Hate crime?

Stark ‘killer’ held without bail on murder charge

The Crown Heights man who confessed to the kidnapping and killing of landlord Menachem Stark was ordered held without bail during his arraignment on a second-degree murder charge Thursday.

Modal Trigger

Menachem Stark with his wife Bashie and one of their sons.

Kendel Felix, 26, of Montgomery Street, clad in a black jacket, dark jeans and sneakers, didn’t speak during the brief proceeding in Brooklyn Criminal Court.

But the victim’s brother, Yitzy Stark, said through tears that Stark’s family was relieved that there had finally been an arrest in Jan. 2 killing.

“We can’t bring him back, but there is good closure and everybody knows the truth,” he said. “But our family will never be the same.”

The suspect admitted to detectives he was one of the two kidnappers who snatched Stark, 39, a married father of seven whose body was later torched and left in a dumpster on Long Island.

Everything this regime does is aimed at being intrusive

Federal Regulators Could Be Empowered To Enter Your Property To Inspect Your Cars

Posted By Michael Bastasch 

President Barack Obama’s $302 billion transportation bill gives federal regulators the power to enter the premises of car dealerships to determine if their vehicles are in compliance with federal fuel-economy mandates.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) could see its vehicle inspection authority expanded if Congress passes Obama’s Grow America Act. Currently, DOT officials are only allowed to inspect records and information from companies that must comply with federal fuel economy standards.

But Obama’s bill would allow federal bureaucrats to enter the premises of car dealerships to physically inspect to see if vehicles are in compliance with federal fuel economy standards.

“What this amendment does is clarify that the agency has authority, for example, to enter dealership premises in order to measure the footprint of a new vehicle and confirm that it is consistent with what the manufacturer has reported to us the footprint of that vehicle should be,” a representative for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an emailed statement.

The NHTSA is in charge of making sure that new vehicles actually meet federal fuel economy requirements as reported by auto makers. NHTSA said that automakers, not dealerships, are liable for vehicles not meeting fuel economy standards.

The bill “does not hold dealers liable, in any way, for variations in vehicle footprint, nor does it impose any kind of criminal penalty on anyone,” NHTSA added.

Federal fuel-economy standards — called Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE — require vehicles to get 54.5 miles per gallon for cars and light-duty trucks by 2025 as part of an effort to decrease the country’s reliance on oil and help fight global warming.

The DOT’s CAFE standards were set in tandem with the Environmental Protection Agency, which argues that raising CAFE standards will result in more carbon dioxide emissions being offset, helping the climate.

In February, Obama issued an executive order for the DOT and EPA to start establishing fuel-economy standards for medium and heavy-duty trucks, building on existing CAFE standards set for 2018. Obama said new fuel-economy rules would save drivers $50 billion in fuel costs and reduce oil consumption by 530 million barrels.

Obama’s new transportation bill would use billions of taxpayer dollars to fund new transportation and infrastructure projects and enforcing regulations. For example, the bill would allow federal regulators to increase penalties to companies that don’t recall their vehicles quickly enough.

“As the nation’s top regulator of the automotive industry, we hold manufacturers accountable for defect and compliance issues regarding their products and are seeking to further our ability to do so in the future, including increasing civil penalty limits nearly 10 times to $300 million,” said David Friedman, NHTSA’s acting administrator.

This, of course, is in addition to NHTSA’s authority to enter the premises of dealerships to make sure vehicles are in compliance with federal law. The bill allows federal officials to “enter and inspect with reasonable promptness premises in which a motor vehicle or motor vehicle equipment is manufactured, held for introduction in interstate commerce, or held for sale after introduction in interstate commerce” in order to “inspect with reasonable promptness that vehicle or equipment.” Federal officials may also “impound for not more than 72 hours that vehicle or equipment.”

“This change in President Obama’s new transportation bill, amends the part of the statute that has long given the agency authority to inspect records and obtain information from persons regulated under the CAFE, [medium-duty and heavy-duty] fuel efficiency, and new vehicle fuel economy labeling programs,” NHTSA told TheDCNF.

“Dealers are not directly subject to fuel economy requirements – fuel economy requirements apply to manufacturers of new vehicles,” NHTSA added.

