mom poisoned kids on Christmas

    13-year-old girl is dead and her mother is behind bars, accused of stabbing her ex-husband and trying to kill her children by poisoning them.

Officers in Casa Grande, Arizona, responded to a 911 call on Christmas Day. A man said that his ex-wife, 35-year-old Connie Villa, had stabbed him but that he had managed to escape and was driving himself to a hospital, police said in a statement.

When officers arrived at the home, they found Villa with stab wounds, holding a knife to her chest. They managed to subdue her and conducted a sweep of the home. Police found the body of Aniarael Macias, Villa's daughter, in the bathroom.

"Although an autopsy for Aniarael was conducted yesterday in Pima County, the results of which did not identify a cause of death, investigators feel the evidence found at the scene of the crime along with interviews and medical information of the surviving children, give our Department cause to believe Connie Villa was attempting to end the lives of all of her children and her ex-husband, Adam Villa," the statement read.

Connie Villa faces one count of first degree murder in the death of her daughter. She is also being charged with four counts of attempted murder of her ex-husband and her three surviving children, ages 3, 5 and 8.

Police say she forced her children to take prescription narcotic drugs. The three children had trace amounts of opiates in their systems.

All are in good condition and were placed with the family of their father, Adam Villa, 33. He is in stable condition.

Connie Villa was released Sunday from Maricopa Medical Center, where she was treated for what investigators believe were self-inflicted stab wounds. She was arrested the same day.

According to Thomas Anderson, a police spokesman, she has made an initial appearance in court. No bond was given.

Aniarael's father released a statement asking for privacy and prayers.

Kennedy assassination conspiracy

The CIA Kennedy assassination theory is a prominent John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory. The CIA's potential involvement was frequently mentioned during the 1960s and 1970s when the US Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) was involved in plots to assassinate foreign leaders, particularly Fidel Castro.[1] Kennedy was quoted as telling an official within his administration: "I want to splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds."[2]According to author James Douglass, Kennedy was assassinated because he was turning away from the Cold War and seeking a negotiated peace with the Soviet Union.[3] Accusations and confessions of and by alleged conspirators, as well as official government reports citing the CIA as uncooperative in investigations, have at times renewed interest in these conspiracy theories.

african Americans in prison

 

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Incarceration Trends in America

From 1980 to 2008, the number of people incarcerated in America quadrupled-from roughly 500,000 to 2.3 million peopleToday, the US is 5% of the World population and has 25% of world prisoners.Combining the number of people in prison and jail with those under parole or probation supervision, 1 in ever y 31 adults, or 3.2 percent of the population is under some form of correctional control

Racial Disparities in Incarceration

African Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated populationAfrican Americans are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of whitesTogether, African American and Hispanics comprised 58% of all prisoners in 2008, even though African Americans and Hispanics make up approximately one quarter of the US populationAccording to Unlocking America, if African American and Hispanics were incarcerated at the same rates of whites, today's prison and jail populations would decline by approximately 50%One in six black men had been incarcerated as of 2001. If current trends continue, one in three black males born today can expect to spend time in prison during his lifetime1 in 100 African American women are in prisonNationwide, African-Americans represent 26% of juvenile arrests, 44% of youth who are detained, 46% of the youth who are judicially waived to criminal court, and 58% of the youth admitted to state prisons (Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice).

Drug Sentencing Disparities

About 14 million Whites and 2.6 million African Americans report using an illicit drug5 times as many Whites are using drugs as African Americans, yet African Americans are sent to prison for drug offenses at 10 times the rate of WhitesAfrican Americans represent 12% of the total population of drug users, but 38% of those arrested for drug offenses, and 59% of those in state prison for a drug offense.African Americans serve virtually as much time in prison for a drug offense (58.7 months) as whites do for a violent offense (61.7 months). (Sentencing Project)

Contributing Factors

Inner city crime prompted by social and economic isolationCrime/drug arrest rates: African Americans represent 12% of monthly drug users, but comprise 32% of persons arrested for drug possession"Get tough on crime" and "war on drugs" policiesMandatory minimum sentencing, especially disparities in sentencing for crack and powder cocaine possessionIn 2002, blacks constituted more than 80% of the people sentenced under the federal crack cocaine laws and served substantially more time in prison for drug offenses than did whites, despite that fact that more than 2/3 of crack cocaine users in the U.S. are white or Hispanic"Three Strikes"/habitual offender policiesZero Tolerance policies as a result of perceived problems of school violence; adverse affect on black children.35% of black children grades 7-12 have been suspended or expelled at some point in their school careers compared to 20% of Hispanics and 15% of whites

Effects of Incarceration

Jail reduces work time of young people over the next decade by 25-30 percent when compared with arrested youths who were not incarceratedJails and prisons are recognized as settings where society's infectious diseases are highly concentratedPrison has not been proven as a rehabilitation for behavior, as two-thirds of prisoners will reoffend

Exorbitant Cost of Incarceration: Is it Worth It?

