Hooversville mulls sex-offender ordinance

By PATRICK BUCHNOWSKI
The Tribune-Democrat

HOOVERSVILLE — Borough Council is flexing its legal muscle when it comes to fighting sex crimes.

Hooversville is looking to become the third Somerset County locale to restrict where convicted sex offenders may live.

“Right now, we have it before our solicitor,” council President Kenneth Karashowsky said. “It does limit where convicted sex offenders can live in relation to playgrounds and the community building.”

He conceded the proposed law would force convicted offenders to live “outside of the borough,” adding that he believes sex offenders lose their rights when they commit a crime.

Benson Borough and Shade Township are two of the more than 90 localities in the state that have such ordinances. Johnstown and Ferndale Borough in Cambria County have similar laws.

It’s a growing movement that civil libertarians say raises legal questions.

“Prohibiting sex offenders that have served their time from living in the borough at all would almost certainly be illegal,” said Mary Catherine Roper, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union in Philadelphia.

Some ordinances have faced legal challenge, while others have gone unopposed. Ordinances that have been upheld are those that “restrict but not prohibit” where someone can live, Roper said.

Council is reviewing Ferndale’s ordinance before adopting its own, Karashowsky said.

“It’s part of our job to protect the community and this is one way of doing that,” he said.

Bill limits sex offenders

Jon Meyer
jmeyer@idahopress.com

Monday, March 10th, 2008

BOISE — Lawmakers in both the House and Senate have unanimously approved a bill limiting the number of registered sex offenders permitted to live in the same residence.


House Bill 417 is intended to permit no more than two registered sex offenders to live together by amending state land use and planning regulations. It’s aimed at concerns about group homes with a high concentration of sex offenders going into residential neighborhoods.

About the bill

Lawmakers say House Bill 417 would:


• Set a limit of two registered adult sex offenders in a residential dwelling unit;


• Provides for a judicial bypass in limited circumstances to exceed that limit;


• Give cities and counties authority to exceed the limit by ordinance to allow and regulate group residence homes for sex offenders;


• Provide a misdemeanor penalty for violation, consistent with other statutes restricting sex offenders;


• Require Department of Correction approval for a group home residence still supervising the offender;


• Grandfather current residence situations, while requiring compliance with ordinances of cities and counties when established.

Several provisions for local government to bypass the limit are built into the bill.


Supporters say the measure would “balance the need for registered adult sex offenders to have housing available to them with concerns of citizens over sex offender group homes being established in residential neighborhoods.”


Passed by the House 68-0 and the Senate 32-0, the bill now only needs Gov. Butch Otter’s signature to become law.


Current residential situations wouldn’t be affected by the new restrictions.


“I think everyone is concerned that we have transition housing available — the debate is that that is important, but it is also important for people to feel secure in their neighborhoods,” Senate floor co-sponsor Curt McKenzie of Nampa said.


Numerous halfway houses for sex offenders and former felons have located throughout the Treasure Valley in recent months. Legislators say difficulties have arisen among city and county governments in interpreting the federal Fair Housing Act that governs the homes’ regulation.


Some transition home operators have held that sex offenders are a protected class of disabled persons under the federal law.


But lawmakers say in their proposal that, according to the U.S. Department of Justice “persons convicted for illegal manufacture or distribution of a controlled substance, sex offenders, and juvenile offenders are not considered disabled under the Fair Housing Act, by virtue of that status.”


HB 417 as well as the Senate-passed House Bill 465 could use that exemption to the FHA to give Idaho cities more authority to regulate halfway houses that previously could be established with little notice or need for approval.


“People were very upset,” McKenzie said of his constituents. Several neighborhood meetings concerning transition houses in Nampa conveyed little local support for those placed in residential areas without notice, particularly near schools.


Senate bill co-sponsor Patti Anne Lodge of Canyon County said there was debate in the Senate “centered around the fact that if we didn't have the transitional homes more people would pop out in prison, stay in prison longer and so therefore would cost the taxpayers more.”


“I don’t agree with that because we can still have transitional homes, we can have them in commercial areas, like the Rev. Bill Roscoe. His programs are tremendous,” Lodge said.


Rev. Bill Roscoe is executive director of the Boise Rescue Mission. The mission offers transitional housing for those emerging from its substance-abuse treatment program. In Nampa, the residential units are adjacent to the Lighthouse Rescue Mission on Nampa-Caldwell Boulevard.

Officials wrestle with sex offender residency rules

COUNCIL: Amendment on Tuesday agenda still in works over weekend.

By Paul Eakins

Article Launched: 03/09/2008 09:56:11 PM PDT

LONG BEACH - One month after residents of an Alamitos Beach neighborhood told the City Council that something must be done about an apartment building in which more than a dozen paroled registered sex offenders were living, city officials are responding.

On Tuesday, the council will consider amending city law to establish residency requirements for registered sex offenders.

However, what exactly the law entails still remains unclear.

The item listed in Tuesday's meeting agenda, which was made available Thursday afternoon, is only one sentence long and doesn't include the usual staff reports that are given to council members and city officials to further explain the agenda items. The staff reports also are available online at www.longbeach.gov.

The single page located where a staff report should be says the information "will be distributed when available." A representative of the city attorney's office, which is preparing the city code amendment, said Friday the details of the new law wouldn't be available until sometime today because it is still being written.

The council unanimously supported the creation of new local sex offender laws on Feb. 18, and that action sheds some light on what restrictions may be included in the ordinance.

The amendment that had been proposed at that meeting by Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal of the 2nd District, where the apartment building at 1149 E. First St. is located, would restrict sex offenders from residing within 2,000 feet of licensed child-care facilities, or within 2,500 feet for "high risk" sex offenders. Lowenthal also proposed limiting the number of sex offenders that can live in a multi-family residence.

Under state law, convicted sex offenders released from prison since 2006 may not live closer than 2,000 feet from K-12 schools or parks. Registered sex offenders on parole also aren't allowed to live together in a single-family dwelling unless they are legally related by blood, marriage or adoption.

The 12-unit Alamitos Beach apartment building is near two day-care centers. The state's Megan's Law Web site, which identifies registered sex offenders with their address, at the beginning of the year listed 15 sex offenders living in the apartments.

A spokesman for the state Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections since has said that some of the sex offenders will be moved out of the apartment building to other locations. On Sunday, 10 sex offenders were still listed as residents of the building on the Megan's Law site.

Inspired at the Feb. 18 meeting by the comments and ideas of several concerned residents, the council additionally asked the city attorney's office to look into other ways the city could curb the number of sex offenders in Long Beach neighborhoods.

Some of those ideas included allowing only sex offenders who previously had been residents of Long Beach to return here to live when on parole, redefining what a single-family residence is in order to limit the number of offenders living in an apartment building, and if there is any way to prevent landlords from moving out tenants to bring in sex offenders.

Former tenants of the Alamitos Beach apartments had complained to the council that they weren't told about the sex offenders moving in and then were asked to move out to make room for more.

Earlier agenda notice

In other business Tuesday, the council will choose between two versions of a new policy designed to inform council members and the public earlier about items going before the City Council.

Under the proposed policy, which the council had asked for in December, council agendas would have a "tentative agenda" section that lists items to be considered in the future, but on which no action is to be taken at the upcoming meeting, according to the city attorney's office.

Both versions of the change would include exceptions for matters that are ceremonial, involve a gift or grant, involve an Alcohol Beverage Control license, are referred to the council by the city attorney for action, are related to elections or are referred from a council committee, the report says.

