr
- Chattanooga TN cop accused of having role in pressuring a bar to censor a band when they played song critical of cops [3] bit.ly/rmcQWw
- Seattle WA police sergeant retires ahead of disciplinary hearing over rubberstamped DUI arrest reports [0] bit.ly/qpR9I5
- Waynesboro GA cop resigns after suspended for allegedly destroying drug evidence to give teen break at traffic stop [0] bit.ly/oVWDM0
- 2 New York NY cops under investigation for sexually suggestive dancing on video during West Indian Day parade [0] nydn.us/pX7T5E
MOREI love a good hack, especially one that requires me to throw back a cold one before hand (or during). This simple wifi boost has actually been shown to increase signal strength by at least 2 to 4 bars. And, well, I will drink to that.
These instructions came to us via The Chive and we think they are most definitely worth checking out. But here is the most important question: what kind of beer will you use?
For this project you are going to need scissors, a utility knife, some adhesive putty and an empty beer can. More than one empty beer can is acceptable but don’t kid yourself, the router only needs the one.
Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme for these young people,” said Gov. Rick Perry in his first debate as a presidential candidate. “The idea ... that the current program is going to be there for them is a lie.”
Pressed by the moderator, Perry did not back down. He doubled down, calling Social Security a “monstrous lie to our kids.”
Is not such language provocative, Perry was asked. Retort: “Maybe it’s time to have some provocative language in this country.”
Since Barry Goldwater suggested the program be privatized and LBJ ran an ad of a Social Security card being scissored in half, the issue has been “the third rail of American politics.” Touch it—and it kills you.
Apparently, the Mitt Romney campaign thinks it is still the third rail.
Falling on Perry’s perceived fumble, Mitt declared that Social Security “is working for millions of Americans, and I will keep it working for millions of Americans. ... Our nominee must not be someone who is committed to abolishing Social Security but ... to saving Social Security.
Yet Perry never said he was going to abolish Social Security. He said, “We need to be focused on how we are going to change this program.”
“If Ford Motor did what the U.S. Government has done—borrowed and spent all the cash the company, its employees and workers had contributed to their pension fund, and used it for wages, salaries and expenses, leaving IOUs in the vault—the executives would go to prison.”Karl Rove, however, piled on, as did ex-Romney aide Alex Castellanos:
“Rick Perry may have reassured the base with some very fiery rhetoric, but what he didn’t do last night was prove in any way that he could win independents or seniors or soccer moms. And ... he shot an arrow into the heart of seniors. He set grandma’s hair on fire.”
Well, perhaps.
Yet, on the merits, Perry has more than a small point. For the Social Security program has been relentlessly looted by a Beltway political class that has used it for decades as the piggy bank of last resort.
Social Security was originally designed in the 1930s to be a program where all workers would contribute during their years of employment into a trust fund, from which they would receive a small annual stipend to help with retirement, should they live to 65.
During his presentation on the status of the nation’s new country-of-origin labeling (COOL) law, and on behalf of the R-CALF USA COOL Committee, R-CALF USA member and Kansas cattle feeder Mike Callicrate was asked a non-COOL question that set convention goers on their heels during the 12th Annual R-CALF USA Convention held August 26-27 in Rapid City, S.D.“Has the Environmental Protection Agency declared hay a pollutant?” an audience member asked. Callicrate responded affirmatively and explained that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently initiated a formal enforcement action against his Kansas feedlot for, among other things, failure to store his hay in a pollution containment zone. “Now that EPA has declared hay a pollutant, every farmer and rancher that stores hay, or that leaves a broken hay bale in the field is potentially violating EPA rules and subject to an EPA enforcement action,” Callicrate said. “How far are we going to let this agency go before we stand up and do something about it?”
Callicrate is permitted to handle 12,000 cattle at a time in his feedlot, which is considered a small to mid-sized feedlot in an industry now dominated by mega-feedlots such as those owned by the world’s largest beef packer – JBS-Brazil – with a one-time capacity of over 900,000 cattle; or the other mega-feedlot that also feeds hundreds of thousands of cattle at a time and is owned by the nation’s second-largest beef packer - Cargill; or the other handful of mega feedlots with capacities of hundreds of thousands of cattle such as those owned by Cactus Feeders, Inc. and Friona Industries.
In comments submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice, R-CALF USA estimated the above named mega-feedlots feed 18 percent of the nation’s fed cattle each year while one-fourth of the nation’s cattle are fed in feedlots with a one time capacity of 50,000 head or more. The largest of feedlots are getting larger and Callicrate’s feedlot is among the group of small to mid-sized feedlots that are being pressured to exit the industry so beef packers and corporate feedlot owners can increase their respective capacities. Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) show that 45 feedlots with one-time capacities of between 1,000 or more cattle but less than 16,000 cattle have exited the industry from 2008 to 2010.
