The suit, filed Friday in federal court, charged Norristown, Pennsylvania with allowing police to accuse Lakisha Briggs with a “disorderly behavior ordinance” after she called police for a third time on May 23, 2012. Briggs claimed she was threatened with eviction weeks after police officers responded to a domestic violence call from her home in which an abuser “chased Ms. Briggs down the alley with a brick and followed her to her house, where he attacked her.” After the officers arrested her boyfriend, one turned to Briggs and told her, “You are on three strikes. We’re going to have your landlord evict you,” as quoted by the ACLU. The “disorderly behavior” violation financially penalizes a landlord when a tenant calls the police three times in a four-month period. The ACLU claims that the restriction infringes on renters’ First Amendment right to petition the government and stands in contrast with the Violence Against Women Act, which protects female abuse victims from the threat of eviction. After the ACLU first intervened in Briggs’ case, Norristown officials agreed to drop the charge and stop pressuring her landlord to put her out. But only days later, the civil liberties group claims, Norristown lawmakers passed a nearly identical bill imposing fines on landlords whose tenants call the police. Norristown, located six miles from Philadelphia, is not alone by allowing this law. Similar rules across the United States are billed as “nuisance ordinances” or “crime free ordinances.” Professors from Harvard and Columbia Universities examined such a law in Milwaukee, Wisconin for a study published in the American Sociological Review. “Nearly a third of all [nuisance] citations were generated by domestic violence,” the study determined, as quoted by AlterNet. It also noted that “properties in black neighborhoods disproportionately received citations, and those located in more integrated black neighborhoods had the highest likelihood of being deemed nuisances.” The 2000 census revealed that of the 31,282 people living in Norristown, 54.32 per cent are White, 34.5 per cent Black or African American and 10.49 per cent Hispanic or Latino. Briggs is seeking damages, legal fees, temporary immunity from the ordinance, and a declaration that the law is unconstitutional. … Read More
US government sues Lance Armstrong for being ‘unjustly enriched’
The Justice Department revealed its formal complaint Tuesday, and could prompt Armstrong to pay millions of dollars in compensation to the feds. From 1998-2004, the USPS paid the former cyclist $17 million and spent about $40 million to appear as the title sponsor of six of Armstrong’s teams. The government says it plans to recover triple the amount of the Postal Service’s sponsorship funds, which means Armstrong may be facing more than $100 million in damages. The complaint, which was filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, states that under the False Claims Act, Armstrong’s use of prohibited drugs constitutes a breach of contract with the USPS. “Riders on the USPS-sponsored team, including Armstrong, knowingly caused material violations of the sponsorship agreements by regularly and systematically employing banned substances and methods to enhance their performance,” the complaint states. “Defendants were unjustly enriched to the extent of the payments and other benefits they received from the USPS, either directly or indirectly.” The complaint also describes occasions where Armstrong and the USPS team conspired to use performance-enhancing substances in ways that would help them avoid detection. The lawsuit references the Floyd Landis doping case, in which the 2006 winner of the Tour de France was found to be using synthetic testosterone and subsequently had his title stripped. Landis is now a major part of the whistleblower effort against Armstrong, his former teammate. Armstrong was stripped of all his titles and banned from competition after the US Anti-Doping Agency found the presence of illegal drugs in his blood samples. The cyclist previously tried to negotiate a settlement with the US government, but the feds recently announced they would join Landis’ whistleblower case against Armstrong. During an interview with Oprah Winfrey in January, Armstrong publicly admitted doping for the sake of the Tour de France races, after years of denying the allegations. He described a “ruthless desire” to win the races at all costs under the “momentum” of pressure, and admitted that this was his “biggest flaw”. He confessed that he used performance-enhancing drugs from the mid-1990s until 2005 and apologized for filing lawsuits against those who claimed he had doped. But regarding the government’s complaint against the former champion, Armstrong attorney Elliot Peters described it as “opportunistic” and “insincere”, claiming that the government received lucrative exposure from the sponsorship.“The US Postal Service benefited tremendously from its sponsorship of the cycling team,” Peters told AP. “The USPS was never the victim of fraud. Lance Armstrong rode his heart out for the USPS team, and gave the brand tremendous exposure during the sponsorship years.”Armstrong has previously tried to settle the Landis whistleblower lawsuit, but the federal government’s involvement with the case will make it more difficult to close. … Read More