"Version A" also would also allow an exception for items placed jointly on the agenda by three council members when possible adverse actions could result if the item is delayed.

"Version B" would allow that same exception, but also an exception for such items placed jointly on the agenda by two city council members and the mayor, or jointly by the city manager and the mayor.

paul.eakins@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1278

Sex offender law is making them more dangerous

Jessica's law, the initiative voters approved as Proposition 83 in 2006, severely restricts where sex offenders can live and requires that they be monitored with global positioning devices for life. But the law is not working as intended. In fact, members of an expert panel assembled to monitor the law say it may be increasing the danger that sex offenders pose to the public.

California's Sex Offender Management Board reports that since the law took effect 15 months ago, the number of registered sex offenders who say they are homeless has increased from 2,000 to 2,879, a 44 percent jump.

"I see homelessness as increasing overall risk to public safety," Tom Tobin, the board's vice chairman, told the Los Angeles Times last month. Homelessness removes offenders from their families and support systems and increases the chance they will commit new crimes.

Tobin put it another way in an interview with National Public Radio: "I would rather know where a sex offender lives and be able to find him when I need to than having him homeless and transient and having no idea where he is."

No one should be surprised at what's occurring. The law, which bars offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a park or school -- including home schools -- is so restrictive that it makes virtually any urban neighborhood, where ex-convicts are most likely to find affordable housing, off limits.

The measure also costs the cash-strapped state $20 million annually to enforce. About $8 million goes for global positioning devices to track ex-offenders, and more than $12 million is for parole agents to keep tabs on them. The law was so sloppily drafted that no one knows who is supposed to monitor the offenders once they finish parole and are released from state jurisdiction. Local governments can't afford it any more than the state.

Before California voters enacted this law, criminal prosecutors in other states where the same concept had been tried warned that it would make things worse, not better.

But the politicians who put Jessica's law on the ballot wouldn't listen, and now they are scrambling to find ways to amend it.

Grant Parish S.O. To Notify Residents Of Sex Offenders

By Alan Quartemont - Jambalaya & Midday News Anchor

March 10 2008

According to a news release from the Grant Parish Sheriff’s Office, the deparment on Monday will begin notifying residents by telephone of any registered sex offenders who may be living within a one-mile radius of their homes. GPSO says the calls are not meant to alarm residents, but to keep them informed.

The Department will use City Watch, a reverse 911 messaging system which was purchased by GPSO in 2007 to notify residents of any local events or situations.

For more informaiton, visit http://www.grantsheriff.org or http://www.lsp.org.

What Are We Doing To Our Children?

Victoria Hardy

March 10, 2008

What are we doing to our children? Typically I jump from subject to subject, circling the tapestry attempting to see the bigger picture, but a few weeks ago I wrote an article, Is Ritual Child Abuse Just a Hoax?, and naively, I have been surprised by some of the responses it has generated. The idea that adults could join together to harm children and use them solely as objects is something most do not wish to even consider. And I understand that the words ritual abuse are startling to our senses, so I began following just the threads of child abuse and have been surprised at how systematic it is in our culture.


As I sought to uncover the long arms of childhood victimization, I noticed a consistent disregard for children and a tendency to treat them more as objects, than humans, not just in the sordid world of human trafficking, but throughout institutions that house troubled, abused or unruly children. In the news articles I´m about to share, there were often repeated complaints by children that were ignored, shuffled under and quickly forgotten, while the abuses continued on, unchecked. Our children have become prey for the profiteers, not just the pedophiles and child pornographers, but businesses, corporations and social agencies designed to "help" kids.


In 2002, a child abuse scandal rocked Portugal and has yet to be resolved as 10 people were indicted on charges of sexually abusing minors, rape and organizing a pedophile ring. The children abused were housed in state run homes and orphanages and those indicted included a famous media personality, a former employment minister and a former South African ambassador. Guardian


In Britain, officials are excavating a basement under a former care home, which is now a youth hostel, seeking as many as 7 bodies of children. Telegraph The remains of one skeleton has been found and detectives believe they are looking at one of the worst child abuse scandals ever at a British institution. A covert investigation began in 2006 when former residents contacted police and complained of the abuse they suffered as children in Haut de la Garenne (which translates into rabbit warren) care home. Deputy Chief Officer Lenny Harper said the allegations range from "from pretty severe physical and mental abuse right through to the most serious sexual crimes that you can imagine." BBC News


In 2006, a sex scandal hit the Texas Youth Commission, which houses troubled youth, aged 10 to 21, across the state. Yet again, complaints were made for years by both the staff and the inmates, but the complaints were not investigated and the alleged perpetrators were promoted. In 2005, the Texas Rangers began looking into the allegations, but it was still 2 years before the case received any national attention. Since 2000, 90 employees and contractors at TYC facilities have been disciplined or fired for sexual misconduct with inmates. Dallas Morning News


In 2004, it came to light that children residing in privately owned psychiatric centers in Ohio suffered molestation by workers, broken bones, overcrowded and filthy conditions, were denied food and given alcohol and drugs. The children involved were abuse victims, anorexic girls, teen sex offenders and suicidal kids and were considered mentally ill. Parents complained of overuse of drugs like Haldol and Thorazine and children as young as eight were on as many as 6 psychotropic drugs at one time, most not approved for children. At one center six workers were indicted on 110 charges ranging from corruption of a minor to rape. Cincinnati Enquirer


These cases are really just the tip of the iceberg, the ones that have eventually been brought into light, and we would be fooling ourselves to think these are isolated events. In researching these articles I´ve pondered how someone could derive pleasure or accept money for hurting a child and I´ve been startled by the darkness that resides in certain human beings. It seems children have just become numbers on a graph, easily manipulated to reap in more profits and housing children has become a huge money making endeavor.


In 1997, the Clinton administration passed the Adoption and Safe Families Act and it was marketed as a feel good solution to limit the time children spent in foster care. Department of Health and Human Services Previous to this legislation the focus was on "reasonable attempts" to unite children with their biological families, but with the introduction of ASFA, we in America, understood that the priority had changed to promoting the welfare of the children. What most didn´t understand was that with the new legislation, states would receive big bonuses for adopting out children. And parents would be given only 15 months, before their children are adopted out to strangers, to prove to the court (not a jury, but a judge) that they deserve to raise their own kids.


In the new and improved system of protecting our children, profits increased dramatically and lots of folks began making money. The amount of money at the original signing of this law was $20 million in bonuses to the state for adoption of foster-care children, $5 million for health care of adopted kids with special needs, $11 million in subsidies for special-needs children and the family-preservation program was reauthorized with an additional $65 million and added adoption services to its mandate. About


So once "protective" services are involved the money making clock starts ticking and then the priority is not in uniting families, there is no bonus for that, but in making sure those children get through the system quickly and get placed into new families. Now if these children all came from terribly abusive families, I would agree that the system works, but it doesn´t take long on the Internet to find out how families and children are suffering over this law. We must remember this is a business and businesses don´t make money without a product and in this case, the product is children. Massachusetts News


In 2001, there were over half a million children in foster care and in the 1990s, Illinois Department of Children and Family Services confirmed that they removed approximately 1000 kids a month from their homes. According to Denise Kane, Inspector General of the Illinois DCFS, "The majority of parents who come before our court love their children and their children look to them with love and seek the attention and nurturing of their parents."


