It was last August, and a woman was brutally raped and sodomized by her abusive ex-boyfriend after unsuccessfully pleading with a 911 dispatcher for over 10 minutes.“I’m not letting him in, but he’s, like, tried to break down the door, and he’s trying to break into one of the windows,” the woman is heard telling the operator in the calls.“He put me in the hospital a few weeks ago, and I’ve been trying to keep him away,” she said.Four times during that call, the operator told the woman that she wasn’t able to provide assistance.“I don’t have anybody to send out there,” she kept saying. “Once again, it’s unfortunate you guys don’t have any law enforcement up there.”At the county jail, staffing cuts caused by a lack of funding has formed a revolving door system where inmates are released sometimes right after being arrested because there’s seldom enough money to keep facilities functioning at even the bare minimum. There are only six deputies in the Josephine Sherriff’s Office, and recently the department’s canine unit was cut to a single dog.“You may want to consider relocating to an area with adequate law enforcement services,” the department cautioned the county’s 80,000 or so residents last year.Although a Wild West-like scenario has spiraled out of control in the Pacific Northwest, residents voted against a measure Tuesday that would have funded much-needed law enforcement operations at the cost of only a 3 percent tax levy.The measure would have bumped the county government tax rate — currently the lowest in the state — to $1.48 per $1,000, in turn costing the average homeowner in Josephine around $85 a year extra.But even after news of last year’s rape went viral, residents narrowly decided this week to halt any attempt to milk mere pennies on the dollar for an added sense of security. On Tuesday evening the decision was too close to call in Josephine, but by Wednesday afternoon the county clerk acknowledged to RT that the public safety levy was voted down by a margin of 51 to 49 percent, with barely 500 ballots deciding the fate of a county where calling 911 is no longer the way to handle an emergency.“There isn’t a day go by that we don’t have another victim,” Josephine County Sheriff Gil Gilberson told Oregon Public Broadcasting last week. Speaking to OPB, Gilberson directly blamed the ongoing inability to fight crime on budget restraints.”If you don’t pay the bill, you don’t get the service,” he said.Policing Josephine County wasn’t always a problem. In 2000, Congress passed the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act and as a result began sharing revenue made off of timber grown on public land.“Federal forests make up 60 percent of the land in many rural Oregon counties. Because federal land isn’t subject to property taxes, the federal government for decades shared timber sale revenue with the counties,” the Oregonian recently noted.Those funds were until recently divvied up among rural counties to help line the pockets where sparsely inhabited towns were losing out on taxes brought in by more densely populated regions. The act has expired, however, and the result has been the rapid defunding of public programs in some areas, including the Josephine Sherriff’s Office. Since the expiration of the bill, the county has lost millions of dollars in revenue that for more than a decade was a routine handout.In the case of last August’s rape, a 911 dispatcher stayed on the phone with the soon-to-be victim for over 10 minutes, instructing her to hide in her house while emergency options were considered.“None of the sheriff’s deputies in Josephine County were on duty,” explained Amelia Templeton of OPB. “So dispatch transferred the call to the Oregon State Police, but they also didn’t have anyone available.”“And four times in total, she says there isn’t anyone who can help,” she said.The expiration of the act that provided the city with timber revenue forced the Sheriff’s Office to cut its budget in half and most law enforcement operations have ended. Had voters agreed to a tax hike on Tuesday, the county expected to raise $9.5 million during the next year and slightly more annually through 2016. Those funds, the voters were told, would be used to increase inmate capacity at the county jail, provide the resources for the District Attorney’s office to prosecute more criminals and, generally, bring the force back up to snuff.“I’m not going to vote for it,” Josephine County convenience store owner Les Monk told Templeton. “Things are no worse or better now than they were when they were fully funded.”For Monk — and presumably the 13,365 other “nay” ballots casted on Tuesday — things are just fine in Josephine. Monk told Templeton that he carried a knife for his own protection and suggested that paying money for an inefficient police force wasn’t worth his tax dollars. “People have to understand you will, and are able, to defend your property,” he said.According to Templeton, an attorney for the rape victim said the woman felt hopeless, alone and very scared when she waited, unsuccessfully, for police assistance last year. Sheriff Gilbertson admitted that it’s a very real problem.”It’s devastated law enforcement,” Sheriff