As long as the money flows the blinders are on

In wake of Sterling scandal, NAACP leader is under scrutiny

By Angel Jennings
This post has been corrected. See the note below for details.
10:21 PM PDT, April 30, 2014

advertisement

The head of the Los Angeles Chapter of the NAACP is coming under scrutiny in the wake of the organization's decision to give awards to Donald Sterling.
The group granted Sterling an award in 2009, the same year the real estate magnate and L.A. Clippers owner paid $2.73 million to settle U.S. government claims that he refused to rent his apartments to Latinos and blacks in Koreatown. The chapter was set to give Sterling a second award when a recording emerged in which a man said to be Sterling asked a female friend not to publicly associate with African Americans.
Leon Jenkins, president of the NAACP branch, has been a focus of attention in recent days.
While a Detroit judge, Jenkins in 1988 was indicted on federal bribery, conspiracy, mail fraud and racketeering charges, according records from the State Bar of California.
Authorities at the time alleged that Jenkins received gifts from those who appeared in his court and committed perjury, the records show. He was acquitted of criminal charges. But in 1994 the Michigan Supreme Court disbarred him, finding "overwhelming evidence" that Jenkins "sold his office and his public trust," according to the bar records.
Jenkins was practicing law in California in 1991, serving as an attorney to the family of Latasha Harlins, an African American girl who was fatally shot by a Korean grocery store owner in South L.A., according to Times reports at the time.
In 1995, the state bar began looking into the misconduct allegations from Michigan. He was disbarred in 2001, according to the state bar. He tried to be reinstated in 2006 but was rejected, records show. He made another attempt in 2012.
Earlier this month, the bar turned him down, questioning whether he had the "moral fitness to resume the practice of law," according to records. The bar stated that he made misrepresentations on divorce papers and on his petition for reinstatement to the bar. Officials claimed he failed to disclose a $660,000 loan he owed former legal clients.
In his efforts to win back his law license, Jenkins said he was a rehabilitated man and a force for good in the community.
He said he's raised $2 million for the NAACP's 2011 national convention in Los Angeles. He also cited work with organizations that helped African Americans, including youth mentoring programs and voter outreach.
He presented 13 character witnesses to speak about his character and honesty.
Jenkins did not return calls seeking comment Thursday.
On the L.A. NAACP’s website, a biography for Jenkins notes he was “the youngest African American judge to serve in Michigan” but does not mention his legal troubles.
Details of Jenkins' history in Michigan were first reported Tuesday by Deadline Detroit and the Michigan Citizen.
Speaking to reporters Monday, Jenkins said he didn't cut ties with Sterling until now because the group was reluctant to make decisions based on rumors.
"We deal with the actual character of the person as we see it and as it is displayed," he said.
The NAACP tried to build partnerships with other sports franchises in Southern California, Jenkins added, but "his organization was the only one that really came to the front."
The chapter had recently been talking to Sterling about giving an endowment to Los Angeles Southwest College and donating more money to African American students at UCLA.
The chapter was prepared to honor Sterling at a gala in May. Newspaper ads for the event recently ran featuring photos of Sterling and Jenkins with the headline: "Two leaders. One unprecedented event."
In the wake of the controversy, an online petition was launched to suspend the L.A. chapter.

Racial violence. Will the aggressors face hate crime charges?

VIDEO: BLACK TEENS ASSAULT WHITE STUDENT ON SCHOOL BUS

This week near Dover, Delaware, a viral video appears to show another instance of black-on-white violence among high school students.

The shaky cell phone video shows a group of black teenage boys punching, knocking down, and kicking a white teenage boy, leaving him dazed and confused on the school bus floor.

The victim of the attack had been riding home from Parkway Academy School near Dover when the assault reportedly began. The video shows him sitting alone, facing front, when the attack begins from the rear – and continues from the side and the front of the school bus. "I didn't do nothing," he protests.

The student's uncle found out about the incident and spread the word on Facebook.

“This is a video of my nephew Alec being beaten by a group of teens on his bus ride home from school yesterday,” wrote Jonathan Guessford. “He was able to get off the bus at the next stop, 14 miles from his home. He went to the Magnolia Fire Hall and called the police.

“The bus driver failed to intervene AT ALL," Guessford continued. "She didn't stop the bus while the beating occurred. She didn't call the police and file a report. She didn't inform the administration that the beating occurred. Apparently, the bus driver called the school and stated that Alec left the bus early for no reason, according to the administrator that called my brother yesterday.”

The attack is part of a pattern of racial violence I have documented in White Girl Bleed a Lot: The Return of Racial Violence to America and How the Media Ignore It.

If you're a certain color you can say the nastiest things without fear.

Black congressman stands by comment that Clarence Thomas is an ‘Uncle Tom’

By Aaron Blake Updated: April 30 at 5:24 pm

Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) on Wednesday stood by his remark that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is an "Uncle Tom" and continued to suggest that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) opposition to President Obama is race-based.

In an interview with CNN, the Congressional Black Caucus member doubled down on his comments, first made over the weekend, that Thomas apparently "doesn’t like black people, he doesn’t like being black.” His comments were first reported by BuzzFeed.

"Well if you look at his decisions on the court, they have been adverse to the minority community, and the people I represent have a real issue with an African American not being sensitive to those issues," Thompson told Dana Bash.

Thompson cited Thomas siding with the conservative justices on the court -- of which he is a firm member -- upholding Voter ID laws and Michigan's ban on affirmative action. The court has also struck down part of the Voting Rights Act, which was first passed to prevent racial discrimination in elections.

