GlaxoSmithKline Pulls Swine Flu Vaccines in Canada: May “Trigger Life-Threatening Allergies”

LONDON — Pharmaceuticals company GlaxoSmithKline PLC said Tuesday it has advised medical staff in Canada to not use one batch of swine flu (influenza A virus subtype H1N1, a type of swine influenza) vaccines in case they trigger life-threatening allergies.
Company spokeswoman Gwenan White said that they issued the [...]

Feds: Former US Prosecutor Helped Rub Out Witnesses For Gangster Clients, Ran Drugs And Call-Girls

From federal prosecutor to accused violent gangster, pimp, and drug-dealer…That’s the unusual career trajectory taken, say the Feds, by Paul Bergrin, who was indicted earlier this month in a 39-count racketeering indictment.
In a drama that could have been made for HBO, Bergrin — a white-collar defense lawyer who once represented, [...]

Understanding the Punitive White Male

As the chronology of California correctional policies shows, many of the punitive measures in sentencing, corrections, and risk management, emerged from voter initiatives. Whether or not the public is punitive, or is being pushed in that direction by politicians and the media, and what can be done to [...]

CIA’s Lost Magic Manual Resurfaces

At the height of the Cold War, the Central Intelligence Agency paid $3,000 to renowned magician John Mulholland to write a manual on misdirection, concealment, and stagecraft. All known copies of the document — and a related paper, on conveying hidden signals — were believed to be destroyed in [...]

‘Counterinsurgency’ to Fight U.S. Crime? No, Thanks

After the sickening murder of a 9-year-old boy in Washington, our friend Spencer Ackerman made an impassioned plea: U.S. Central Command chief General David Petraeus for D.C. metro police chief. The idea of America’s leading counterinsurgent taking on one of its most crime-ridden towns definitely has a certain [...]

The War on Drugs: FAIL: An Interview With Clifford Thornton Jr.

Woman testifies against former Riverside police officer accused of sexual assault

A sometime prostitute who alleges she was sexually assaulted by an on-duty Riverside Police Department officer testified today he never threatened her, but she felt she had no choice but to comply with his request for sex.
“I was like, ‘This is so unreal. This isn’t happening,’” said the witness, identified only [...]

Let’s Eliminate Welfare for Terrorists

Of all the factors on the table in the current Afghan strategic review, the War on Drugs and its unintended consequences should be front and center. Our 95-year effort to create a Drug Free America by enforcing world-wide prohibition has twisted our foreign policy out of shape all over the globe and [...]

Senator Wants Answers on Drugs from DoD

Senator Benjamin Louis “Ben” Cardin (D-MD) stops by the Editor’s Desk to chat about the letter he just sent to Secretary Robert Michael Gates regarding his concerns over the amount of prescription drugs being given to troops in the war zones and the long-term consequences of that practice.  [...]

Mandatory Minimum Drug Sentences Eliminated in Rhode Island

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – A new law eliminating mandatory minimum drug sentences in Rhode Island has taken effect without the governor’s signature.
Similar measures had been vetoed in past years by Gov. Donald L. “Don” Carcieri, but supporters say they compromised on this year’s legislation by removing a provision that placed [...]

Christian leaders unite to teach youth intolerance

A group of 145 evangelical, Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian leaders have signed a declaration saying they will not cooperate with laws that “could be used to compel their institutions to participate in abortions, or to bless or in any way recognize same-sex couples.”
Citing Martin Luther King, Jr. [...]

iePolitics Commentary: Sheriff Hoops, Part 2

Sheriff Rod Hoops let’s continue from my last posting.
I do not want our readers to think that misconduct such as the credentials falsification issue with Sheriff’s Captain Bart Gray is nothing but an aberration.
It is actually the opposite. In other words it happens quite frequently.
Not only are special accommodations made for [...]

iePolitics: Extensive Investigation at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center

Sources have confirmed that officials from the state regulatory agency have converged on Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC) in what has been described by one long-term employee as the most extensive investigation/inspection of the facility since its opening ten years ago.  The investigation involves all units in the hospital [...]

Seattle City Attorney Peter Holmes Backs Marijuana Decriminalization Bill

Incoming Seattle City Attorney Peter Holmes says he’s still stunned by his election victory over incumbent Tom Carr. One area where Holmes hopes to bring change is in the city’s attitudes toward marijuana enforcement. Holmes says he has no plans to charge anyone with simple marijuana possession. And he’s [...]

Los Angeles DA Joins Ranks of Drug Cartel Bitches Against Medical Marijuana

It was a petulant fit of pique, certainly entertaining, and potentially hilarious — if safe access for so many medical marijuana patients weren’t hanging in the balance.