In 1995, in Los Angeles County, California, 26,947 children entered foster care. Testifying before a Congressional subcommittee hearing in 1993, Department Head Peter Digre admitted to legislators that half of the children in the system were there due to poverty, not abuse or neglect. Trevor Grant, former Director of Social Services of the New York City Child Welfare Administration, has said that close to 85% of cases labeled as neglect are actually poverty cases.Lifting The Veil


And once many of these kids are taken away from their homes and placed into state care, their chances of abuse increase. During a two-year period, one foster child died every 7 and ½ weeks in the state of Arizona. In a one-year period at least 8 children died in foster care in Massachusetts. And in New York, a 7-year-old girl was raped repeatedly in institutional care, yet the caseworker deemed the allegations unfounded, despite the testimony of credible witnesses, including staff members. Institute for Psychological Therapies


According to Massachusetts Attorney Gregory A. Hession, once protective services knock on your door, the nightmare begins and he has created a website to assist parents with dealing with what he describes as the illegal kidnapping of children. Included on his site is a list of 17 dirty tricks protection services use to remove and keep children from their families. Dirty trick #3, "DSS agents will abuse and traumatize your children themselves." He goes on to describe the trauma a child feels being pulled from a parent´s arms, taken away and grilled over and over about their home life by strangers. Dirty trick #10, "If DSS takes your children, they will keep them a year, and try to adopt them out - They earn up to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year per child taken, and keep a lot of cronies in work." Mr. Hession explains this period of captivity as a lease, followed by the sale (adoption) after 15 months and that a new federal law has been put into place establishing adoption quotas for each state. A couple other tricks he mentions are refusing to place children with relatives and making parents wait a full year before allowing their case to be heard by a judge. Mass Outrage


The conspiracy theorists tell us that powers greater than us are seeking to destroy the family and it appears, yet again, they are correct. Dr. Mary Jo Bane, Clinton's Assistant Secretary of Administration for Children and Families in the Department of Health and Human Services, has been quoted as having said, "If we want to talk about equality of opportunity for children, then the fact that children are raised in families means there's no equality . . . In order to raise children with equality, we must take them away from families and communally raise them." With very little effort on the Internet one can find stories of broken and exhausted parents who have nearly lost hope of seeing their children again for offenses like refusing to put a child on Ritalin or having a "messy" home or experiencing stress in a family or typical childhood accidents that led to ER visits. And once protective services have you in their sight, tighten your seat belt; it´s going to be a bumpy ride.


So it seems we have created a system in our country that takes children from homes, abuse or not, substantiated or not and places them in government subsidized homes and institutions under the guise of protection. There they keep them for a year with very limited contact with their families, not just the alleged offenders, but siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles. And while they are held in state "protection" their chances of abuse, physical, sexual, mental and emotional increases by about 25 percent according to statistics of states that have reported. And while these children are held, lots of people are making money, lawyers, court personnel, court investigators, evaluators and guardians, counselors, therapists, psychologists, residential facilities, foster parents, adoptive parents and believe it or not, the list continues.


We hear a lot in the media of the deaths of children not under state protection. We hear about the awful parents who injure or kill and we thank God for the protection services, but we rarely hear of the tragedies that happen under state care. Part of the problem lies in confidentiality laws and according to former Juvenile Court Justice, Judy Sheindlin (yes, Judge Judy), "The only people being protected here are caseworkers and other officials, who regularly hide behind a wall of secrecy." The system is based on money, big money and steady employment for many people, so the broken bones, rapes and deaths of the kids often go unheard.


Now before my email box fills with folks telling me about wonderful foster parents and social workers, let me clarify, I do not believe that all are bad, I know there are good ones, but many of those end up leaving the system, exhausted, disillusioned and frustrated. I also understand that some children are being seriously abused and need to be removed from abusive parents. What I am suggesting, however, is that the system is flawed and taking time to check the links I have provided, it´s clear that many who work in the system agree and feel it needs to be reformed, at least and at most, torn down and rebuilt.


Children are not products and should not be bought, sold and managed like inanimate objects. And really, when we think about the numbers and consider the abuses, what are we doing to the next generations? How are these kids supposed to move into the world and become high achievers? How will these children adjust to the adult world without a cloud of victim hood perpetually following them? Thankfully, some will survive and shine in life, but that is only due to the amazing power of the human spirit. Over and over through researching this subject I saw children left in abusive parental homes while under state protection and others taken from families and moved into abusive government subsidized homes, so I´m asking, what are we doing to our children?

Officers seek fugitive Officers Seek Brian Brown who failed to register as a sex offender

FBI'S MOST WANTED Brown

A law enforcement task force is asking for help in finding a man accused of parole violation after serving prison time for a sexual battery conviction and failing to register as a sexual offender.

Brian Brown, 41, was charged with the parole violation by the Ohio Adult Parole Authority. The Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office issued an arrest warrant for Brown for failing to register as a sexual offender.

His conviction was based on sexual contact with an underage girl over a period of approximately two years, authorities said.

Brown is white, 5 feet 10, 155 pounds and has sandy brown hair and green eyes. He is known to have lived in Strongsville and Brunswick and may have friends in those areas, authorities said.

Anyone with information regarding Brown or other fugitives, is urged to call the Cleveland/Cuyahoga Fugitive/Gang Task Force at 216-522-1400. Identity of callers will remain confidential. Reward money is available.

The task force consists of members of the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office, FBI, Cleveland Police Department, Ohio Adult Parole Authority and the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority Police Department.

Its goal is arresting fugitives charged with such crimes as homicide, bank robbery, robbery, kidnapping, rape/sexual assault, felonious assault and arson.

Fugitives of the week also can be viewed online at cleveland.com/crime.

Clarksville man arrested on child pornography charges

By TAVIA D. GREEN
The Leaf-Chronicle

AIvyn L. Aichinger IV, 32, of Clarksville, Tennessee, was arrested Friday, March 7, and charged with receipt and possession of child pornography, according to a federal court press release.

According to the affidavit of complaint, local agents received information that Aichinger had been a customer of a child pornography website.

Aichenger has been a registered sex offender since 2003, according to Carrie Daughtery, the prosecuting attorney.

According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's Tennessee Sexual Offender Registry, Aichenger, who is listed at a 575 Donna Drive address, had two offenses for receiving and possessing child pornography in August 2003.

On Wednesday March 5, 2008, a TBI agent interviewed Aichinger at his home and Aichinger admitted that he had been downloading child pornography images from the Internet as recently as Saturday March 1, 2008.

He also admitted he had been seeking out child pornography since 2000, the release said.

Aichinger’s computer, which has a 300 gigabyte hard drive, was seized from his home and currently is under analysis at the TBI, the news release said.

The ongoing investigation is being conducted by the TBI and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) assigned to the Joint CyberCrime Task Force (JCCTF), the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, and the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee.

On Friday March 7, Special Agents of the T.B.I., F.B.I. and JCCTF, assisted by the Clarksville Police Department, arrested Aichinger on charges of receiving and possessing child pornography, the news release said.

He appeared before a United States Magistrate Judge in Nashville, Tennessee for an initial appearance and has a preliminary and detention hearing set for Monday March 17, 2008 to determine whether he will remain incarcerated pending trial.

If convicted the penalties for child pornography will vary by the case,"Daughtery said.
"The range of penalties differs from no time to life," she said. " Many times child pornography statutes have a mandatory minimum, it can be as low as 5 years or more if they have a prior conviction."

Charges brought against a person through a complaint or indictment are accusations only. That person is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

St. Mary's man sentenced for possession of child porn

Authorities say man had 150 pornographic images stored on computer

By a Sun reporter

2:47 PM EDT, March 10, 2008

A St. Mary's County man was sentenced today to 18 months in federal prison followed by supervised probation for life for possessing child pornography, the Maryland U.S. attorney's office said.