Gilbertson told The Oregonian. “The criminals now act with impunity and a sense of entitlement.”"It’s been a deteriorating situation for a long time,” added Greg Wolf, intergovernmental affairs director for Gov. John Kitzhaber, “and we can see that we’re going to hit a wall unless we come up with some dramatic solutions.”Nearby on Tuesday, voters in Curry County voters rejected a $4.5 million effort that aimed to reverse the dastardly trend there. And in Lane County, a five-year, $ 80 million property tax levy was approved amid similar circumstances — but only after eight previous attempts stretching all the way back to 1998 were rejected by voters.”We’ve essentially eviscerated law enforcement staffing over the last 45 years,” Lane County District Attorney Alex Gardner told a legislative committee earlier this year. With this week’s vote, Lane County can start to pick up the pieces. In Josephine, however, residents have a long ways to go.Speaking to OPB late Tuesday, reporter April Baer said Gov. Kitzhaber is now expected to declare a public safety emergency and likely and impose a temporary tax to keep at least some law enforcement operations functioning through the end of 2014. … Read More
Pentagon wants more than $450 mn for Gitmo amidst swelling hunger strike
The budget request for the fiscal year beginning October 1 has called for $79 million for detention operations, the same as the current year. An additional $20.5 million has been requested for the office of military commissions, the military tribunals set up in 2006 for prosecuting detainees. The current price tag on the Guantanamo military commission is $12.6 million. A further $40 million is needed for a fiber optic cable and $99 million for operation and maintenance of the facilities.The Pentagon is also mulling over a request from the Southern Command to spend about $200 million for renovating the camp, which will include the construction of a new prison building for “high value” detainees, as well as a new dining hall, barracks for prison guards, a hospital, a “legal meeting complex” and a “communications network facility” to store data.The increased budget request comes in stark contrast to President Obama’s recent push to shutter the facility, where 103 out of the camp’s 166 detainees have been carrying out an unprecedented hunger strike for more than 100 days. Human rights advocates have placed the number of hunger strikers as high as 130.Thirty of the hunger strikers are being force-fed through a nasal tube – a practice which the UN human rights office condemned as “torture” and a breach of international law. Three have been sent to the detainee hospital for observation. Lawyers for Guantanamo inmates have also claimed that prisoners who wish to talk to their legal representatives are being subjected to humiliating new cavity searches.The 166 prisoners have been detained for eleven and a half years, the vast majority of them have not been charged with a crime, and 86 of them have been cleared for release.The detention facility already ranks as one of the most expensive in the world, costing over $900,000 annually per prisoner. With 166 detainees, Gitmo consumes over $150 million each year.Obama moves to shutter Guantanamo?Obama is expected to make a major speech on Thursday at National Defense University, where he will outline his latest plan to close the detention facility, as well as his administration’s drone policy, targeted killing and the war against al Qaeda.The president’s new push to shut down Guantanamo comes after Congress blocked attempts to close Guantanamo during his first term in office, when Obama signed a 2009 executive order calling for the camp’s closure.”Guantanamo is not necessary to keep America safe,” the president said at a White House news conference last month. “It is expensive. It is inefficient. It hurts us in terms of our international standing. It lessens cooperation with our allies on counterterrorism efforts. It is a recruitment tool for extremists. It needs to be closed.”However, the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013, the law that Congress passed and Obama signed in March to stem the possibility of a federal government shutdown, prohibits any additional funds for the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to the United States or its territories. It further blocks any expenditures on the renovation of any US facility on American soil to house detainees, effectively making it illegal for the government to transfer the men it plans to continue holding.It also remains unclear how Obama will win over both Republicans and members of his own party who remain staunchly opposed to transferring terror suspects to the US.While lawmakers have cited recidivism of released terror suspects as a reason to keep the camp open, in 2009 the Pentagon was only able to “confirm” that 18 former detainees – 4 percent of the camp’s population – had participated in attacks. A spokesman at the time said evidence of someone being “confirmed” could have included fingerprints, a conclusive photograph or “well-corroborated intelligence reporting.”Another issue involves the camp’s 86 detainees who have never been charged with a crime and have already been cleared for release.Earlier this month, Democratic Senator Carl Levin wrote a letter to the White House requesting that the White House appoint an official who will be tasked with relocating the dozens of detainees who were being held without charge.Levin, the Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman, said that although the defense authorization bill has restricted the administration’s ability to transfer detainees, a national security waiver provided a “clear route” to moving detainees to some third countries. Levin further urged Obama to find a way to close the camp without Congress’ blessing.