Israel-based therapist releases sex manual for ultra-Orthodox Jews
David Ribner is an ordained Orthodox rabbi, has a master’s degree in social work, a doctorate from Columbia University and currently works as a Jerusalem-based sex therapist. He is also co-author of the first-ever educational guide to sex and sexuality for ultra-Orthodox Jews.Ribner co-authored “The Newlywed’s Guide to Physical Intimacy” with Orthodox researcher Jennie Rosenfeld, and the book covers everything from the very basics, like the difference between male and female anatomy, to the also-very-basics, like where to put your arms and legs during sex.The topics addressed are strictly vanilla, but it’s information that isn’t freely available in ultra-Orthodox communities, Ribner explained in an interview with BBC News: ”Sex is only appropriate within a marital context,” he said. “Beyond that it’s not talked about. Because of that, it’s become very difficult for people to have any kind of dialogue about it.”"We wanted there to be a place where people could say, ‘I know nothing and I want to know something,’” he added.Continue Reading… … Read More
Texas Drought Not Due to Climate Change, Says NOAA Study
Last year Texas suffered through its worst
dry spell on record. And lots of folks have been eager to suggest
that it was at least exacerbated by climate change. Oh, the irony
of a state proud of its oil production being laid low by the very
climate its iconic crude disrupts. A new report by researchers at
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has concluded
that that’s not so.
From the AP:
Last year’s huge drought was a freak of nature that wasn’t
caused by man-made global warming, a new federal science study
finds.
Scientists say the lack of moisture usually pushed up from the
Gulf of Mexico was the main reason for the drought in the nation’s
midsection.
Thursday’s report by dozens of scientists from five different
federal agencies looked into why forecasters didn’t see the drought
coming. The researchers concluded that it was so unusual and
unpredictable that it couldn’t have been forecast.
“This is one of those events that comes along once every couple
hundreds of years,” said lead author Martin Hoerling, a research
meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration. “Climate change was not a significant part, if any,
of the event.”
Researchers focused on six states – Wyoming, Kansas, Nebraska,
Colorado, Missouri and Iowa – but the drought spread much farther
and eventually included nearly two-thirds of the Lower 48 states.
For the six states, the drought was the worst four-month period for
lack of rainfall since records started being kept in 1895, Hoerling
said.
He said the jet stream that draws moisture north from the Gulf
was stuck unusually north in Canada.
Other scientists have linked recent changes in the jet stream to
shrinking Arctic sea ice, but Hoerling and study co-author Richard
Seager of Columbia University said those global warming connections
are not valid.
Hoerling used computer simulations to see if he could replicate
the drought using man-made global warming conditions. He couldn’t.
So that means it was a random event, he said.
The study was titled, “An
Interpretation of the Origins of the 2012 Central Great Plains
Drought,” but when it comes to climate, you can be sure that
there are always other conflicting “interpretations.” The folks
over at the left-leaning
ThinkProgress blog cite a furious push back against the
conclusion of the NOAA study by National Center for Atmospheric
Research climatologist Kevin Trenberth. Among other criticisms,
Trenberth notes:
In the experiments performed with climate models, no indication
is given that the model used or the forecast results from several
other models, have any skill or utility at the task set them. The
distinctive La Niña pattern in 2011 giving extremes of dryness in
Texas and wetness further north was not simulated or predicted
either! In the lower 48, it has been distinctly wetter after about
the 1970s in all seasons other than winter, but none of the models
simulate this. Not one! The model biases are not dealt with and
their skill, or lack of it, is not given. They are not shown to be
appropriate to the task at hand. There is a complete failure to
provide any reasons to believe the results. Moreover the
experiments are woefully incomplete. SSTs [sea surface
temperatures] were specified but no attempt was made to include
soil moisture, snow cover anomalies, or vegetation health, for
instance.