Andrew Vincent Mattingly, 29, of Saint Inigoes, also will not be allowed to use computers without prior permission from federal authorities when he is freed from prison, according to the terms of his plea agreement in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt.


Prosecutors said an FBI agent in Detroit searched the house of a man who charged visitors a fee to watch child pornography on a Web site that he created. Authorities said one of his customers was Mattingly, who they said had up to 150 images of child pornography stored on his computer and that some of the children were as young as 8 years old.

Cov. Teacher Charged With Possession Of Child Porn

Last Update: 3/11 2:08 am

Web produced by: Ian Preuth

A Covington school teacher was arrested Monday for allegedly possessing child pornography.

School officials said James Chase, who teaches music at Two Rivers Middle School was charged with possession of material containing a sexual performance by a minor.

Officials said Chase has been suspended without pay while the matter is under investigation.

Teacher Arrested for Child Porn

WBTV obtained a search warrant today revealing graphic details in the case against the Myers Park High School teacher charged with possessing child porn.

Police have now seized his computer.

WBTV's Melissa Hankins has the latest on the investigation.

-------
When police first showed up at the history teacher's door, Ellington refused to give his computer over, allegedly wasting time so he could erase evidence.

But police were able to get to Ellington's deleted files anyway. What they found, detailed here in this report, was awful and embarrassing.

Today, Ellington tried to dodge our camera after appearing for the first time in court.

According to this search warrant, police found two types of child pornography on Ellington's computer, a picture of a boy and a girl and a video of two boys.

The news, related by a mass automated call to parents Friday night, upset quite a few, including Michelle Murdoff, mother of a 9th grade girl.

"I thought that they do background checks. It's a little unsettling that he's with kids. You know, he could have been with my child," she said.

Student Morgan Miller took his class last year, "I was very surprised."

Morgan says the scandal rocked the school today, "Everyone was talking about it."

She said some were as surprised as her, but others, "they said they thought he was creepy," she said.

And so are many of the warrant's details.

It says Ellington spoke to an individual from Greensboro online one time, in which he told the user that he was involved in a sexual relationship with a minor.

The teacher told CMPD though that the chat room talk was pure fantasy. Ellington claims he's never had sex with a minor and police say there's no evidence that he has.

Papillion man sentenced on federal child porn charges

Associated Press - March 10, 2008 7:15 PM ET

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - A Papillion man has been sentenced on federal charges of possessing thousands of images of child pornography.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon on Friday ordered 40-year-old Steven Sudyka to serve two years in prison and five years of probation. Sudyka had faced up to 10 years behind bars.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, a search warrant served at Sudyka's home on June 22nd turned up more than 3,000 pornographic images on a computer and related technology.

Sudyka pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography on November 15th.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Former Beach auto-shop owner gets 13 years for child-porn possession

By Tim McGlone
The Virginian-Pilot
© March 10, 2008

NORFOLK

The former owner of a Virginia Beach auto repair shop was sentenced this morning to 13 years in prison for illegally possessing child pornography and firearms.

John P. Wiegand Jr., 49, previously pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to having child pornography on his computers at home. Federal agents initially traced an attempted purchase of child pornography to a computer and at his business, Accu-Tune-n-Lube on Lynnhaven Parkway. A judge Monday also sentenced Wiegand to 10 years of probation.

Federal agents investigating the case discovered that Wiegand used his credit cards to purchase the child pornography between 2003 and 2006, according to court records in the case. The agents found 1,400 child porn images on his computers.

When the agents searched Wiegand’s home, they also found a 9mm handgun and a rifle. Wiegand has felony drug convictions which prohibit him from possessing firearms.

Predators@yourkids.net

Ex-youth worker warns of Internet dangers

(1)

(News) Monday, 10 March 2008, 00:36 PST

FRANK PEEBLES, Citizen staff

The places your children are going on the internet may seem innocent, even to them, but traps are set in those places to capture and abuse young people. The only way to protect your kids, according to an expert coming to Prince George, is to know who your children are spending time with on the net the same way you insist on knowing who they are spending time with after school and on the weekend.

Get over your fear of the internet, do it fast, and get involved yourself in the technologies your children are using, said Merlyn Horton of the Safe OnLine Outreach Society. You children are literally at stake, she said.

"We are concerned with the role the internet is playing connecting vulnerable youth with (sexual abuse) recruiters, predators, individuals with a sexual interest in children," Horton told The Citizen. "They make offers. They will offer young people in isolated, rural areas outrageous things: whirlwind romances, modeling jobs, free apartments. Young people in the north have been known to accept these offers. It is not that kids are dumb, but they have romantic ideals, they don't have the experiential frame of reference to know what could happen, many are disenfranchised already. And these adults use that to lure them."

They lure them into a life of horror. Once they are physically in their cyberpal's presence, he calls all the shots. It might start sweet, but ultimately the predator systematically and quickly indenchures them financially, with drug addiction, with shame, with fear for their own safety or the safety of those they love unless they perform certain acts. In many cases they are soon pimped out to the streets.

It goes deeper than that, Horton said. In many cases, it is all done on the internet with photos. Young people are convinced to take explicit pictures of themselves and email them to an online romancer, only the romancer isn't just playing a little game of photo peek-a-boo, the pictures are actually sold to sex-based internet sites. In many cases these are children 14, 15, 16 years old (sometimes younger) Horton said. Once posted, those pictures are out there for public discovery forever.

"You can search for kids, on some social networking sites, by community: 14- to 15-year-old girls who like to drink in Prince George. There are search tools to pinpoint those girls. They can be approached that way, with the offer of friendship, an offer of some kind, it starts out as chat then the recruiter ramps it up and those who are willing to engage in sexual conversation get concentrated on, and it moves from there. They become online friends, online romances, they've never met but their true intent is recruiting young people into the street sex scene. Some young people's sense of adventure overwhelms any caution an adult might exercise."

Horton said a recent survey, and it is backed up by previous data, indicated that 25
per cent of young people would agree to meet a stranger they communicated with online. That ought to justifiably scare any parent into finding out more about this tool the kids are using. Most, said Horton, do not so their kids text, MSN and e-chat circles around their adult protectors.

"I love the internet," Horton said. "We will get a handle on it. We are just in the wild, wild west version of it right now. We have a generation gap compounded by a technology gap. Most adults are cyber tourists but a lot of kids are cyber residents, and they are in there with basically no role modelling. Adults are overwhelmed. Parents need to look, they need to put time into that, in spite of the busyness of life. You can't ban kids from doing this stuff, they are going to get into it one way or another and mostly for perfectly great reasons, so you have to sit down and figure out Facebook and Myspace and Nexopia and all these things so you can know how to have a conversation with your kids about it, and know what really goes on."

Horton is a former youth worker who had an aptitude for technology and now it is her life. She tours all over the province and elsewhere teaching the public about online child exploitation. She has had these discussions with the FBI, Interol, CSIS, and various forms of government as well.

She stresses the need for teachers, social workers, youth workers and others who are professionally in that world of young people to also enhance their understanding of the latest internet uses by kids.

Horton will be conducting a workshop for such professionals at the Youth Around Prince building (on 6th Avenue facing City Hall) at 9 a.m. this morning.

Tuesday night at 7 p.m. she will be at the Native Friendship Centre for a public forum hosted by CASEY (Community Against the Sexual Exploitation of Youth).

The Governor of New York sure likes his prostitutes!

Spitzer Aides Say Governor Will Resign This Morning

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

Reporters waiting outside Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s apartment at Fifth Avenue and 80th Street for an announcement that never came.