"The people that I represent, for the most part, have a real issue with those decisions," Thompson said. "All those issues are very important and for someone in the court who's African American and not sensitive to that is a real problem."

Asked about McConnell's statement that his goal as GOP leader in the Senate was to make Obama a one-term president, Thompson wouldn't say flatly that it was racist but strongly pointed in that direction.

"I've never seen the venom put forth on another candidate or a president like I've seen with this president, and that's my opinion," Thompson said.

He added of McConnell: "I've never heard him say it to any other president."

The Islamization of Britain

Daily Mail: U.K. Subways Drop Bacon and Ham from Menu to Comply with Halal

By Andrew Johnson

Nearly 200 Subway restaurants across the United Kingdom no longer serve bacon or ham, and will instead serve only halal-prepared meat in an effort to “balance the values of many religious communities,” according to the Daily Mail.
Some 185 participating locations will replace the pork products with turkey versions, and notify customers of their compliance with the Islamic practice of preparing meat with signs reading, “All meats are Halal.”
A Subway spokeswoman told The Blaze that the menu option is part of an effort to “meet consumer demand in each location” and is not taking place in all of Subways in the U.K. (there are about 1,500 nationwide).
“The growing popularity of the Subway chain with the diverse multicultural population across the U.K. and Ireland means we have to balance the values of many religious communities with the overall aim of improving the health and welfare standards of animals,” she said.
The company has been changing its locations’ menus to comply with halal restrictions since 2007, the spokeswoman said, adding that getting rid of pork products at these restaurants was not a “sudden” change.
Halal preparations include requiring that the animal be slaughtered by someone who invokes the name of Allah before slitting the animal’s throat. All blood must be drained from its veins, among other requirements.

If it's not unusual does that make it acceptable?

Inspectors: Long waits at North Las Vegas VA hospital not unusual

The Veterans Administration is socialized medicine at work

Phoenix VA officials deny there's a secret wait list; doctor says they're lying

Editor's note: On April 23, CNN revealed accusations from a retired Veterans Administration doctor that the VA in Phoenix had a secret list for patients waiting for doctor appointments that differed from the official list. He said then that 40 veterans died waiting for care. This is a follow-up to that report.

Phoenix (CNN) -- The top officials at the Phoenix VA denied any existence of a secret waiting list in an in-depth interview with CNN on Tuesday, and they denied that delays in care caused the deaths of U.S. veterans at the facility.

But only hours after making these denials, the top VA physician who first appeared on CNN and brought the allegations to light declared that the VA officials are lying and that they are covering up what has happened in Phoenix.

Several other off-record sources inside the Phoenix VA agreed with Dr. Sam Foote.

Sources told CNN the managers at the VA concocted an elaborate scheme to cover up long wait times there. The sources said more than 1,400 vets were placed on the purported secret list and that documents were shredded to hide the evidence. According to sources, at least 40 U.S veterans died waiting for care at the facility, many of whom were on the list.

Deaths tied to VA hospital's secret list

Are we fulfilling our promise to veterans?

These issues raised in CNN's exclusive investigation have quickly drawn attention in Washington.

On Monday, President Barack Obama stated he has called for an investigation into what has happened in Phoenix.

"The moment we heard about the allegations around these 40 individuals who had died in Phoenix, I immediately ordered the secretary of Veterans Affairs, Gen. (Eric) Shinseki, to investigate," he said.

In recent days, numerous members of Congress have called for hearings on the Phoenix VA. At least three members of Congress have publicly called for the resignation of Sharon Helman, the Phoenix VA director.

VA leaders: We've never ordered a secret list

But in an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Helman and her chief of staff, Dr. Darren Deering, denied any secret effort to cover up or hide wait times.

"We have never instructed our staff to create a secret list, to maintain a secret list, to shred a secret list -- that has never come from our office as far as instruction to our staff," said Deering.

"It's never come from me," added Helman.

Only hours later, watching Helman and Deering make those statements to CNN, Foote shook his head in disbelief.

"Are you kidding?" asked Foote incredulously.

The 24-year VA physician and clinic director, who recently retired and went public with the details of the list, went on the air publicly for the first time with CNN one week ago.

Retired VA doctor: There's a secret wait list in Phoenix

"They started this secret list in February of 2013," Foote continued. "At some time, they changed over from paper to electronic, in early summer, maybe approximately June or July. And transferred names over to the electronic waiting list. And she [Helman] was called on an ethics consult evaluation about that -- it's written down, documented in July."

The e-mails Foote referred to were reported by CNN in its original Phoenix VA story last week. The e-mails from July 2013 show that top management, including Helman, were well-aware about the actual wait times, knew about the off-the-books list and even defended its use to her staff.

