User-agent: * Allow: / Legal news, political opinion, Satire, and lawyer thinking by Tim Paynter, Attorney at Law: 2010-05-16

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Thursday, May 20, 2010

Arizona intimidates LA, ACC Gary Pierce threatens power cut to LA - support HB 1070 and racial profiling or we cut your electricity

 

Arizona is not content to intimidate the citizens inside it’s borders.  Now, it is attempting to intimidate the government and people within Las Angeles!

 

Gary Pierce is an Arizona commissioner on the five-member Arizona Corporation Commission which controls two hydro electric plants on the Colorado River.  The right wing Pierce responded to a decision by Las Angeles to join national boycotts of Arizona because the state passed Arizona HB 1070 which supports racial profiling of it’s citizens. 

In a nasty letter to LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigoso, Pierce suggested the State of Arizona cut off power to the city of Las Angeles.  Since LA gets 25 percent of it’s power from the Arizona power grid, chopping utilities would cause dire consequences.

 

Las Angeles City Council spokesman, David Beltran, said the threat by Pierce didn’t warrant a response. 

 

"We're not going to respond to threats from a state which has isolated itself from the America that values freedom, liberty and basic human rights," Beltran said on behalf of the city and Mayor Villaraigoso.

 

As it turns out, Gary Pierce is nothing more than a blow-hard.  The power commission does not have the authority to discontinue the power supply to Las Angeles.  His letter, however, is a signal about how desperate Arizona is becoming over the fall out of the Republican backed hate law, HB 1070.

 

Arizona HB 1070 requires law enforcement to check the immigration status of anyone they suspect may be in the state without documentation.  Citizens may sue law enforcement if a particular department is not adhering to the hate law.  Since most undocumented immigrants are ‘of color’ in Arizona, the law advocated by necessity racial profiling. 

Save our Sierras sends marijuana caretaker to the pokey for 10 years! Actions legal in Colorado

 

Heriberto Sicairos-Quintero of Gustine, California picked the wrong cabbage patch to tend.  According the United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner, Herbert got caught tending a plot of 7,000 cannabis plants in the Shaver Lake - Jose Basin area of the Sierra National Forest in Fresno County, California.

 

Apparently, Herbert was paid to look out after the cash crop and “cook the grow”.  He got busted when a volunteer team spotted the small field of mary jane on their way to reclaim another marijuana farm.  As they made their way to the first site, they spotted a field full of happy pot.  Upon investigation, they met 55 year old Heriberto on a path above the farm.  He had a pistol tucked into his pants.  Considering the value of the farm, one cannot tell if the pistol was to protect the pot or to protect Heriberto.

 

The case went all the way to trial.  On December 11th, the Herbierto got the bad news.  Guilty of manufacturing marijuana, aiding and abetting the manufacture of marijuana, and carrying a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

 

Last dance with mary jane
One more time to kill the pain
I feel summer creepin’ in and i’m
Tired of this town again  

Tom Petty

 

Growing cannabis is legal in the State of Colorado.  Sort of.  State law permits the cultivation and sale of the THC bearing plant.  It still remains illegal under federal law.  You can bet there will be a few test cases to find out whether growing pot under state law will hold up or be put down.  At any rate, Herbert chose the wrong cabbage patch to tend.  Next time Old McDonald has a farm, he might be better to choose one in Colorado!  Eee-i- eee-i--ohh!

 

Of course, the feds made a “federal case” out of the bust, involving the U.S. Forest Service, with assistance from the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Assistant United States Attorneys Ian L. Garriques, Kevin P. Rooney, and Karen A. Escobar prosecuted the case.

 

Personally, I am an anti-marijuana kind of guy.  I think it can be a gateway drug for some.  On the other hand, sending a cat to prison for 10 years in California when a grower in Colorado gets off free just does not seem fair.  I also believe when it comes to marijuana, consumption needs to be a personal decision.  It is not a gateway drug for many and has medicinal qualities other drugs lack.  Alcohol can also be a gateway drug.

 

There is the public lands angle to the case.  United States Attorney Wagner stated,

 

“The rampant cultivation of marijuana on remote public lands poses significant problems for the law enforcement community and threatens the public. Many growers have firearms and…damage ecosystems with excessive amounts of fertilizers, pesticides, and rodenticides, by diverting natural water sources, and by dumping trash and waste.”

 

Herbert got caught under Operation Save Our Sierras (SOS), a multi-agency marijuana eradication effort in Fresno County in the summer of 2009.  They picked up over 423,000 marijuana plants on public land in less than two weeks.  The federal government would rather spend money on sending a guy to federal prison rather than make money by taxing growers and leasing land.  Jose Basin near Shaver Lake, California, is not a great place for illegal plant farms.

 

 deputy regional forester beth pendeleton gil kerlikowske drug czar

Deputy regional forester Beth Pendleton

Gil Kerlikowske Drug Czar

Near Jose Basin, California

 

Operation SOS was sponsored by the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy and led by the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office with the participation of the U.S. Forest Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, National Park Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation, California National Guard, California Department of Justice Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, and California Department of Fish and Game.  That is a lot of man power that could be spent on border security or catching rapist and cocaine dealers.