By DANNY HAKIM and ANAHAD O'CONNOR
Published: March 12, 2008


Gov. Eliot Spitzer, reeling from revelations that he had been a client of a prostitution ring, will resign today, some of his staff members said they have been told.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Public Ordeal of a Private Person (March 12, 2008)
The Spitzer Scandal: Lieutenant Governor Has a History of Defying the Public’s Expectations (March 12, 2008)
Despite Constant Security, Politicians Still Find Trouble (March 12, 2008)
The Reports That Drew Federal Eyes to Spitzer (March 12, 2008)
Foes of Sex Trade Are Stung by the Fall of an Ally (March 12, 2008)
The TV Watch: Mars and Venus Dissect the Spitzer Scandal on the TV Talk Shows (March 12, 2008)
Topic Page: Eliot Spitzer

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The scene outside the Capitol on Tuesday. Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who remained in New York, cut himself off from all but the most senior members of his staff.


Mr. Spitzer is scheduled to speak today at 11:30 a.m. at his Manhattan office, and the resignation is to be effective Monday, aides to the governor said.


Lt. Gov. David A. Paterson would likely be sworn to replace him at some point after that.


But because even Mr. Spitzer’s most senior aides have been so surprised by revelations of their boss’s behavior, they said they cannot be certain about a resignation until Mr. Spitzer makes it official.


In the two days since news of Mr. Spitzer’s involvement in the prostitution ring surfaced, he has been engaged in an intense legal and family debate about whether to resign or, as aides said his wife was urging, to stay on. Mr. Spitzer did not emerge from his apartment at Fifth Avenue and 79th Street in Manhattan on Tuesday, as Albany remained roiled and riveted by the deepening crisis, and had not emerged on Wednesday morning


As Mr. Spitzer, a first-term Democrat, contemplated his next move, the New York political world remained in a suspended state, with cries — even from fellow Democrats — growing louder for him to step down.


In one of the last and desperate rounds of the end game, a top Spitzer administration official reached out to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s staff on Tuesday to see if the governor could avoid an impeachment vote.



But only 34 of the more than 100 Democrats in the Assembly would be needed to vote to refer the matter to the Senate for a trial, and it was clear during the discussions that 34 or more Democrats were almost certain to vote against the governor.


That would have been a dire outcome for the governor, because his top political rival, Senate majority leader Joseph L. Bruno, leads the Senate, where a trial would have been held.


“An impeachment proceeding would force Democrats to either abandon him or defend him,” said one leading Democrat. “They would abandon him.”


Sheldon Silver, the Assembly speaker, said Tuesday that Mr. Spitzer should do “what’s best for his family,” but stopped short of calling on the governor to step down. “It is now up to the governor to make a determination that’s best for his family. I pray for his children.” When asked what Mr. Silver thought was best for the Spitzer family, he did not respond.


Mr. Silver offered a few details of a conversation with Mr. Spitzer on Tuesday afternoon that took place before the governor briefly spoke to the public. “I said to him then and I say it now, he’s got to take care of his family first and be concerned about them. I told him that we will carry on in the legislative process that moves the budget forward. We intend to pass our budget tomorrow. I hope the Senate will do the same.”


Mr. Paterson said he had not heard from Mr. Spitzer since about noon on Monday, and did not know whether he would soon be sworn in as the state’s 55th governor.


“The governor called me yesterday,” said Mr. Paterson, who was driven to the Capitol on Tuesday and pondered going inside before deciding to avoid the swarm of journalists. “He said he didn’t resign for a number of reasons, and he didn’t go into the reasons, and that’s the last I’ve heard from him.”


Asked whether preparations for a transition were under way, the lieutenant governor said: “No one has talked to me about his resignation, and no one has talked to me about a transition.”


Mr. Spitzer cut himself off on Tuesday from all but the most senior members of his staff. His lawyer, Michele Hirschman, was reaching out to federal prosecutors to try to strike a deal in hopes of avoiding charges.


Close aides to the governor suggested on Tuesday that the mood in the Spitzer home was tense, with the governor’s wife, Silda Wall Spitzer, recommending that he not step down, but they cautioned that the situation could change at any time.


The revelation of Mr. Spitzer’s involvement with the high-end prostitution ring gripped the nation, and more than 70 reporters and photographers clustered outside the governor’s Upper East Side high-rise on Tuesday, separated from the building by a metal barricade erected by the police.


Three helicopters whirred overhead as tourists atop passing double-decker buses snapped pictures of the scene.



Mr. Spitzer’s patronage of the prostitution agency, Emperor’s Club V.I.P., came to light after prosecutors charged four people with operating the service. They said the governor was intercepted on a federal wiretap arranging payments and an encounter with a prostitute in a Washington hotel room last month. The affidavit referred to a Client 9 and did not identify Mr. Spitzer by name, but law enforcement officials said that Client 9 was the governor.


Investigators reviewing the scope of Mr. Spitzer’s involvement with prostitutes said on Tuesday that just in the past year he had had more than a half-dozen meetings with them and had paid tens of thousands of dollars to the ring, one law enforcement official said.

A person with knowledge of the service’s operations said that Mr. Spitzer had begun meeting with the prostitutes of the Emperor’s Club about eight months ago and had had encounters in Dallas as well as Washington. A law enforcement official said Mr. Spitzer also had an encounter with a prostitute in Florida. On some trips of several days’ duration, Mr. Spitzer scheduled more than one visit with a prostitute, this person said.

In his Washington visit with the prostitute, Mr. Spitzer is said to have used an alias to book one of his rooms at the Mayflower Hotel, the name of a close friend, the financier George Fox.

Mr. Fox released a statement yesterday that said he was surprised and disappointed by Mr. Spitzer’s misuse of his name. “There is absolutely no connection between Mr. Fox and the governor’s alleged activity beyond the unauthorized use of his name,” the statement said.

Authorities were seeking the testimony of the woman known as Kristen, who worked for the Emperor’s Club service and is identified in the criminal complaint as having met with the governor last month in Washington, people briefed on the case said.

The woman is said in the complaint to have typically charged $1,000 an hour.

After her encounter with Client 9, the prostitute told the booker for the agency that it had gone well, and the booker told her that he, in an apparent reference to Client 9, sometimes asked the women “to do things that, like, you might not think were safe.”

Two of the defendants from the escort service were still being held in federal custody on Tuesday. Two other employees, who have been released, declined to discuss their work for what has become a highly publicized business.

“We are too early in this complex investigation for me to make any comment,” said Marc Agnifilo, the lawyer representing one of the bookers, Temeka Lewis.

Mr. Spitzer, who has three daughters, offered a general apology to his family and the people of New York on Monday, but did not address the specific allegations. He said he needed to repair his relationship with his family and decide what was best for the state, but he declined to take questions and his appearance lasted just over a minute.

“I have acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family and violates my, or any, sense of right and wrong,” the governor said. “I apologize first and most importantly to my family. I apologize to the public to whom I promised better.

“I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself. I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family.”

Despite his expression of contrition, the drumbeat of calls for his resignation became louder, as some Democrats joined in.

Asked if Mr. Spitzer should resign, Darrel J. Aubertine, a newly elected Democratic senator from upstate New York, who got a big boost from the governor’s political operation in his recent campaign, responded: “If the facts remain the way they are, yes.”

He added, “I’m just disappointed, terribly disappointed.”

Representative Kirsten Gillibrand, a freshman Democrat in a swing district north of New York City, expressed sympathy for the governor’s family, but said his staying in office would be untenable.

“If these serious allegations are true, the governor will have no choice but to resign,” she said.