About $70 billion dollars are spent on corrections yearlyPrisons and jails consume a growing portion of the nearly $200 billion we spend annually on public safety

B.M.F. Detroit to Atlanta to Texas to California

   
  The Black Mafia Family (BMF) is a drug trafficking organization originally based in Detroit, Michigan which was founded in the late 1980s by brothersDemetrius and Terry Flenory. By the year 2000, they had established cocaine distribution cells in cities throughout the United States. Through their Los Angeles-based drug source, they had direct links to Mexican-based drug cartels.[1] They established two main hubs for their operation: the Atlanta, Georgia hub, for distribution, was operated by older brother Demetrius, while the Los Angeles, California hub was operated by Terry to handle incoming shipments from Mexico.

Around 2000, the organization tried to legitimize itself by entering the hip-hop music business, starting a company called BMF Entertainment. Through BMF Entertainment, it helped promote a number of artists, including Young Jeezy, as well as BMF Entertainment's sole artist, Bleu DaVinci. Before their entrance into the music business, the Flenory Brothers were known to associate with a number of high-profile hip-hop artists, including Jay-Z and Fabolous.

In 2005, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)indicted members of the Black Mafia Family, ultimately securing convictions by targeting the Flenory brothers under the Continuing Criminal Enterprise Statute. Both were sentenced 30 years to life. Subsequent indictments eventually targeted over 150 members of the organization. Prosecutors alleged the organization made over $270 million over the course of the conspiracy.

  

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San Francisco News

US attorney general announces new drug offender guidelines

Monday, August 12, 2013

TAGS:

drugs, moscone center, hillary rodham clinton, eric holder, senate, san francisco news, mark matthews

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SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- US Attorney General Eric Holder is laying out what he calls a fundamentally new approach to enforcing drug laws. He announced the changes in San Francisco Monday and claims it's going to save billions and reduce prison over-crowding.

The nation's highest-ranking law enforcement officer said the war on drugs isn't working. And the US can no longer try to incarcerate its way to making the country safer.

Holder gave his speech at the American Bar Association's annual meeting at the Moscone Center. He unveiled sweeping new criminal justice reforms, saying long prison terms for drug offenses are not making the US safer.

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"With certain low-level non-violent drug offenders who have no ties to large scale organizations gangs or cartels will no longer be charged with offenses that impose draconian mandatory minimum sentences," he said.

The president of the American Bar Association says federal judges she's heard from are universally in favor of Holder's plan.

"This is something they want discretion. Minimum sentencing is one of the most difficult things that they are required to do," ABA President Laurel Bellows said.

And San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon said he's thinking of starting a state-wide initiative to reduce simple drug possession to a misdemeanor.

"We automatically reduce the sentencing to one year. I think is the right thing to do," he said.

Holder did not talk about the federal raids on Bay Area pot dispensaries or the fact that federal law contradicts the legalization of medical marijuana.

Defense attorney and legalization advocate Tony Serra said is delighted by Holder's position but he suspects the motives.

"It isn't a concept of justice. It's not a concept of you know giving, I don't know a break, you know to the low-level non-violent criminal. They can't afford the number of prisoners that they have incarcerated," Serra said.

Holder did say that while the nation's population has increased by a third since the 1980s, the federal prison population has increased by 800 percent. And that black males are serving significantly longer sentences than white males convicted of similar crimes.

"This isn't just unacceptable. It's shameful it is unworthy of our great country," Holder said.

  

California to become third state to legalize weed (pot)

It was perhaps inevitable. The first state to offer medical marijuana — nearly a generation ago — may soon become the third U.S. state to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes, too. California Attorney General Kamala Harris says she supports two of the three pending bills in the state legislature, saying they would be good for California.

Approved by committee this summer, the California Cannabis Hemp Initiative 2014 would legalize marijuana in the state for regulated trade, lowering costs for California while boosting revenue. “Reduced costs in the low hundreds of millions of dollars annually to state and local governments related to enforcing certain marijuana-related offenses, handling the related criminal cases in the court system, and incarcerating and supervising certain marijuana offenders,” would be among benefits says Harris.

“Also, “potential net additional tax revenues in the low hundreds of millions of dollars annually related to the production and sale of marijuana, a portion of which is required to be spent on education, healthcare, public safety, drug abuse education and treatment, and the regulation of commercial marijuana activities.”

Likewise, Harris says a similar bill, The Marijuana Control, Legalization and Revenue Act would lower government criminal justice costs while raising tax revenues. However, supporters of the bill continue to rush to collect enough signatures to make the November ballot. They must do so by the end of February.

Dave Hodges, a marijuana dispensary owner in San Jose, says he and his compatriots in Americans for Policy Reform believe they can make the deadline. "If we can get the funding we're searching for the signature gathering can be done in two to three weeks," he told The Huffington Post this week. "We're still aiming for 2014 election."

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Aside from those two initiatives, marijuana legalization supporters submitted a third bill called The Control, Regulate and Tax Marijuana Act, though details about that plan remain murky.

A new poll shows that most California residents support the full legalization of the drug by 2016, exactly 20 years after the state introduced America to medical marijuana. Sixty five percent of likely voters in California support legalizing, regulating, and taxing the use of marijuana, according to Tulchin Research, a San Francisco-based group. Support for legalization has risen quickly since 2010, when 53 percent of voters rejected a ballot initiative to legalize pot.