 

Ten years in federal prison for gardening seems like a long stretch.  Maybe the grower deserved the sentence but the maintenance man?  Uncle Sam is very possessive about it’s garden patches and eradicating ‘rodenticides’ in the Sierras.  Welcome to Colorado!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Free Colorado Map, tourist guide, Colorado department of tourism – places to go in Denver, Co! Colorado.com, medical marijuana laws

 

 

Get your free Colorado vacation guide and maps at the above links!

This is a great state to visit!  There is a lot to do here, four wheel driving,

skiing, hiking, fishing, dancing, old west towns! 

Come C this spectacular state!

  • Obey the speed laws in Colorado. 
  • Small towns are especially vigilant!
  • You only have to have a .08 blood alcohol content to be considered driving under the influence of alcohol.  That is the equivalent of two beers for most people.
  • Colorado lakes are covered by ice most of the year.  When the ice thaws the water is freezing cold. 
  • Wear a life jacket and remain alert!
  • Colorado considers boating under the influence as a DUI.  Be careful when boating and watch your alcohol intake.
  • Colorado has a medical marijuana law.  To use or purchase marijuana you must have a doctor’s prescription. 
  •  
  • The law differs by the town, so be sure to check local ordinances.  Consumption of marijuana in public is not allowed!

 

Tim Paynter

Attorney at law

720.951.1700

 

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All guides from state

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I will soon be traveling to Texas for a spiritual convention!  San Antonio is a great city with tons of heritage!

 

I thought I would share this link for your free San Antonio and Texas tourist guides!

 

Compliments of the Texas Department of Tourism and this blog!

 

Texas tour guides – Free

 

down loadable maps!

San Antonio

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If you are traveling through

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Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Blake Robbins v. LMSD – Lynn Matsko, Phy webcam spying while eating Mike and Ike’s, was there a voyeur at Harriton High? Missing images and pics are suspicious!

It has been some time since we visited the matter of Blake Robbins in his battle against the Lower Merion School District ( LMSD ).  Before, I reported on how Pennsylvania school administrators used lap top spy cams to peer in student lives.  In Blake Robbins's case, the school caught the teen eating Mike and Ike’s candies.  Apparently, a peeping tom with bad eyesight interpreted the Mike and Ike’s to be prescription drugs.  Blake reportedly claims the school has pictures of him in the buff.

Some say the school caught young Blake doing un-natural things in the privacy of his bedroom.  Others say what he was doing was quite natural.  Eating Mike and Ike’s can’t be all that bad!  If the official investigation is accurate no nudity was caught.  Their exact words in footnote 129 are:

“Among all of the webcam photographs recovered in the investigation there are a number of photographs of males without shirts…None of the photographs contains what would commonly be considered ‘nakedness.’”
According to the on-line publication, Info Security, the school district likely caught the under-age youth in states of undress that go beyond just underwear.  More, the number of photos taken to identify a supposed computer burglar reportedly go far beyond those needed to catch a thief.  Info Security suggests LMSD might have as many as 400 photos, way more than it needed to see who had a “stolen lap top” that was never reported stolen.

I predicted the media coverage of the small Pennsylvania school would drop off the face of the Earth.  Then, the folks grabbing headlines, and the rest of the community, would soon be left to fend for themselves.  Things change a lot when the camera points another direction.  I urged LMSD to look for an immediate solution for the benefit of the students, faculty and town’s people, stricktly from my own point of view.  I guess they didn’t like my suggestion, or maybe they don’t like to read.

Was I right?  While things may have gone back to business as usual on the face of it, I suspect below the surface there is a smoldering fire!  What a tragic thing for a modern school and a great senior class!

I find the report from Ballar Spahr suspicious.  LMSD promptly posted it on their website for supporters to see.  That is an indication the “independent report” maybe was not so independent.  These are just thoughts, of course.  The true proof is in the pudding, or in the photographs the Plaintiff should eventually get.   Ahem, maybe that is photographs of plaintiffs.

How is it, hours of video were taken but nothing of a delicate nature was recorded?  How is it, images were purged from computers?  Why would anyone purge images of evidence of recovered or missing laptops? 

In fact, the Report recommends:

“Ensure that all images captured via the LANrev TheftTrack feature that are in the possession of the District or its agents are permanently destroyed promptly after the foregoing process and any litigation or governmental investigation that
requires the preservation of such images has concluded”

Locked away and secured is one thing.  Destroyed is another.  They don’t even destroy evidence in rape cases!

Then there is this jig-saw puzzle:

“Adopt as soon as practicable an official policy prohibiting the remote capturing of screenshots from computers issued to students (except to the extent that may be permitted by official policies and procedures governing the manner and circumstances in which District personnel may remotely access computers issued to students or review any data contained on computers issued to students)
That sounds like government double talk meaning, but if you do it again, fine.  Just hide it in the “policy”.