In Albany, the business of government gave way to fevered whispers and speculation about what happens next. And no one seemed to know.

“It’s sort of a theater of the absurd,” said Senator Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat. “Everybody is still a bit shellshocked.”

As the governor pondered his decision, Assemblyman James N. Tedisco, a Republican and the Assembly minority leader, said he would begin moving to have Mr. Spitzer impeached if the governor did not step down within 48 hours.



http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/nyregion/12cnd-spitzer.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2&hp&oref=slogin

NY Gov going to resign after being caught with his hand in the cookie jar!

Official: N.Y. Governor To Announce Resignation
Wednesday, March 12, 2008 10:01 AM

ALBANY, N.Y. — A top state official said Wednesday that New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer has decided to resign amid a prostitution scandal.

The official told The Associated Press the resignation would be effective Monday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made.

Allegations surfaced this week that Spitzer was linked to a federal investigation of a call-girl ring and spent thousands of dollars for a night with a prostitute named Kristen at a glitzy Washington hotel.

Lavender Power Newsletter

Lavender Power is about the synergy between phenomenal women working together to end the abuse of violence & sex & heal.

Lavender Power is many different women and many different things. We have lavender sisters all over the country accomplishing whatever is the next level in their growth through our internet network and weekly eMags to keep you connected.

Join Us on Our MySpaceLavender Sisters are Everywhere + Add Yourself!

How does the painting titled FEAR make you feel?

Anxiety, alone, and afraid that there is no hope, that God is there, but is he? Sad.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WOW, I have never seen quite the painting
that is depicted here, i can almost feel her pain
and grief as she just wants to melt away into the arms of a gentle father, God, but the skeletons
are too loud, as the eyes of the man, are too
much for her to bear, so she grabs her cross, and buries her head in the knees, and prays that this life will just end.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Like a failure. and alone.

In what ways am I afraid of my partner?
Not my partner, but a more common amongst amuse with less help is violence within the home surrounding one's parents. There are no shelters, there are not many resources. It's not even included into domestic violence, but more of a family dispute. But the picture reminds me of my Step-father, angry, not stern but a man who is lost within his anger and the only way to show the anger besides the look in his eyes is to use emotional anger through physical and verbal passing. The painting the man looks at the woman, not concerned with her crying, something that he inflicted, and gives the look of how dare you cry, you have no reason to. But it is a power issue, a control issue.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The mental abuse, the verbal abuse and mostly the insensitive emotional abuse and the infidelity on his part. I will never get out of this i fear . . .
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is how i felt for many many years. I no longer live my life in fear as i did. I now live each day with the hopes of helping someone who does...I am a Survivor.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
His yelling and changing a situation to always make him the winner. there are rules and i must abide by them but he doesn't have to.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This really touched me. Thanks for sharing. Teresa

9 Stages Emotional Phases of a Woman When In & Coming Out of an Abusive Relationship

Just wanted to let everyone know that our CD The Gift, featuring the song about child abuse called Be A Voice, can be purchased from this link at cdbaby.com: Thanks so much,Yvonne Goss





The Domestic Violence Series Foundation
The Domestic Violence Series is an educational series of nine oil paintings created by artist MeloD. The mission of the series is to serve as a means of raising funds for the cause and to educate communities and individuals on the devastating emotional toll domestic violence takes on its victims. If you are a shelter, domestic violence group or organization and are interested in using The Domestic Violence Series as a fund raiser, please email MeloD at http://us.f621.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=MeloD234@aol.com

To give us your thoughts on MeloD 's
Unworthy

Survivors are popular, cool, and all around us.

A Message from Code Amber

***
*** A Message From the Founder - March 2008
***

Hello,

When I started Code Amber five and a half years ago I had a vision.
That vision was to expand the reach of Amber Alerts by utilizing the
Internet and also to educate people about the Amber Plan. At the
time (August 2002) only 14 states had AMBER Plans in place. Now all
50 states and Puerto Rico and Guam plus all of the Canadian
provinces have AMBER Plans in place.

But we're not finished yet.

As you probably have seen we now have a new web site design and we
also have some new faces behind the scenes to help us take Code
Amber to the next level.

As of today there are more than 400,000 web and desktop tickers
deployed and displaying Amber Alerts in the US and Canada. This past
December we surpassed 1.5 Billion Tickers displayed. That is not
enough. We want to double those numbers in the next year. Our
ultimate goal is to make the AMBER Alert system so pervasive that
anytime someone even thinks about abducting a child that they will
fear the power of Amber Alerts enough that they just DON'T DO IT!

During this transition we need your help, and we need it now. Up to
this point I have personally financed 90% of the cost of operating
Code Amber. I can no longer afford to do that. Many of you have been
faithful supporters and made small donations to the cause and I
cannot tell you how appreciative I am of that generosity.

Now, I need your support more than ever to continue our mission.

If you want to make a difference we all know that it needs to start
with you. If each of you would make a $25 donation to Code Amber today
we will be able to continue our quest to double the reach of Code
Amber in the next year. We also know that expecting you alone to
donate and keep this program growing is not all it will take to make
this successful, so we would like to challenge you to also contact at
least
5 of your friends that would be willing to match your donation and
contribute to the future of Code Amber.org and our children.

Donations can be made at http://codeamber.org/index-1.php?nl0208 .
Please do it today.

We will also be announcing Code Amber's Angels later this month to
provide a community where you can participate and collaborate with
other members to bring awareness and education about Amber Alerts to
your local area. We are very excited about the potential of this
powerful initiative.

So please help us take Code Amber to the next level by contributing
what ever you are able by visiting
http://codeamber.org/index-1.php?nl0208

Without you, what we have accomplished thus far would not have been
possible.

Sincerely,
Bryant Harper
Founder
CodeAmber.org

AG: Cops Arrest 27 Internet Sex Predators

DETROIT (AP) - Twenty-seven people have been nabbed in an Internet sex sting in Wayne County.


All but one of those arrested is from Michigan. They range in age from 19 to 57.


The Michigan attorney general's office, Wayne County sheriff's office and Van Buren Township police conducted the undercover operation Friday through Sunday.


Agents posing as minors communicated on the Internet with alleged child sex predators. They then began informing them of their location, a decoy home in Wayne County. They arrested people who came to the house and others who drove by.


Authorities also plan to arrest individuals who transmitted sexually explicit material online to agents but didn't travel to the decoy location.


From the attorney general....


MORE THAN TWO DOZEN INTERNET SEX PREDATORS ARRESTED IN STING BY AG COX, WAYNE COUNTY SHERIFF EVANS, AND VAN BUREN TOWNSHIP POLICE


DETROIT -- Attorney General Mike Cox, Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans and Van Buren Township Police Chief Gerry Champagne today announced that 27 individuals have been arrested as part of a joint proactive Internet Child Predator sting conducted March 7th, 8th and 9th in Wayne County's Van Buren Township.


All but one of the 27 defendants arrested are from Michigan, and all are male, including a physician. They range in age from 19 to 57, the average age being 30. Four individuals arrived via taxi cab, one individual was dropped off by his sister, one biked from Ypsilanti in 15-degree weather and one drove to the decoy home on a flat tire that was shredded by the time of arrival.


In Phase Two of the sting, an additional round of arrests will follow for those individuals who transmitted sexually explicit material online to agents posing as minors but did not travel to the decoy location. Phase Two is expected to arrest as many as, if not more than, the number of individuals arrested in Phase One, bringing the total number of arrests to more than fifty.


