AAA To Push Ban On Texting While Driving|NewsChannel 8

http://www.ktul.com/news/stories/0909/664100.html

Thursday Oct 1 Tulsa Action Forum. Learn How to Participate in the Legislative Process

REMINDER: Action Forum – Training Session Oct. 1, 2009

The next OK-SAFE Action Forum will be Thursday, October 1st, 2009.

Oklahomans are aware of the growth of big government and have been stirred to action.  They’ve rallied together and protested to make their voices heard in the public square. Some folks are ready to move on to the next step, [getting involved in the OK legislative process], but  may be asking themselves, ”How do I do that?”

The next OK-SAFE Action Forum will be something all Oklahoma grassroots activists can use – a no-spin training session on “Citizen Involvement in the Legislative Process”, focusing on the Oklahoma Legislature.

Topics will include:

• Civic responsibility
• Introduction to the Oklahoma Legislature website
• How a bill is introduced
• The course of a bill in the legislative process
• Bill tracking
• How to lobby

The bad policies of the federal government are implemented at the state level - the states can fight back, IF enough citizens understand the legislative process and get involved.

Our rights have been given to us by God, not man, but ”man” is working feverishly to remove those rights.

The Oklahoma Capitol belongs to the people; who typically lobbies the OK legislature, however, are multinational corporations and big government special interest groups.

This needs to change.  The people must take back their civic responsibility and become involved in the legislative process.

Make plans today to attend this training meeting.

Date: Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009

Time: 6:45 pm to 8:15 pm

Location: Hardesty Regional Library, 8316 E. 93rd St., Tulsa, OK (93rd & S. Memorial)

OK Interim Studies

Both the Oklahoma House and Senate have posted the approved lists of interim studies.

Between legislative sessions, during the summer and fall, interim studies take place, to study issues or policies.  These studies often result in legislation being introduced the next session or later.

Individuals and groups can sign up to be notified of the meeting dates and times of an interim study by contacting the committee chair or the legislator proposing the study.

Finding the Interim Studies For a complete list of House interim studies, go to the Oklahoma Legislature website and click:

1. House of Representatives Home Page
2. House Committees
3. Interim Studies

For a complete list of Senate interim studies, go to the Oklahoma Legislature website and click:

1. Senate Home Page
2. Committees
3. Senate Studies
4. Interim Studies

Participate

OK-SAFE recommends checking those studies that have to do with property rights, water rights, public safety/law enforcement, or other efforts to grow government.

H1N1 Santa Clara CA declares local State of Emergency

anta Clara County Declares State of Emergency for H1N1-Swine Flu
Created by Kimberlee Sakamoto on 9/29/2009 6:43:00 PM

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SANTA CLARA COUNTY (BCN) — Santa Clara County officials are declaring a local state of  emergency due to the H1N1 swine flu virus.

The Board of Supervisors additionally allocated $500,000 toward  flu emergency response.

Officials said there have been 155 hospitalizations and eight  deaths due to the swine flu in Santa Clara County between April 3 and Sept.  15.

“The Board’s declaration of emergency will enable us to put needed  resources in place to respond to what is likely to be a flu season that will  impact our entire community,” County Executive Jeff Smith said in a prepared  statement.

Officials said they have seen increased incidences of the H1N1  virus in the county in the last few weeks, as well as greater numbers of  people coming to hospitals with flu-like illness, and greater absenteeism in  some schools.

The county Public Health Department is preparing to distribute the  H1N1 vaccine, as well as antiviral medications, to try to limit the spread of  the virus, officials said.

http://www.kron4.com/News/ArticleView/tabid/298/smid/1126/ArticleID/3312/reftab/65/t/Santa%20Clara%20County%20Declares%20State%20of%20Emergency%20for%20H1N1-Swine%20Flu/Default.aspx

The REAL ID Deadline Is Fake | Cato @ Liberty

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009/09/29/the-real-id-deadline-is-fake/

Dozens Under Quarantine At The Naval Academy

Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Steve Fermier and Associated Press

The Naval Academy is quarantining midshipmen with flulike symptoms aiming to slow the spread of swine flu.

Cmdr. Joe Carpenter said Tuesday that 170 midshipmen have been isolated this fall, but only seven confirmed cases of swine flu.

As of Monday night there were 33 mids in an isolation ward converted from an existing athletic facility in the academy’s dormitory

http://wbal.com/apps/news/templates/story.aspx?articleid=36620

Province may suspend flu shots after vaccine’s safety questioned

B.C. might suspend the seasonal flu shots as early as today, in the wake of a Canadian study that suggests people who get the flu vaccine are twice as likely to contract the H1N1 virus

http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Province+suspend+shots+after+vaccine+safety+questioned/2042224/story.html

Who Are These Masked Bandits?