In one internal Phoenix VA e-mail, dated July 3, 2013, one staffer raises concerns about the secret electronic list and that officials are praising its use:

"I have to say, I think it's unfair to call any of this a success when Veterans are waiting 6 weeks on an electronic waiting list before they're called to schedule their first PCP appointment," the e-mail states. "Sure, when their appointment is created, it's can be 14 days out, but we're making them wait 6-20 weeks to create that appointment."

The e-mail adds: "That is unethical and a disservice to our Veterans."

Repeated requests for interview denied

For nearly three weeks, CNN had been requesting an interview with Helman, asking her to respond to the allegations about the secret wait list and the charge that more than 40 U.S. veterans died waiting for medical care from her facility.

CNN's requests were repeatedly denied. On Monday, a team from CNN Investigations tried to ask Helman questions as she walked out of the VA building in the parking lot.

The director had parked in an "emergency vehicles only" space outside the facility's ER entrance. She left the building surrounded by armed police who held the CNN team back. She climbed into her Mercedes sports coupe and drove off without saying a word.

But barely an hour after that parking lot rebuff, aides to Helman called and offered an on-camera interview with her.

In the interview Tuesday morning, the Phoenix VA director admitted that veterans on the waiting list did die, but she said she did not know any names of those veterans who had died waiting for care. She said the question of whether veterans had died waiting for care are now being investigated by the VA Inspector General's Office.

"Those are the allegations that we've asked the office of inspector general to review," Helman stated.

Helman and Deering were pressed about whether they had direct knowledge about allegations of document shredding and a secret list.

"Again those allegations are ones that the office of Inspector General are reviewing right now. When we heard about this during the House Veterans Affairs Committee, is the first time we have heard about those allegations, and that is why we asked the Office of Inspector General to come in and do a thorough and impartial review," Helman said.

The hearing to which she referred was held on April 9.

However, the Office of the Inspector General has been investigating the Phoenix VA since the fall of 2013, when it first learned allegations of secret lists and the 40 deaths in September.

Foote's warnings to the Inspector General

Last year and earlier this year, Foote sent letters to officials at the VA Office of the Inspector General. His letters contained details about the secret electronic waiting list and about the large number of veterans who died waiting for care, many hidden on the secret list.

As a result of Foote's letters, inspectors went to Phoenix and have been actively pursuing allegations that Helman and her staff did have a secret list specifically created to hide that veterans had been waiting up to 21 months for care.

Multiple sources inside the Phoenix VA tell CNN that under direction of management, evidence of the list was shredded and that at least 40 veterans, some of whom were on that list and waiting for care, died before getting an appointment. Those sources say Helman and Deering knew about it because it was their plan.

Foote and several other sources inside the Phoenix VA confirmed to CNN that inspectors have interviewed them about these allegations months ago.

On Tuesday, despite insisting she just recently learned of the allegations, Helman did admit that inspectors interviewed her in December.

"They don't tell us what the allegations are surrounding their investigation," said Helman. "I can just confirm that yes, they were here in December."

When asked directly whether evidence of wait times was shredded and whether the secret list existed, Deering stated:

"I think there is some confusion amongst our staff. When we came on as a leadership team in 2012, the practice at that time was that they would schedule new veterans who would were coming in for care way out into the future. Sometimes a year, sometimes 14 months. And that was the appointment that that veteran was given.

"As we started to tackle our challenges of access, we implemented a tool that the VA uses nationally called the electronic wait list. And what that tool is it's an electronic waiting list that allows us to everyday look to see who is waiting for an appointment.

"So what we did is we took those patients that were scheduled way out into the future, and we put them on this national tool that the VA uses so that we could track them. What that did is, rather than having an appointment 14 months out into the future, it put them on this EWL electronic waiting list, so that when we had an appointment that came open, so if a veteran called next week and canceled their appointment, we could pull a veteran off this list and get them into that slot.

"So it actually improved the probability of these veterans getting an appointment sooner. And in that transition time, I think there was some confusion among staff, I think there were some folks who did not understand that, and I think that's where these allegations are coming from.

"But like Miss Helman said, we take them very seriously and that is why we have invited the office of inspector general to come in and do an investigation: A thorough and unbiased investigation and get to the bottom of this. And we look forward to their report."

Director: I share the same concerns of my staff

Helman was asked about the numerous sources -- some in tears -- who have told CNN that patients have died waiting on these lists and the wait list and the wait times were being hidden from the overseers in Washington or the region.

"What we are saying is that we implemented the electronic wait list, and any concerns that staff have, I share in those same concerns," Helman said. "And that is why we've asked the Office of Inspector General to come in and look at that."

Asked whether VA officials have found cases where veterans were on the waiting list and have died, Deering said:

"Yes, and that is, um, in the course of health care delivery we have patients who unfortunately pass away. We have found veterans on the list who have died, but we have not been able to connect their death to the delay in getting their care."

When CNN asked again whether Helman knew about 40 veterans who died while waiting for care at the Phoenix VA, she stated:

"I think that's a question for the Office of Inspector General. They came in December and did a site review, and they were here last week, so I believe that's a question for them."