"Law enforcement has a clear choice in dealing with the danger of Internet Predators --either react after a child has been subjected to an assault or be proactive and intervene before they can harm a child. For us, this is an easy choice," Cox said. "I also want to single out the Wayne County Sheriff's Office and the Van Buren Township Police for their work and professionalism. They did an outstanding job."


"Even with the level of attention that these kinds of stings attract, the fact that so many men are still lining up to meet children for sex over the Internet should send shock waves through the home of any parent," Sheriff Evans said. "As many predators as we have caught and convicted, it only scratches the surface of what's out there. Parents must take an active role in monitoring what their kids are doing online to keep them from putting themselves at risk."


According to Van Buren Township Director of Public Safety Gerald Champagne, "This successful operation resulted in the arrest of several predators from our local area and surrounding communities. This proactive sting operation was conducted to identify predators willing to travel to our area and warn others that they will be arrested if they prey on our children for sex."


From Friday to Sunday, undercover agents who had been communicating on the Internet with child sexual predators began informing them of their location, a specially prepared decoy home in Wayne County. Predators who arrived at the decoy home, and also those who just drove by, were arrested by police officers from the partnering agencies. They will be prosecuted by the Attorney General's office.


The joint Internet Predator Sting also involved the use of a volunteer non-profit partner known as Perverted Justice to communicate with alleged predators, and a video/audio surveillance company, Investigative Mechanics. Perverted Justice has conducted more than 20 similar sting operations nationwide. All chats comport with the Michigan Rules of Evidence.


A series of steps were taken by all partner agencies to safeguard neighbors both during the operation and after. "We're going after all those who use the dark side of the Internet to target children. And let this be a message to all those who would put children in harm's way – we're watching you," Cox concluded.


A criminal charge is merely an accusation, and defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.


Prior to this weekend's joint sting operation, Cox's Child and Public Protection Unit has arrested 158 Internet Sexual predators. Citizens can also report suspected Internet child predators via the Report internet Abuses Against Children link or by calling the Child and Public Protection Unit at (313) 456-0180.


The Attorney General's Office also created the Michigan Cyber Safety Initiative
(Michigan CSI), an Internet safety education program with customized presentations for kindergarten through eighth-grade students and a community seminar. More than 1,600 presentations have been given to more than 150,000 students to date. For more information or to request a presentation, call 877-765-8388. Go to www.michigan.gov/ag for tips on safe Internet usage for children.

What Will Happen if Far-Left Secular Progressives Achieve Power in America?

By Bill O'Reilly

Mostly overlooked in last Tuesday's vote was Barack Obama's landslide victory in the tiny state of Vermont. As you may know, Vermont used to be a traditional state that has been taken over by hard-left zealots. One of its senators, Bernie Sanders, is a self-proclaimed socialist. The other, Patrick Leahy, is as left wing as they come.

Now you may remember "The Factor" investigated two Vermont judges who gave child molesters very lenient sentences. The nation was shocked that the justice system in Vermont could be so corrupt. But the Vermont media and many politicians there supported the judges.

Now that's what happens when secular progressives gain power. And the SP landscape is rough on the kids in other areas as well.

A new study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration says Vermont has the highest underage drinking problem in the USA. More than 38 percent of minors in Vermont drink. That is an astounding number.

Vermont also leads the USA in marijuana use. Forty-two percent of young adults in Vermont say they have used pot in the last 12 months. By contrast, 19 percent of young adults in conservative Utah use marijuana. So it is obvious that the permissive atmosphere encouraged by secular progressives leads to social problems among young people.

Now all Americans should think about this because in the Democratic Party there are varying degrees of left-wing thought. Obviously, Vermont is extreme left. And "Talking Points" believes that attitude is very harmful to the country.

Liberal thought, however, can be a good thing. Progressive programs to help the poor, fight injustice and give working people a fair shake are all positive. But libertine actions damage a just society because actions have consequences. Kids who drink and take drugs are likely to hurt themselves and others. But obviously, the SPs do not make judgments like that.

Liberal politicians like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton need to clarify their view of social problems and define what is permissible conduct and what is not. The Democratic voters of Vermont obviously believe that Barack Obama's vision is best, but how close is Obama's vision to their vision? Americans should know that.

Finally, as I've mentioned, I used to go to Vermont as a kid on vacation. It's a great place. But it has now been ruined by left-wing loons who have no perspective, no judgment, and couldn't care less about the greater good. Vermont has now become the most troubled state in the union, and everybody should take a hard look at it.

And that's "The Memo."

Pinheads & Patriots

Pop singer Rihanna recently won a Grammy for her song "Umbrella," but that doesn't compare to this. The singer recently publicized the need for a bone marrow donor for Lisa Flynn, who has leukemia. Well that donor has now been found, and Ms. Flynn will be forever grateful. So Rihanna is a patriot.

On the pinhead front, Madonna is being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but she will not perform at Monday night's dinner. Every other rock person inducted into the Hall of Fame has performed, but Madonna says she's not going to do it, causing some very hard feelings in the land of rock. Now, we've said it before, and we'll say it again: Madonna is a pinhead.

Most wanted Perv #2

Man sentenced for crimes against children

by Andre A. Rodriguez

published March 10, 2008 4:29 pm

WAYNESVILLE – A 34-year-old Waynesville man was sentenced today in Haywood County Superior Court on four felony convictions.

Larry Dean Mintz was convicted in January of two counts of first-degree sexual offense with a child and two counts of taking indecent liberties with a child. Superior Court Judge Mark Powell sentenced Mintz to serve 50-61 years in prison, according to District Attorney Michael Bonfoey's office.

The crimes were committed in 2002. The girls—who were not related to each other or Mintz—were 8 and 10 when Mintz molested them, the District Attorney's office said. The victims did not report the crimes until January 2005. Mintz was arrested in May 2005, but was not tried until this year because he escaped from jail and fled the jurisdiction.

“My assistant district attorneys, Jim Moore and Reid Brown, did an excellent job in trying this cases and obtaining the jury verdicts of guilty,” Bonfoey said in a statement. “Moore and Brown spent many hours preparing the case and working with the young victims in order to present this case to a Haywood county jury and obtain justice for the victims of these terrible crimes.

“I commend the Haywood County Sheriff’s Office and Det. Heidi Van Dine for the excellent investigation of this case. The evidence against Mr. Mintz was stale when she took the first report. Detective Van Dine rolled up her sleeves and went to wok to find all of the facts possible about this crime. Her efforts resulted in an excellent investigation and subsequent conviction. Sexual predators and child molesters need to realize that the Haywood County Sheriff’s Office will aggressively investigate and the District Attorney’s Office will aggressively prosecute these crimes in order to obtain justice for these helpless victims.”

Straight answers change minds

Some critics of a mobile home park for sex offenders are won over by its manager.

By S.I. Rosenbaum, Times Staff Writer
Published March 11, 2008

PALM RIVER - Monday night, for the first time, residents here met with the woman who runs a controversial mobile home park for sex offenders.

Since the existence of the park was first exposed two weeks ago, neighbors had denounced her as an amoral opportunist. Why else would she house child molesters and sex predators?

But after hearing Nancy Morais speak, some said she was not what they were expecting.

Morais walked to the lectern in a room of First Baptist Church, where she had arrived with a bodyguard.

"As a young child I was raped," she began.

Morais spoke about her abuse at the hands of a relative. She talked about how years later, the same man had moved on to new victims.

She said she was trying to keep other children safe.

"I'm on your side," she said. "I don't want anybody to go through that."

She told them about the non-profit program she runs in Pinellas County. Sex offenders live by strict rules and curfews, monitor each other for drug activity, and attend substance abuse and anger management counseling. They sign in and out when they leave the park.

