Author: Mark H

Tech Dirt – by Mike Masnick

For many years we’ve written about the problems of red light cameras. Installed over the past few years in many cities, the public statements supporting them were always about increased safety on our roads. However, as we’ve noted, plenty of studies showed that the cameras actually tended to increase accidents, showed little to no safety benefit, and were almost always driven by monetary incentives. Because of this, there were numerous reports of various municipalities actually deciding to decrease the time on yellow lights, thereby getting more money from tickets, but massively increasing the safety risk. Multiple studies have shown that the one way to make intersections safer is to increase the yellow light time — but in order to make more money, many were decreasing it (often below legal limits).    Continue reading “Red Light Cameras On The Decline, As Everyone Realizes They Don’t Make Roads Safer, They Just Make Money”

Yahoo News – by Beth Greenfield

A Connecticut father was arrested on multiple charges Thursday following a fatal drunk driving crash that stemmed from a teenage party held on his property.

Paul Sibiga, 50, who police say allowed his teenage sons and their friends to party on his Hebron property throughout the summer of 2013, was arrested on 28 counts of both reckless endangerment and permitting minors to possess alcohol — one count for each teen that was at the party, held in August, according to the Courant.   Continue reading “Father Arrested After Son’s Party Leads to Drunk Driving Death”

Huffington Post – by Radley Balko

In the monthly e-newsletter for the Justice Department’s Community Oriented Police Services (COPS) program, Senior Policy Analyst Karl Bickel sounds the alarm about the militarization of America’s domestic police forces. Here’s his conclusion:

Police chiefs and sheriffs may want to ask themselves—if after hiring officers in the spirit of adventure, who have been exposed to action oriented police dramas since their youth, and sending them to an academy patterned after a military boot camp, then dressing them in black battle dress uniforms and turning them loose in a subculture steeped in an “us versus them” outlook toward those they serve and protect, while prosecuting the war on crime, war on drugs, and now a war on terrorism—is there any realistic hope of institutionalizing community policing as an operational philosophy?   Continue reading “DOJ Agency Warns Of Police Militarization”

Yahoo News – by Maayan Lubell

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s parliament has moved to ensure African migrants who enter the country illegally can be held without charge, despite a Supreme Court ruling that had struck down a previous detention law.

Legislation approved late on Monday set a maximum detention period of one year for new illegal migrants, a change from a term of up to three years stipulated in a previous law annulled by the court in September.   Continue reading “Israel approves detention without charges for African migrants”

Yahoo News

Montevideo (AFP) – Uruguay is to give a green light Tuesday to making marijuana legal, in a social experiment that countries plagued by drug-related crime worldwide will watch.

The legal change in this largely rural and well-educated South American nation of just 3.3 million, looms large with a vote in the Senate.   Continue reading “Uruguay to make marijuana legal in trailblazing gamble”

The American Dream – by Michael Snyder

The “coming persecution of Christians” has already begun.  It is already here.  So why is the mainstream media in the United States almost totally silent about this phenomenon?  When some politician somewhere around the globe inadvertently offends homosexuals or Muslims, it instantly makes headline news.  But very few Americans are even aware that it has been estimated that 100 million Christians are currently facing persecution and that approximately 100,000 Christians die for their faith each year.  As you are about to see, Christians all over the world are being burned alive, beheaded, crucified, tortured to death and imprisoned in metal shipping containers just because of what they believe.  This persecution goes on year after year and it is steadily intensifying.  But the governments of the western world and the mainstream media are almost entirely ignoring what is happening.    Continue reading “Christians Are Being Burned Alive, Beheaded, Crucified, Tortured To Death And Imprisoned In Metal Shipping Containers”

Legal Insurrection – by Mandy Nagy

A gay waitress who claimed she had been stiffed on a tip because of her lifestyle is no longer employed by the NJ restaurant at which she’d worked, according to a statement posted on Saturday.

Dayna Morales, a former Marine and waitress at the Gallop Asian Bistro in Bridgewater, NJ, claimed last month that customers left a note on their receipt disagreeing with her lifestyle in lieu of a tip.  The story went viral when bloggers and media outlets picked up on it after a message from Morales and a photo of the receipt were posted on a Facebook page.   Continue reading “NJ restaurant parts ways with gay waitress who claimed she was stiffed on tip”

This is the setup for scaring the public on MJ.

Yahoo News – by SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES

Some may tout marijuana as a safe, recreational drug with valuable medicinal properties, but toke up your joint and it likely contains mold, pesticides, even dead insects, according to researchers at the University of New Haven in Connecticut.   Continue reading “Marijuana: Toke Up on Mold, Insects and Manure”

Yahoo News – by Mike Krumboltz

A 56-year-old grandmother drove from Kentucky to New Jersey several times in order to fight a $56 traffic ticket over her so-called “Liberty Van.”

Good news for the woman: She won.

Lynda Farley, whose van is emblazoned with flags, flowers, bumper stickers and political signs that say things like “Outdoor smoke bans are idiotic” and “Vote Marxists Out,” was cited in New Jersey in September 2012 for driving a vehicle with an obstructed view. Specifically, the trooper told her the string of flowers bordering the front windshield of her 2004 Nissan Quest minivan obstructed her view of the road, according to the Express-Times.   Continue reading “Woman drives ‘Liberty Van’ 5,000 miles to fight ticket, wins”

NJ.com

TOMS RIVER — Police in all 33 towns in Ocean County early next year will begin carrying an antidote that can revive people who overdose on heroin.

Narcan can be used with any drug with opioids and gives emergency responders time to revive victims.   Continue reading “Police in Ocean County to start carrying heroin antidote”

NJ.com – by Mike Davis

ROBBINSVILLE — Robbinsville Mayor David Fried today declared in an open letter to township residents that he would proudly hold a “Christmas” tree lighting ceremony and criticized any politically correct or secular terms for the event.

A secular “tree lighting ceremony” had been advertised for the township, but Fried said he was upset the township could identify the “Hanukkah Menorah” and not the Christmas tree.   Continue reading “‘Holiday tree celebration?’ Robbinsville mayor says not in his town – Will proudly host ‘Christmas tree lighting’”