Foote, along with several sources inside the VA, say there is no confusion. They say the secret list existed and veterans died.

Asked whether he was backing down from his allegations, Foote said, "no sir."

When Foote was asked whether what Helman and Deering said was false, Foote said, "I would say so, yes."

When asked whether he still believes that 40 or more U.S. veterans died waiting for care at the Phoenix VA, Foote stated said, "That number may be as high as 45 now."

And when asked again what he thought about Helman and Deering stating there was no secret waiting list and that no one shredded any evidence of a waiting list, Foote said, "I don't believe that's true."

CNN has spoken with several other sources inside the VA, who agree with Foote that Helman and Deering are not telling the truth.

No plans to resign

Helman, reminded that Obama has asked for an investigation and that three member of Congress have asked for her resignation, indicated she plans to stay put.

"I tell you right now the office of Inspector General is here and reviewing all of the allegations, and as the leader of this organization, I am going to continue to provide the best health care that these veterans deserve and have earned. "

Regarding the details about the electronic wait list, Deering added: "We use an electronic system in the VA health system for our records for our appointment system. Previously, those appointments were scheduled in the electronic database out into the future, our scheduling database."

Deering further addressed why appointments were scheduled so far out into the future:

"Because that's when we had availability two years ago. ... And now it's 55 days. And that improvement over the last two years is the result of assigning resources, we have hired more physicians and nurses and clerks and expanded our clinic times on weekends and evenings. We've expanded out infrastructure. We've opened a new 60,000 square feet clinic in the south side of the valley. We are continuing to expand to meet those demands."

After the Inspector General team went to Phoenix in December, the investigation seemed to have stalled, until Foote went public with his interview last week.

Foote and others have openly wondered whether officials in upper VA management might have or could have held back the investigation until it was such big news it had to move ahead again.

CNN has also learned the investigation may now be expanding and that it is no longer looking just at veterans who died waiting for initial care but also is looking into veterans who died waiting for return care or follow-up appointments that they could not get.

Mr. Snowdon is right

Snowden Bashes Clapper, Offers Advice to Would-Be Whistleblowers

NSA leaker says 'every citizen has a duty to resist' unethical government actions.

Exiled whistleblower Edward Snowden accepted the Ridenhour Prize for truth-telling Wednesday, given in celebration of his disclosure of the National Security Agency’s massive phone and Internet surveillance programs.

“A year ago there was no way I could have imagined being honored in this room,” Snowden told an audience at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., via a choppy video feed from Russia. “I realized the most likely outcome [of giving classified documents to the press] was that I would spend the rest of my life in prison.”

“We haven’t won the day … but we will get there,” he said.

Danielle Brian, a member of the selection committee, prefaced his speech by saying some people associated with the prize were “uncomfortable” with giving it to Snowden.

“I’m certainly not one of those who is uncomfortable,” declared investigative author James Bamford as he took over the introduction.

[READ: Lights Out for NSA? Md. Lawmakers Seek to Cut Off Agency HQ]

Before Snowden’s leaks, Bamford said, the intelligence community had nearly relapsed to its abuse practices during the reign of former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. The NSA was a “runaway surveillance train,” he said.

Now, the electronic spy agency once jokingly referred to as “No Such Agency” is known as “Not Secret Anymore” among NSA workers, Bamford said, citing confidential sources.

Throughout his acceptance speech Snowden hammered Director of National Intelligence James Clapper for lying to Congress on March 12, 2013, about whether the NSA was collecting information on millions of Americans.

Snowden said he asked a co-worker at the time why nobody would expose the truth, and co-worker told him, “Do you know what happens to people who do?”

The whistleblower said it was ironic that he faced three felony charges within 24 hours of revealing his identity while the perjurious spy boss wasn’t punished, and contrasted his violation of an employment contract with Clapper’s oath-breaking.

[ALSO: Rand Paul's NSA Lawsuit May Be Heard Alongside Klayman's]

“We watch our own people more closely than any population in the world,” Snowden said. “That is not hyperbole.”

He repeated a previous claim that he could tap the phone of anyone – even the president – if he was provided a personal email address.

Laura Poitras, the documentary filmmaker who disseminated documents that Snowden leaked, was also honored.

“I’d like to share this award with my beloved colleague Glenn Greenwald,” she said, also via video feed. Poitras and Greenwald, formerly of The Guardian, are reportedly the only people will access to the complete trove of Snowden-leaked documents.

In April 2013, Poitras recalled, she received an email from Snowden saying he planned to claim credit after the press reported his leaks. Two months later – after the bombshells dropped about the NSA collecting all American phone records and directly accessing information from major U.S. technology companies – he did so before flying from Hong Kong to Moscow.

[MORE: 10K Encrypted 'Snowden Phones' Sold in 12 Hours]

Following their speeches, Bamford, Snowden and Poitras took turns asking each other questions.