After things didn’t go his way at Monday’s Los Angeles City Council joint committee meeting, District Attorney Stephen Lawrence (“Steve”) Cooley pronounced Tuesday [...]

When It’s Crunch Time at College, Students Turn to Adderall

Can ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder) stimulants like Adderall (amphetamines) be the answer for college students looking to increase academic performance? They think so.
It’s a week before final exams and you haven’t begun studying. These general education classes are, simply, a drag and you’re already tired from fraternity, sorority or [...]

Mexican Consulate will provide temporary vehicle import permits for persons who plan to travel to Mexico

Drawn by its beauty, mysticism of ancient traditions, or love of the country, hundreds of thousands of tourists and Mexican nationals will defy the weather and possible bad road conditions and will venture into Mexican territory during the holidays by vehicle.
However, in order to avoid infractions and legal troubles, those [...]

ACTION ALERT: Force DEA to Tell the Truth About Medical Marijuana

In a significant reversal, the American Medical Association on November 10 acknowledged the medical value of marijuana and called for the U.S. government to reconsider marijuana’s current classification as a Schedule I substance (drugs that the government says have “no currently accepted medical use”).
However, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) [...]

Bill O’ Interviews Lou Dobbs About His Termination

Jurors to hear criminal past of San Bernardino teen shot by officer with 5 prior shootings

SAN BERNARDINO – A jury will get to hear about the possible gang involvement and criminal history of a teenager who was shot by police two years ago after allegedly reaching for a gun at the end of a foot chase.
It is undecided, however, whether the jury will learn about the [...]

Germany opposes bank data deal with US

Germany has announced its opposition to a European Union agreement to share bank data with the United States for anti-terrorist investigations.
According to the draft, financial records stored by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) financial data system including “name, account number, address, national identification [...]

Analysts: US capitalism on verge of collapse

The declining state of the US economy has convinced a growing number of American analysts that the US capitalist financial system is doomed to disintegrate.
Citing the works of other leading economists such as Jack Bogle and Marc Faber, Market Watch commentator Paul B. Farrell gives 20 reasons, in [...]

Increasing number of corporations toppled by industrial espionage

Industrial espionage is no longer the part-time job of secret agents from spy movies. It is prospering in everyday life and growing at a phenomenal rate.
Billions of dollars and thousands of jobs are being lost due to the theft of trade secrets.
In recent years the definition of industrial espionage has [...]

Earth to Lou: It Could Have Been Different

It didn’t have to end this way for Lou Dobbs. He could have been a contender.
But Dobbs, a supremely self-confident man who often mentions his Harvard University education in private conversation, just wouldn’t listen. Time after time, as the “Lou Dobbs Tonight” show he has hosted on CNN (Cable [...]

From cop to politician

San Bernardino County Sheriff Rod Hoops has spent a career in law enforcement, but now he’s running for elective office and it’s a new ball game for him.
“I don’t really like that part of the job,” he told the San Bernardino County Democratic Club on Friday, Nov. 13. Even though [...]

Supreme Court hears case on prosecutorial immunity

Last week the Supreme Court heard oral argument in an important snitching case: Pottawattamie County v. McGhee. Two prosecutors are being sued for fabricating evidence — essentially pressuring a criminal informant until he came up with the story they wanted and then using that story at trial. The issue [...]

Recruiting new informants

Here’s a revealing article in the Buffalo News: Walking thin line in Village of Attica: Would-be informant says police coerced her into cooperation. It’s about Bianca Hervey, a 20-year-old college student who got pulled over by police for failing to pay her traffic tickets. The police threatened to put her [...]

AMA Urges Feds to Reconsider Classification of Marijuana as a Dangerous Drug

John Hoeffel reports in the Los Angeles Times:
The American Medical Association has urged the federal government to reconsider its classification of marijuana as a dangerous drug with no accepted medical use, a significant shift that puts the prestigious group behind calls for more research.
The nation’s largest physicians organization, with [...]

San Bernardino County Supervisor Neil Derry Sings Sinatra

Awkward Science Fair Projects

See some more of these here.

Former Philadelphia Police Officer Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison

A Federal judge has thrown the book at a crooked cop.
Former Philadelphia Police Department officer Malik Snell wept about how apologetic and ashamed he was but the prosecutor wasn’t buying and neither was Judge R. Barclay Surrick.
He gave Snell 360 months, 30 years, near the top end of the range the [...]

US bans firms, people in Cali case

The United States government says it will impose sanctions on those who have assisted the financial network of the imprisoned leaders of Cali Cartel.
The US Department of the Treasury under an executive order, froze the assets of 14 individuals and 25 companies spanning across three countries — Colombia, Spain and [...]