Models, models everywhere, and not a drop to drink (at least not
in Texas). … Read More
The Potential and the Risks of Data Science
Columbia University held a symposium that mainly focused on the promise of Big Data technology, but concerns were raised that the technology was racing ahead of society’s understanding of it. … Read More
Third major oil spill in a week: Shell pipeline breaks in Texas
Shell Pipeline, a unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, shut down their West Columbia, Texas, pipeline last Friday after electronic calculations conducted by the US National Response Center showed that upwards of 700 barrels had been lost, amounting to almost 30,000 gallons of crude oil.By Monday, Shell spokespeople said inspectors found “no evidence” of an oil leak, but days later it was revealed that a breach did occur. Representatives with the US Coast Guard confirmed to Dow Jones on Thursday that roughly 50 barrels of oil spilled from a pipe near Houston, Texas and entered a waterway that connects to the Gulf of Mexico.Coast Guard Petty Officer Steven Lehman said that Shell had dispatched clean-up crews that were working hard to correct any damage to Vince Bayou, a small waterway that runs for less than 20 miles from the Houston area into a shipping channel that opens into the Gulf.The spill was contained, said Lehman, who was hesitant to offer an official number on how much crude was lost in the accident. According to Shell spokeswoman Kim Windon, though, the damage could have been quite significant. After being presented with the estimate that said as much as 700 barrels were found to have leaked from the pipeline due to an unknown cause, investigators determined that 60 barrels entered the bayou.”That’s a very early estimate–things can change,” Officer Lehman told Dow Jones.Meanwhile, though, rescue works in Arkansas have been getting their hands dirty responding to an emergency there. A rupture in ExxonMobil’s Pegasus pipeline late last week send thousands of barrels of oil into the small town of Mayflower, around 25 miles outside of Little Rock. Authorities evacuated more than 20 homes in response, and by this Thursday roughly 19,000 barrels had been recovered.Another incident in Canada this week caused an estimated 400 barrels — or roughly 16,800 gallons — of oil to be compromised in northern Ontario when a train derailed. Originally, Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd said only four barrels were lost in the accident. … Read More
Police union director jokes about sex assault case
Dale Roberts, the executive director of the Columbia Police Officers Association (CPOA) and a University of Missouri professor, mocked the indictment and the victims in a post published on his Facebook page.“It’s called Customer Service,” Roberts wrote on March 27, regarding the indictment of Texas State Trooper Kelly Helleson. “We just did it so they wouldn’t have to make the trip all the way down to the station.”After another Facebook user, Dan Rees, commented on the post, asking, “Was this service with a … smile?” the union director replied with an equally inappropriate response.“Evidently, they searched them downtown, without going downtown,” Roberts wrote.The comments are in reference to a case involving a roadside cavity search conducted by Texas State Trooper Kelly Helleson, who has been charged with two counts of sexual assault for illegally violating the bodies of two women that were pulled over for littering. Angel Dobbs, 38, and her niece Ashley Dobbs, 24, say they were subjected to an invasive search for no valid reason. Using the same latex glove on both women, Helleson searched the women’s’ genital regions, claiming she was looking for drugs.The search was ordered by State Trooper David Farrell, who pulled over the women after witnessing them throw a cigarette butt out of their car window. He said they were “acting weird” and claimed to have smelled marijuana, after which he searched the vehicle and called in Helleson to conduct a roadside cavity search.The search, which was captured by a dashboard camera located in one of the trooper’s cars, was conducted in a public place and left the women traumatized. “I was molested, I was violated, I was humiliated in front of other traffic,” Angel Dobbs told WFAA in December. “I had to watch my niece go through the same thing and I could not protect her at that point.”Both of the troopers responsible for the roadside cavity search have been indicted on charges of sexual assault and oppression, but Roberts’ comments shed further light on the lack of sensitivity demonstrated by some of those who are involved in law enforcement.Roberts has previously come under fire for making offensive comments on Facebook. Last month, he made a racist joke on the CPOA’s official Facebook page, which he controls as an administrator. He joked about a new armored vehicle, stating that “if CPD rolled up in the new Mercedes 6×16, you KNOW all the boys in the hood would come running out of the house – just to admire your ride! I say we roll up in style.”Mayor Bob McDavid responded to the comment, apologizing for Roberts’ behavior.“This Facebook post from the Columbia Police Officers Association shows breathtaking racial insensitivity that cannot be tolerated,” he wrote. “The post displays an attitude and lack of professionalism that is unacceptable to the citizens of Columbia. Furthermore, it reflects poorly on the many fine, disciplined police officers in Columbia.”After Roberts’ post was condemned by the media, he himself issued an apology, but has now come back into the spotlight with his latest status update, in which he ridicules the victims of a sexual assault case. … Read More