Bamford asked Snowden to give advice to future NSA whistleblowers.

SEE PHOTOS

Editorial Cartoons on the NSA

“If they’re going to do it they better have encryption,” he said, and avoid using their home IP address. “Ideally, work with Congress in advance to make sure we have reformed laws and better protections.”

“Every citizen has a duty to resist” government actions that are immoral or unethical, Snowden said. He then asked Poitras for her opinion on whether the NSA should be divided into two parts, one offensive and one defensive.

“If we were to separate those things I’m not sure what oversight we’d have,” she responded.

Snowden also asked Poitras how confident she was in the House and Senate intelligence committees' capability to reform the NSA, compared to the chambers’ respective judiciary committees.

Russia back to the good old Soviet days

Moscow revives Red Square May Day parade

MOSCOW - Tens of thousands of Russians marched through Red Square on Thursday as part of May Day celebrations in the first such display of Soviet-era-like ceremony since 1991 - the year the communist Soviet Union dissolved.

"For the first time, stages will be filled, and 5,000 (labor) veterans will stand on the tribunes of Red Square," Sergei Chernov, chairman of the Moscow Labor Union Federation, was quoted by ITAR-Tass as saying, ahead of the march, which is being seen as part of President Vladimir Putin's efforts to stoke patriotic feelings following Russia's annexation of Crimea.

As many as 2 million people were expected to be on hand for the event organized by Russian labor unions, which are mostly loyal to the Kremlin. In the end, about 100,000 people participated in the celebration, some holding signs saying: "Let's go to Crimea for vacation" and "Putin is right." Russian flags fluttered through the crowd.

Moscow's Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, whose City Hall approved the measure, led the procession.

Earlier, he assured people it would not be a return to Soviet times.

"I can say that there won't be famous statesmen standing on the Mausoleum (like in the Soviet Union)," ITAR-Tass quoted him as saying.

May Day was celebrated with massive rallies on Red Square during the days of the Soviet Union as a commemoration of labor. Red posters glorifying the working man were carried aloft past members of the Soviet Politburo, the unelected leaders of the state, who stood atop the mausoleum housing the body of the Russian revolutionary and the first Soviet leader, Vladimir Lenin.

The Red Army marched past in lockstep, and trucks laden with ICBMs were paraded past the crowds in a show of might to the world.

But after the collapse of communism here 23 years ago the annual parade gave way to less political festivities. The Communist Party and smaller leftist groups still held rallies, but they never regained the stature of the old days.

Many Muscovites customarily used to leave the city ahead of May 1 since it is a holiday. Road blocks and traffic disruptions are common.

More pompous in recent years has been the Victory Day on May 9, commemorating the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

This year's May Day parade comes against a backdrop of patriotism mixed with repression in the wake of Russia's annexation of Ukraine's breakaway republic of Crimea last month.

While Moscow's City Hall authorized several political marches on May 1, including a march by ultra-nationalists, it refused to grant permission to the liberal opposition to Putin to hold a protest rally on May 6, citing preparations for the Victory Day Parade.

Russia's Kommersant newspaper reported that a Defense Ministry source says Putin may celebrate the day in the Ukraine province of Crimea, which was taken over by the Russian military in what the West calls an illegal invasion.

What kind of country have we become with "secret warrants"