New DOJ Report: Gang Information Management System Needed

Review of the Department’s Anti-Gang Intelligence and Coordination Centers
The U.S. Department of Justice Office of Inspector General just released this report which examines the intelligence and coordination activities of the National Gang Intelligence Center and the Gang Targeting, Enforcement, and Coordination Center. Additionally, the review “assesses the effectiveness [...]

EndGame full length version

County Immigration Enforcement Plan Prompts Profiling Concern

Over the objections of eleven county residents, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors this week renewed a commitment to have the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department cooperate with federal authorities in identifying illegal immigrants and targeting them for deportation.
While a representative of the county sheriff’s department indicated [...]

UN: West Africa on verge of producing drugs

West Africa is on the verge of becoming a source for drugs as well as a transit point, the United Nations drug chief warned Thursday.
Antonio Maria Costa told the United Nations Security Council that since July his office and Interpol have been investigating numerous West African sites where they found large [...]

Mexico : Drug Decrim and the 10,000-Ton Monkey

Pot smoker in Mexico City. Mexicans consume an estimated 342 tons of marijuana a year. Photo by Castillo / AP.
Legalization is the only answer…
Mexico’s massive drug problem
As poet Juan Pablo Garcia posited long ago in his 1985 Pacheco (marijuana user) Manifesto: ‘drugs don’t make us criminals but laws against [...]

Adios, Lou! Que te aprendes espanol!

The Strength of the Pack: The People, Politics and Espionage Intrigues that Shaped the DEA

Through interviews with former narcotics agents, politicians, and bureaucrats, this exposé documents previously unknown aspects of the history of federal drug law enforcement from the formation of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs and the creation of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) up until the present day. Written in [...]

Big Brother to take a seat on MARTA buses

Wave to the camera. The Mountain Area Regional Transit Authority will soon have a new set of eyes to protect the safety of drivers and passengers.
MARTA provides public transportation service around Big Bear Valley and to Running Springs, Crestline, Lake Arrowhead and San Bernardino. The agency is in the process [...]

***** Attemp to Stage Anti-Immigrant Hate Event This Saturday in Big Bear Lake, Home of Big Bear Mountain & Snow Summit *****

Anti-amnesty rally being promoted for November 14 (Saturday) in Big Bear Lake. Come and show your support for our immigrant families, friends co-workers and neighbors.  This is your “four seasons resort,” as well as our home.
Though the organizers are not identified, they are requesting that anti-amnesty activists meet at the [...]

ACLU: Justice Denied: Voices from Guantanamo

Legalizing Undocumented Immigrants

Economic Progress Via Legalization: Lessons from the Last Legalization Program
Would legalizing currently undocumented immigrants in the United States place an unneeded amount of strain on the economy?
Not according to a recent report issued by the Immigration Policy Center. This report, titled “Economic Progress Via Legalization: Lessons from the Last Legalization [...]

Independent Report: ICE Enforcement Violates Workers’ Rights

Iced Out: How Immigration Enforcement Has Interfered with Workers’ Rights
The AFL-CIO, American Rights at Work, and the National Employment Law Project have jointly published this document which continues the criticism of ICE workplace immigration raids in the United States.
“This report shows that in too many instances, Immigration and [...]

America Owned by Its Army

Paris, November 3, 2009 – It is possible that the creation of an all-professional American army was the most dangerous decision ever taken by Congress. The nation now confronts a political crisis in which the issue has become an undeclared contest between Pentagon power and that of a newly elected [...]

Police Pursuits and the Drug War

The following Letter to the Editor was submitted by Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) speaker James E. Gierach to the Chicago Sun-Times:
Valerie Davis, the 42-year-old woman killed this week in a cops-chase-drug-suspect scenario, would be alive today if drugs were legalized, controlled and regulated. And the drug suspect, now [...]

Marijuana: Colorado Ski Town Votes to Legalize It, Measure Passes With 73%

Residents of the Colorado ski town of Breckenridge overwhelmingly voted to legalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana Tuesday. The measure passed with 73% of the vote.
That means as of January 1, people in Breckenridge can legally possess up to an ounce of marijuana under local ordinance. The measure also [...]

***Great!*** – Prohibition in England

Government adviser fired for saying alcohol is more dangerous than drugs

Professor David Nutt, the government’s chief drug adviser, has been sacked a day after claiming that ecstasy and LSD were less dangerous than alcohol.
Nutt incurred the wrath of the government when he claimed in a paper that alcohol and tobacco were more harmful than many illegal drugs, including LSD, [...]

Implementing Checkpoint Screening Technology

Aviation Security: DHS and TSA Have Researched, Developed, and Begun Deploying Passenger Checkpoint Screening Technologies, but Continue to Face Challenges
A recent report issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) indicates that the Department of Homeland Security and Transportation Security Administration are having difficulties implementing a plan to deploy [...]