Info about California company, inmates hard to come by

Hardin jail deal locked in mystery

BILLINGS – The Two Rivers Detention Center was promoted as the largest economic development project in decades in the small town of Hardin when the jail was built two years ago. But it has been vacant ever since.

City officials have searched from Vermont to Alaska for inmate contracts to fill the jail, only to be turned down at every turn and see the bonds that financed its construction fall into default. They even floated the idea of housing prisoners from Guantanamo Bay at the jail.

So when Hardin officials announced this week that they had signed a deal with a California company to fill the empty jail, it was naturally a cause for celebration. Town officials talked about throwing a party to mark the occasion, their dreams of economic salvation a step closer to being realized.

But questions are emerging over the legitimacy of the company, American Police Force.

Government contract databases show no record of the company. Security industry representatives and federal officials said they had never heard of it. On its Web site, the company lists as its headquarters a building in Washington near the White House that holds “virtual offices.” A spokeswoman for the building said American Police Force never completed its application to use the address.

http://www.helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/article_189f7688-a02d-11de-b8df-001cc4c03286.html

http://www.americanpolicegroup.com/

CA firm preps to take over Hardin jail

HARDIN – After arriving in this rural city with three Mercedes SUVs marked with the logo of a nonexistent police department, representatives of an obscure California security company said preparations were under way to take over Hardin’s never-used, $27 million jail.

Significant obstacles remain – including a lack of any prisoner contracts on the part of the company that wants to run the jail, American Police Force.

And on Friday came the revelation the company’s operating agreement for the facility has yet to be validated – two weeks after city leaders first unveiled what they said was a signed agreement.

Still, some Hardin leaders said the deal to turn over the 464-bed jail remained on track.

The agreement with American Police Force has been heavily promoted by members of the city’s economic development branch, the Two Rivers Authority. Authority Vice President Albert Peterson on Friday repeated his claim to be “100 percent” confident in the company.

The lead public figure for American Police Force, Michael Hilton, said more than 200 employees would be sought for the jail and a proposed military and law enforcement training center.

That would be a significant boost to Hardin, a struggling town of 3,500 located about 45 miles east of Billings. An earlier announcement that a job fair would be held during the last week never came to fruition.

The bonds used to pay for the jail have been in default since May, 2008.

The logo on a Mercedes SUV brought to Hardin by a California security company that wants to take over Hardin’s empty jail is seen in this Thursday photo.

But the company’s flashy arrival this week stirred new questions. The logo on the black Mercedes SUVs said “City of Hardin Police Department.”

Yet the city has not had a police force of its own for 30 years.

“Pretty looking police car, ain’t it?” Hardin resident Leroy Frickle, 67, said as he eyed one of the vehicles parked in front of a bed and breakfast where Hilton and other company representatives were staying.

. . .

On Friday, American Police Force announced its first local hire: a reporter for the Billings Gazette, Becky Shay, who has covered events surrounding the jail since its construction. She will be the company’s spokeswoman for $60,000 a year.

Shay said she intended to bring new transparency to the process, but declined to directly answer the first question posed to her: Where is American Police Force getting the money to operate the jail and build the training center?

“I know enough about where the money is coming from to be confident signing on with them,” she said.

http://www.helenair.com/news/local/state-and-regional/article_30a55faa-ab1c-11de-8690-001cc4c03286.html

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H1N1 Influenza Virus Approved

On Sep 28, 2009, at 11:30 AM, “U.S.

Vaccines for 2009 H1N1 Influenza Virus Approved
Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:01:00 -0500

The vaccines will be distributed nationally after the initial lots become available, which is expected within the next four weeks.

GovDelivery, Inc. sending on behalf of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services · 200 Independence Avenue SW · Washington DC 20201 · 1-877-696-6775

Who’s the Freest of them All?. . .50 States

Goldwater Institute Policy Report September 17, 2009

Executive Summary
In an era of burgeoning federal government power, state constitutions are full of untapped potential; many provide stronger protection of individual freedoms than does the federal constitution.  But realizing that potential requires recognizing its existence and assessing which state constitutions offer the best opportunities for securing the principles of limited government.  To that end, this report ranks each state in the United States according to its constitutional commitment to the principles of limited government from a classical liberal perspective.