The heavy hand of the IRS seizes innocent Americans’ assets

By George F. Will, 

Flint, Mich.
Earnest moralists lament Americans’ distrust of government. What really is regrettable is that government does much to earn distrust, as Terry Dehko, 70, and his daughter Sandy Thomas, 41, understand.
Terry, who came to Michigan from Iraq in 1970, soon did what immigrants often do: He went into business, buying Schott’s Supermarket in Fraser, Mich., where he still works six days a week. The Internal Revenue Service, a tentacle of a government that spent $3.5 trillion in 2013, tried to steal more than $35,000 from Terry and Sandy that year.
Sandy, a mother of four, has a master’s degree in urban planning but has worked in the store off and on since she was 12. She remembers, “They just walked into the store” and announced that they had emptied the store’s bank account. The IRS agents believed, or pretended to believe, that Terry and Sandy were or conceivably could be — which is sufficient for the IRS — conducting a criminal enterprise when not selling groceries.
What pattern of behavior supposedly aroused the suspicions of a federal government that is ignorant of how small businesses function? Terry and Sandy regularly make deposits of less than $10,000 in the bank across the street. Federal law, aimed primarily at money laundering by drug dealers, requires banks to report cash deposits of more than $10,000. It also makes it illegal to “structure” deposits to evade such reporting.
Because 35 percent of Schott’s Supermarket’s receipts are in cash, Terry and Sandy make frequent trips to the bank to avoid tempting actual criminals by having large sums at the store. Besides, their insurance policy covers no cash loss in excess of $10,000.
In 2010 and 2012, IRS agents visited the store and examined Terry’s and Sandy’s conduct. In 2012, the IRS notified them that it identified “no violations” of banking laws. But on Jan. 22, 2013, Terry and Sandy discovered that the IRS had obtained a secret warrant and emptied the store’s bank account. Sandy says that if the IRS had acted “the day before, there would have been only about $2,000 in the account.” Should we trust that today’s IRS was just lucky in its timing?
The IRS used “civil forfeiture,” the power to seize property suspected of being produced by, or involved with, crime. The IRS could have dispelled its suspicions of Terry and Sandy, if it actually had any, by simply asking them about the reasons — prudence, and the insurance limit — for their banking practices. It had, however, a reason not to ask obvious questions before proceeding.
The civil forfeiture law — if something so devoid of due process can be dignified as law — is an incentive for perverse behavior: Predatory government agencies get to pocket the proceeds from property they seize from Americans without even charging them with, let alone convicting them of, crimes. Criminals are treated better than this because they lose the fruits of their criminality only after being convicted.
Sandy remembers her father exclaiming, “Aren’t we in the United States? We did nothing wrong.” They did something right in discovering the Institute for Justice’s activities against civil forfeiture abuse. IJ, a libertarian defender of property rights and other American premises, says that what was done to Terry is done routinely across the nation — indeed, it was done almost simultaneously to the owner of a gas station near Schott’s Supermarket who deposited his cash receipts whenever he could get to the bank, typically every few days.
Civil forfeiture proceeds on the guilty-until-proven-innocent principle, forcing property owners of limited means to hire lawyers and engage in protracted proceedings against a government with limitless resources just to prove their innocence. Says IJ:
“To make matters worse, forfeiture law treats property owners like random bystanders and requires them to intervene in the lawsuit filed by the government against their property just to get it back. That is why civil forfeiture cases have such unusual names, such as United States v. $35,651.11 in U.S. Currency — the case involving Terry and Sandy.”
In what it probably considered an act of unmerited mercy, the IRS offered to return 20 percent of Terry’s money. Such extortion — pocketing others people’s money — often succeeds when the IRS bullies bewildered people not represented by IJ, which forced the government to return all of Terry’s and the gas station owner’s money.
IJ’s countersuit seeks an injunction to prevent such IRS thefts and extortions. Meanwhile, earnest moralists might consider the possibility that Americans’ distrust of government is insufficient.

Read more from George F. Will’s archive or follow him on Facebook.
Read more on this topic: George F. Will: Judicial activism isn’t a bad thing George F. Will: The IRS’s behavior taxes credulity Dana Milbank: From Obamacare to the IRS scandal, Republicans are ignoring the facts Gary D. Bass and Diana Aviv: Treasury and IRS rules on nonprofits’ political activity miss the mark Darrell Issa and Dave Camp: The IRS scandal’s inconsistencies

Lost rights and the death of the Constitution

Supreme Court: Pennsylvania cops no longer need a warrant to search citizens’ vehicles

By BRETT HAMBRIGHT | Staff Writer 

Pennsylvania police officers no longer need a warrant to search a citizen’s vehicle, according to a recent state Supreme Court opinion.

The high court’s opinion, released Tuesday, is being called a drastic change in citizens’ rights and police powers.

Previously, citizens could refuse an officer’s request to search a vehicle. In most cases, the officer would then need a warrant — signed by a judge — to conduct the search.

That’s no longer the case, according to the opinion written by Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery.

The ruling, passed on a 4-2 vote, was made in regard to an appeal from a 2010 vehicle stop in Philadelphia.

Local police and legal professionals are calling the opinion “big news.”

“This is a significant change in long-standing Pennsylvania criminal law, and it is a good one,” Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman said Wednesday afternoon.

Under prior law, an officer who smells marijuana inside a car, for example, could only search the car with the driver’s consent — or if illegal substances were in plain view.

(Federal officers, like FBI or ATF agents, can search, regardless.)

Now, based on the opinion, it only takes reasonable probable cause for an officer to go ahead with a search without a warrant.

“The prerequisite for a warrantless search of a motor vehicle is probable cause to search,” McCaffery writes in the opinion. “We adopt the federal automobile exception... which allows police officers to search a motor vehicle when there is probable cause to do so...”

Previously, a warrantless search was only allowed if “exigent circumstances” existed, the opinion states.

“This case gives the police simpler guidelines to follow and (it) finally and clearly renders our law consistent with established federal law,” Stedman said.

“It is a ruling that helps law enforcement as they continue to find people in possession of illegal drugs,” New Holland police Lt. Jonathan Heisse said Wednesday.

While police rejoice over what’s been a lasting issue, citizens might not be as thrilled.

“It’s an expanding encroachment of government power,” defense attorney Jeffrey Conrad said Wednesday morning, while reviewing the 62-page opinion. “It’s a protection we had two days ago, that we don’t have today. It’s disappointing from a citizens’ rights perspective.”