California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, earlier this month announced the state would study the feasibility of implementing a couple of legalization schemes in mind. With a research panel chaired by Newsom, the state would undertake a two-year examination of proposals to safely introduce legal marijuana to the state of California.

"This is about real people. Communities are devastated because of this abject thing called the drug war. Forget the politics. This is the right thing to do,” Newsom told The Huffington Post in an interview. "But we need to answer the tough questions before we put it on the ballot. I want the research in order to be more convincing to others."

Proponents of legalized marijuana in the state hope California follows Colorado and Washington in not only decriminalizing the drug but permitting the regulated growth, sale, and use for recreational as well as medicinal purposes.

colorado legally smoking weed

On April 20, 2013, “America’s first legal marijuana tourism company,” My 420 Tours, launched its debut journey into Colorado’s cannabis culture. The trail-blazing company now has more than 4,000 people on its waiting list for future tours, which will kick off, in earnest, on Jan. 1, 2014, the day Colorado becomes the first U.S. state to allow recreational pot shops.

Both Colorado and Washington legalized recreational use of cannabis in referendums in November of last year, but lawful sales to the public in designated pot shops was delayed while various groups hashed out the details of how to oversee the growing, distribution and marketing of the controversial drug. Everyday use of marijuana, after all, is still technically illegal under federal law.

Of course, getting high for the fun of it is hardly a new concept, but never before in the U.S. has it been an activity condoned under state law -- and never before has it been so easy for anyone 21 and older to purchase weed than it will be in just a few days’ time.

“After the delays work themselves out in opening all the stores that have applied for licenses, buying pot will be as trivial as buying beer on your way from the airport up to the mountains,” said My 420 Tours co-founder Matt Brown.

  

preventing teen suicide

   

One of the leading causes of death amongst teenagers is suicide. The Centers for Disease control report that it is the third leading cause of death, behind accidents and homicide, of people aged 15 to 24. Even more disturbing is the fact that suicide is the fourth leading cause of death for children between the ages of 10 and 14.

Teen suicide is a very real issue today in the United States. It is important to recognize the fact that the suicide rate amongst teenagers is on the rise. In order to prevent teen suicide, it is vital to recognize what leads to it, and then treat the causes.

There are several different factors that made lead a teenager to take his or her life, but the most common is depression. Feelings of hopelessness and anxiety, along with feelings of being trapped in a life that one can't handle, are very real contributors to teen suicide. In some cases, teenagers believe that suicide is the only way to solve their problems. The pressures of life seem too much to cope with, and some teenager look at suicide as a welcome escape.

Other factors that may contribute to teen suicide include:

Divorce of parents.Inability to find success at school.Rejection by friends or peers.Substance abuse.Death of someone close to the teenager.The suicide of a friend or someone he or she "knows" online.

It is important to be on the look out for signs that your teen may attempt suicide. What is so difficult about some of these warning signs of teen suicide is that some of them are similar to normal adolescent behavior. The teenage years are a trying time, and sometimes normal behavior looks a lot like possibly destructive behavior. But it doesn't hurt to look into the following warning signs of teen suicide:

Talks about death and/or suicide (maybe even with a joking manner).Plans ways to kill him or herself.Expresses worries that nobody cares about him or her.Has attempted suicide in the past.Dramatic changes in personality and behavior.Withdraws from interacting with friends and family.Shows signs of depression.Shows signs of a substance abuse problem.Begins to act recklessly and engage in risk-taking behaviors.Begins to give away sentimental possessions.Spends time online interacting with people who glamorize suicide and maybe even form suicide pacts.

Often, preventing teen suicide means treating teen depression. Since 75 percent of the people who commit suicide are depressed (according to the University of Texas), it is a good start to begin by treating the symptoms of teen depression.

It is possible to get professional help in preventing teen suicide. Indeed, this is a preferred option. If you are concerned about your teenager, talk to your child's doctor about the available options and therapies for teen depression. You should see someone immediately (and never leave your teen alone) if you suspect that a suicide attempt is imminent. Some things you might try include:

Counseling. This can be done individually or as a family. Techniques allow your teenager to learn to cope with life. Often, when a teen learns how to handle problems (and families learn how to help), the desire to kill him or herself dissipates.

Residential treatment. This is treatment in which a suicidal teen goes elsewhere to live for a time. This can be a special treatment facility, or it can be a therapeutic boarding school. In these settings, the teenager is monitored 24/7 in order to prevent a suicide attempt. Additionally, most residential treatment facilities have trained professional staff that can help a suicidal teen.

Medication. This is often seen as a last resort, or as something complementary to other treatments. It is important to note that in some teenagers, medication can have the opposite effect desired; some studies show that for some teens anti-depressants actually increase the chance of teen suicide. Carefully consider your teen's needs before medicating.

It is important to treat your child with respect and understanding. Show your unconditional love, and offer emotional support. It is important that a teen considering suicide feel loved and wanted. Show your teenager that it is possible to overcome life's challenges, and make sure that he or she knows that you are willing to help out.