Using the U.S. Constitution and federal court system as a baseline, this report assesses each state’s constitutional jurisprudence for its commitment to limited government.  This assessment reveals that every state in the union has a stronger textual and precedential commitment to individual liberty and fiscal responsibility under their state constitutions than does the federal government.  Strong constitutions, however, are a necessary but not sufficient condition for securing limited government.  Accordingly, the report also ranks each state’s constitutional commitment to freedom with a supplemental assessment of each state’s judicial and political culture.

Based on a combined assessment of each state’s jurisprudential and judicial environments, the states that are most committed to securing limited government under their constitutions are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin.  Further, even taking into consideration the reputed higher quality of the federal judiciary, 48 of the 50 states offer a better environment for securing limited government under their constitutions in state court than can be found in federal court under the U.S. Constitution alone.  Only Massachusetts and West Virginia fall below the federal baseline.  Taking into consideration the findings of a recent Mercatus Center study of economic freedom among the 50 states, which serves as a proxy for the freedom friendliness of each state’s political culture, this report reveals that principles of limited government are most secure under the constitutions of Arizona, Alabama, Idaho and Tennessee.

This report can help guide individuals and businesses to states where their liberty and property are likely most secure under state law.  It also will help scholars, philanthropists, think tanks, and public interest law firms focus resources in states where the return on investment is likely to be greatest.  However, this does not mean low ranking states should be written off.  Instead, in states where an adverse political culture and decades of faithless judicial interpretation have weakened textually strong constitutions such as Washington, Georgia, Florida, and Missouri, citizens should focus resources on advocating the classical liberal vision of their state constitutions by supporting courageous members of the judiciary who are willing to enforce that vision.

Read 50 Bright Stars here

Read the 50 Bright Stars Appendix here

Guide to 50 Bright Stars

Use the 50 Bright Stars interactive map here

http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/article/3685

NO NIAS Takes Apart the New Paradigm, “Intelligence Led” Policing

New Edition of “Law Enforcement Intelligence” is Information Packed

Biot #647: August 26, 2009

David L. Carter, PhD, professor of criminal justice at Michigan State University (since 1985) and former Kansas City, Missouri, police officer (1971-1973), has released the 2009 second edition of Law Enforcement Intelligence: A Guide for State, Local, and Tribal Law Enforcement Agencies (496 pages), a mere five years after he wrote the first edition (312 pages) in 2004. (1-3)

The U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services supported Carter’s writing of the first and second editions of Law Enforcement Intelligence. His points of view and opinions in the work do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice or Michigan State University. (4)

The first edition of Law Enforcement Intelligence documented “unprecedented changes in law enforcement intelligence that occurred largely in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorists’ attacks,” and “described a broad array of cutting-edge issues and practices,” Carter writes. “At the time, it seemed implausible that such dramatic changes would occur again.” Yet they have. Indeed, a “staggering number of significant developments affecting law enforcement intelligence have occurred,” he states, including the following (1):

* “There were only a few Regional Intelligence Centers across the U.S. that are now evolving into a nationwide network of fusion centers (5).
* The Fusion Center Guidelines had not been written (6-7).
* There had been no national fusion center conferences and regional fusion center groups did not exist (8).
* The Fusion Process Technical Assistance Program, a joint Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security project, did not exist (9).
* The Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not exist (10).
* The Information Sharing Environment did not exist (11).
* The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Intelligence Directorate did not exist (12).
* The Drug Enforcement Administration’s National Security Branch of the Office of Intelligence did not exist (13).
* The National Criminal Intelligence Resource Center did not exist (14).
* Many intelligence-training programs that are now taken for granted did not exist (15).
* The Joint Regional Information Exchange System-which is now virtually gone-was “the system” for information sharing and analysis (16).
* “All-hazards” intelligence was not in our lexicon.
* Intelligence-Led Policing was in its infancy (17).
* What is now the expansive Open Source Center which, as part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, is aggressively reaching out to state, local, and tribal law enforcement was a narrowly focused program called the Foreign Broadcast Information Service operated by the CIA (18-19).
* Relatively few law enforcement agencies had any type of intelligence capacity.
* Suspicious Activity Reporting was largely limited to “tips and leads” and there were no unified standards or formal processes to report suspicious activities (20).”

The second edition of Law Enforcement Intelligence covers these and other “changes in the philosophy, national standards, and practice of law enforcement intelligence while maintaining the core goal of being a primer on ‘all things intelligence’ for the law enforcement community,” Carter explains.

Read the Rest!

http://www.nonaiswa.org/?p=3824