As she talked, the mood of the audience shifted back and forth.

One woman cited the high number of sex offenders already in the area. Why bring in more?

"I know where my six men are," Morais shot back. "Do you know where the 110 around your home are right now?"

A man asked how she could be sure the men wouldn't commit crimes.

Morais shook her head.

"Are there any guarantees in life?" she asked.

At times, residents talked over her, shouted back to her.

But Morais had already won over an important ally: Judy Cornett of Lutz, who runs a nonprofit that identifies sex offenders in communities.

Cornett first alerted Palm River residents to the park at 5015 24th Ave. S, rallying them against Morais. But Monday night she defended Morais.

"We've come to a mutual agreement to work together," she told residents.

She said she and Morais would find another location for the program, somewhere farther from children. In the meantime, she said, Morais would put a fence and gate around the park and a sign warning children away.

"I would rather see sex offenders be supervised by someone than not be supervised," Cornett said. "That's where I get a little bit of peace from this, knowing that someone else is watching them, not just us."

By the meeting's end, some residents had mixed feelings. "I agree with her program. They need help," said Tammy Layton, 39. "But I still fear for my daughters and her friends. What am I supposed to do?"

Others, like Katherine Gadsby, 28, said their view of Morais had changed. "I feel a lot safer knowing she has them under lock and key," Gadsby said.

Veronica Moore, civic association president, agreed. "It's going to be okay," she said. "She's doing a good thing. We have to work with her instead of against her.

Shenandoah University and Women's Shelter Promote Awareness of Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence

Actress, filmmaker and advocate Angela Shelton screens documentary on March 24, leads 'Take Back The Night' rally on March 25

WINCHESTER, Va., March 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Shenandoah University's Department of Women's Studies and The Laurel Center (formerly known as The Shelter for Abused Women) will launch collaborative awareness activities about sexual and domestic abuse with events -- free and open to the public -- on the evenings of March 24 and 25.

Filmmaker, writer, actress and activist Angela Shelton will screen her film, "Searching for Angela Shelton," and answer questions on Monday, March 24, at 6 p.m., at Shenandoah University's Hester Auditorium in Henkel Hall.

Shelton will also be on hand the next evening when the university and The Laurel Center invite community members to be a part of the 10th annual "Take Back The Night" march, on Tuesday, March 25, at 6 p.m., in front of the Smith Library on the SU campus.

Shelton is an outspoken voice for victims of sexual and domestic assault.

The screenwriter of the award-winning movie "Tumbleweeds," Shelton set out in 2001 to document the stories of women across the United States also named Angela Shelton. She discovered more than she anticipated when 70 percent of the women shared stories about being victims of rape, childhood sexual assault and domestic violence. In a twist of fate, the filmmaker met another Angela Shelton who was tracking local sexual predators, including the pedophilic father of filmmaker Angela Shelton.

Shelton's mission become apparent: to inspire and empower all survivors to heal and gain strength and courage to protect themselves and others, particularly children. She launched a grassroots movement of healing for abuse survivors -- both men and women.

"It is so important that we remove the shame from being a victim of violence, and the more and more we speak up about it the closer we are to stopping it," said Dr. Amy Sarch Schopick, director of women's studies at Shenandoah University. "Angela Shelton has rapidly become a nationally known advocate for victims of violence because she brings honesty and even some levity to a dark subject and provides something very important -- tools for healing and prevention."

Candi Bubb, sexual assault prevention coordinator for The Laurel Center, said statistics show one in three women and one in six men will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime.

"Many victims feel shame and embarrassment and don't come forward to receive the help they may need," Bubb said. "The more we talk about these issues, victims and survivors realize that they are not alone and that the abuse wasn't their fault."

SU students, faculty and staff will join community agencies and members to protest violence and crime. Participants should bring a flashlight.

Several students pursuing minors in women's studies are coordinating and promoting the events.

SU's first male women's studies minor, Ahavi Broderick, said he got involved "because sexual assault and violence in our society need to stop."

"Events like this get the word out that we do not tolerate this type of behavior, whether it's a male committing an offense on a woman or vice versa," he said. "We're here to make a change."

Broderick initiated a February event, "Gearing Up for Take Back The Night."

"We had meaningful R&B, hip-hop, rock and alternative songs and poetry that talked about stopping sexual assault and violence," he said.

To get more exposure for the awareness activities, Broderick personally handed out 400 bracelets that said 'Love is Kind, Love is Patient' on campus, taking the opportunity to tell students about the awareness events and why they should participate.

Shenandoah University is a comprehensive Level VI private university with an enrollment of nearly 3,000 students in six schools: the College of Arts & Sciences, Harry F. Byrd, Jr. School of Business, Shenandoah Conservatory, Bernard J. Dunn School of Pharmacy, School of Health Professions (Athletic Training, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Physician Assistant Studies, Physical Therapy and Respiratory Care) and School of Education & Human Development. The university offers more than 80 programs of study at the undergraduate, graduate and professional levels. For more information, contact the Public Relations Office at (540) 665-4510 and visit www.su.edu.

The Laurel Center empowers victims of domestic and sexual violence by providing emergency housing, advocacy, support services and education. For more information, call (540) 667-6466 and visit www.shelterforabusedwomen.org.

Website: http://www.shelterforabusedwomen.org/
Website: http://www.su.edu/

Ruling complicates Internet predator bill

By TOM FAHEY
State House Bureau Chief
Tuesday, Mar. 11, 200

CONCORD – A recent New Hampshire Supreme Court ruling complicated the job of passing a law that would mean longer jail terms for Internet sexual predators.

Gov. John Lynch wants tougher laws on Internet solicitation and child pornography to get through the Legislature this year.

"We will not allow sexual predators to hide in the shadows of cyberspace. We must modernize our laws to protect our children from the threats of the 21st Century," Lynch told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Soliciting sex from a child under 13 over the Internet would carry a maximum prison term of 20 years under Senate Bill 495. Possession of child pornography would bring up to 20 years. Manufacturing child pornography, essentially child sex abuse images, would carry the toughest maximum term of 30 years in prison.

A ruling in a child pornography appeal in January makes it tougher to nail down just what constitutes pornography, and raised questions over how tightly the Supreme Court has tied the state's hands.

In a 2-1 decision, the court ruled that photographer Marshall Zidel did not create child pornography when he used a computer to transfer the faces of his daughter and her friends on women's bodies in graphic adult pornography. The images were created without causing harm to actual children, the two justices ruled. They said the "virtual pornography" was protected by constitutional guarantees of free speech.

Criminal defense lawyer Michael Iacopino, representing the state Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys, questioned how the bill could pass review by either the state or U.S. Supreme Court. He also protested the bill's restrictions on how defense lawyers can review evidence. It bars any copies of images or computer files from being transferred to defenders, and requires them to review the evidence at a state facility.

If the bill passes as written, evidence issues will bring a round of court fights in every case before the criminal trial ever begins, he said.

"It's just going to logjam these things more than necessary," Iacopino said.

Kelly Ayotte said the issue of solicitation by sexual predators on the Internet is an important one that should not be pushed aside.

"Every time a detective captures one of these individuals it saves a child, and we should not forget that. They are determined predators," she said.

Lynch has pushed hard to toughen laws on sexual offenders. He worked to pass major reform on child predators in the Child Protection Act two years ago. This year, the House passed a bill that tightens the laws on the sexual offender registry, and the House passed a bill raising the age of a minor from 16 to 18 for child pornography crimes.