“Congress has blocked it, so he’s going to have to find a way to remove the blockages of Congress, and hopefully he’ll let us know how he’ll do that,” Levin told reporters Tuesday.Levin told The Hill on Tuesday that he has yet to receive a response to his letter.Democratic representative Adam Smith (D-Wash.) questioned in an interview if the growing international outcry surrounding the hunger strike was enough to persuade resistant lawmakers to change their position on keeping the camp open.“It’s getting uglier and uglier at Gitmo…The level of embarrassment is growing and the cost is growing, so is that enough to persuade them that it’s time to change positions?” Smith asked.“We’re going to have that debate.” … Read More
MSI GX60/GX70 laptops arrive, armed with Radeon HD 8970M, Richland CPU
Delivering on earlier promises, MSI is now shipping its GX70 and newest GX60 gaming laptops. The $1,299 and $1,399 laptops are the first of their kind to feature AMD's Radeon HD 8970M — what AMD argues may be the pinnacle of mobile graphics processors. For the price though, MSI is… … Read More
FBI Kills Man Connected to Boston Bombing Suspects in Possible Further Coverup
The FBI has apparently killed Ibragim Todashev, a man with close ties to one of the Boston Bombing suspects who feared for his own life shortly before he supposedly went crazy and had to be taken down. … Read More
Pussy Riot member goes on hunger strike in Russia
Taken from: Pussy Riot member goes on hunger strike in Russia
Deadly unknown respiratory disease kills two in Alabama
The mysterious illness has sickened its victims with flu-like symptoms, including a shortness of breath, fever, and coughing. Of the seven people who were hospitalized with the new disease, two have died, Alabama Department of Public Health spokeswoman Mary McIntyre told AP.Scientists are currently studying lab specimens from the seven victims, and health officials are urging hospital staff to wear masks and gloves when coming in contact with the infected patients.All seven patients were from Houston County, and McIntyre says there have been no out-of-state reports of this illness. The victims are all adults ranging in age from early 20s to late 80s, and have all been hospitalized in the Southeast Alabama Medical Center starting last Thursday.“We’re only aware of the Southeast, but we don’t know – we haven’t received reports from anywhere else,” McIntyre said. “That’s why we’re trying to get the information out.”There is currently no evidence that the victims traveled out of the country or picked up the illness outside of the US. Researchers do not currently believe that this illness is related to a deadly new coronavirus, coined the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, which has infected 40 people and killed 20 who all traveled to or lived in the Middle East. The novel coronavirus has recently surfaced in France, the UK and Saudi Arabia.Health officials also do not believe that the victims acquired the H7H9 virus, which has caused 17 deaths and 82 illnesses in China. This virus is a strain of the bird flu and spreads through person-to-person contact.But although health officials doubt that the Alabama patients acquired either of the two foreign pathogens, McIntyre told NBC that nothing is being ruled out, since laboratory test results are not yet complete.“At this point it’s too early to tell,” she said. “That’s why we called it a respiratory illness of unknown origin.”One of the infected patients tested positive for H1N1 influenza A, but researchers believe this victim may have fallen ill with the unknown disease simultaneously. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention appear to have no knowledge about the illness. The agency has so far directed media questions to Alabama health officials.State health officials are urging Alabama residents to take precautionary steps to avoid getting sick.“Be sure to cover your cough, wash your hands frequently, don’t cough on your hands and then shake somebody else’s hands, to try to prevent from spreading stuff,” McIntyre said during a Tuesday morning press conference, while trying to encourage Alabama residents not to panic. … Read More
IRS Official Invokes The Fifth, Angering Tea Party Patriots Group
Lois Lerner told House investigators she didn’t do anything wrong and she didn’t break any laws, and then she invoked her Fifth Amendment Right to remain silent to avoid self-incrimination. But then, she’s already told so many lies, what difference does it really make? Nobody’s believe her, anyway. … Read More