Christopher Patterson, another veteran defense lawyer, said: “I am concerned that we are on a slippery slope that will eliminate personal privacy and freedom in the name of expediency for law enforcement.”

Shiem Gary filed the Philadelphia appeal, arguing that police didn’t have probable cause to search his vehicle on Jan. 15, 2010. Officers found two pounds of marijuana stashed under the vehicle’s hood.

Lancaster defense attorney Michael Winters noted that police still need good reasons to pull over a vehicle and conduct a search.

“This does not mean that they may search every vehicle they stop,” Winters said. “They must still develop probable cause before they are permitted to search your vehicle without a warrant.”

In the Gary case, probable cause for the vehicle stop was window tint the officers believed to be illegal. Officers smelled marijuana and asked about it; Shiem then told an officer there was “weed” in the vehicle. A search ensued.

“This case does not eliminate the need for the police to have probable cause to search,” Stedman said.

The district attorney said the ruling puts Pennsylvania in line with federal law and many other states.

Locals stressed that probable cause to stop a vehicle does not equate with probable cause to search it.

A driver can still refuse if an officer asks for consent to search a car. The officer can then only search if he/she has probable cause to do so, or a warrant. A driver refusing consent, alone, does not give a police officer probable cause to search.

Christopher Lyden, another local defense lawyer, believes if an officer wants to search a vehicle without consent, they should have to get approval from a judge — as they do in searches of homes.

“Judicial oversight of vehicle searches, just like residential searches,” he said, “helps maintain a free society.”

Chief Supreme Court Justice Ronald D. Castille and Justices J. Michael Eakin and Thomas G. Saylor joined McCaffery in the majority.

Justices Debra McCloskey Todd and Max Baer opposed it.

Push the red button and become a citizen...some sealed borders

Desert rescue beacons let immigrants call for help

PHOENIX (AP) -- Thorn-coated bushes, rock-covered terrain, scorching temperatures. A hissing rattlesnake.

These are just few of the many perils Mexican migrants crossing the Southern Arizona desert encounter every day. And far more of them will attempt to cross this summer, the U.S. Border Patrol predicts.

The agency unveiled its plans Wednesday for dealing with the problem of immigrants dying in the desert, including 10 new beacons that allow migrants to call for help at the push of a red button. The agency is also adding new hoisting systems on helicopters to rescue immigrants.

Officials from the Tucson sector on Wednesday gave reporters, government officials and immigration activists a demonstration of the latest tools they have to assist those who cross from Mexico into Arizona and get injured or dehydrated and cannot continue walking. The demonstration was held 20 miles north of the Sasabe port of entry to Mexico, southwest of Tucson, and included a nearly one-mile hike through rough terrain where migrants often cross.

The border patrol says it sees a steep increase in calls for help coming from its 22 beacons as the summer approaches.

"It's either they live or die. They make the call right away," agent Ricardo Cardiel said.

The beacons are 30-feet-tall and solar powered. They have sun reflectors and blue lights on top that are visible for 10 miles. The beacons have signs in three languages that direct users to push a red button that sends out a signal for help. Response times vary from 10 minutes to an hour depending on where the nearest agents are located.

Agents found 194 bodies and rescued 802 people in the desert in fiscal year 2013. There have been about 38 deaths this year, Tucson sector chief Manuel Padilla, Jr., said. The Tucson sector covers 262 miles along the Arizona-Mexico border.

The border patrol has launched a campaign to inform potential migrants of the dangers they'll encounter crossing the Sonoran Desert.

During a nearly one-mile hike through a tree-covered area used by migrants, reporters encountered rough terrain, bushes coated in thorns and even a hissing rattlesnake.

An old backpack, jacket and what one border agent called "chanclas" - Spanish slang for shoes - littered the way. Temperatures in the summer average about 113 degrees, officials say, although Wednesday was breezy and cool.

Juanita Molina, executive director of Human Borders, Inc., a humanitarian group, says the border patrol's efforts are greatly needed. Although migrant crossings have decreased over the last few years, the percentage of people who die attempting to cross has increased from about 150 a year to nearly 200 last year.

"I think that everything we can do to bring awareness to the deaths in the desert is absolutely critical," she said.

© 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

--

Border Patrol to show off desert rescue beacons

PHOENIX (AP) -- U.S. Border Patrol officials plan to show off the agency's latest technology in rescue towers that are placed in remote desert regions across the Southwest.

The beacons are placed along routes commonly traveled by immigrants trying to cross into the U.S. illegally from Mexico. If they find themselves in a dangerous predicament, the person can press a button on the tower that alerts authorities of their location.

Border Patrol officials specially trained in rescue and medical operations then respond.

The agency plans a media event for Wednesday morning in the desert south of Tucson to highlight the dangers immigrants face when crossing rugged, remote terrain in sometimes triple-digit heat while also facing potential abuse or worse at the hands of smugglers.