The report is also troubling because it fails to find adequate fault with those who let this powerful piece of peeping tom go unchecked, I think.  It dances around responsibility.  From my point of view, the solution to this case does not lie in the middle of the road, although some of the people involved want to walk that line. 

Assistant Vice Principal, Lyn Matsko, is pulling the traditional, “Not my fault” gig if the report in eweek.com is accurate.  Matsko reportedly said,

“I have never disciplined a student for conduct he or she engaged in outside of school property that is not in connection with school”

I am not sure what watching someone eat Mike and Ike’s in his underwear has to do with school, assuming there was really no watching of the “no nakedness”.   

It may turn out this is all-to-do-‘bout-nuttin.  I have no knowledge of the independent report or what LMSD saw when it peeped through the web cam of a school issued lap-top, or any other detail.  All this article contains is a point of view. 

I guess the jist is, if you have news of the Blake J. Robbins v LMSD case, I would love to hear from you.  I am speaking about student attitudes, school pride, how the community has been affected and how your confidence in your government was affected. 

I can’t speak for my fellow Americans but the case really hit a note with me.  Over-reaching by the people who are all-powerful is vicious.  It has led us to a country in which people are afraid to speak out.  Some have been held in jail without the right to go before a judge, much less speak to an attorney.  The notion of the Miranda rights has evaporated for a segment of the population in Arizona.  This is not the United States I knew as a kid!

Please know people from LMSD, I am in your court.  Most of us were young once and we were concerned about abusive government powers.  Sad to say, our generation has not done much to prevent government excesses.  We look to the future generation to safeguard basic human dignity and human rights.  That means Blake Robbins, the student body from Harriton High School in Rosemont, Pennsylvania, the Lower Merion School District, and all young people, protect your rights, keep your government in check.  This is a great lesson for the future leaders of the nation!  But it is a sad lesson indeed!

Conservatives lose opportunity for slam dunk on immigration, Shawn Hannity, Lou Dobbs and Bill O'Reily laugh

As Arizona passes stringent laws like Arizona HB 10710, requiring detention of undocumented workers and the proposed SB 1097, which requires reporting the children of undocumented workers, conservatives are losing a grand opportunity! Comprehensive immigration reform ( cir ) proposed to be placed in front of Congress is marginally beneficial to immigrants while strongly advocating for border security.  Now is a great time for conservatives to get exactly what they want.

HB 1070 has done what no immigrants right's activist has yet been able to do:  Bring the plight of millions of undocumented workers to the attention of the American public.  As the sleeping majority awaken, they are astounded at the stories of discrimination and unfair treatment they are hearing. 

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After 911, the only side to the immigration issue was the conservative radio and cable rhetoric like the Shawn Hannity show and Lou Dobbs and his broken borders anti-immigration campaign.  Most Americans are fair minded.  When armed with the facts, many of us, including staunch conservatives, say “but that is not right!”   The phrase "not right" means a variety of things. 

It is not right to require the state slogan by the state patrol to be “documents please”.  It is not right undocumented workers are on the road without insurance simply because they cannot get driver’s licenses

It is not right a woman with breast cancer cannot get treatment until she is on her death bed as applies in Colorado and Arizona.  It is not right children cannot get an education even when they were brought to the U.S. as tikes.  It is not right mothers are torn from their children and families are forced to fend for themselves when a father is deported to a foreign place. 

It is not right for the State of Arizona to advocate racial profiling of all people who “illegal”.  Don't worry, your local police department can tell the difference!

If conservatives want to drive the spike into the heart of the immigration reform movement the best thing they can do is support comprehensive immigration reform ( cir ).  Under the proposed law ( CIR ) the borders are secured, huge funding is provided for the safety of our nation’s sea ports and leagues of new border patrol agents are to be hired.  Subsequently, those who are here “without papers, please” can find a way to documentation after a lengthy period of 8 years and a hefty fine.  When totaled the fine could equal $3 billion to Uncle Sam.  That should be of interest to those who drink tea.  

You have to wonder what Jan Brewer, Tom Tancredo, Sheriff “little joe” Arpaio, tea party junkies, Shawn Hannity, Bill O’Reily as he factors in his fair and unbiased reporting, Lou Dobbs and his broken borders and the rest of the ultra conservative movement are thinking!

Failure to support comprehensive immigration reform ( CIR ) is a foolish error on the part of conservatives.  As time goes on, the pro-immigration movement grows stronger.  Immigration as “a wedge issue” is likely to cost Republicans votes in the November elections.  Unfortunately the conservative minority is so doubled over laughing over the tragic consequences of Arizona HB 1070 and 1097, they cannot see the gold in their own hands.  As goes the conservative minority so goes the Republican party.  Despiertase!

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Sunday, May 16, 2010

Alto Arizona presents a national day of action! May 29th, 2010! ARIZONA hb 1070 and sb 1097 attack minorities, main stream press takes view against immigrants! We can learn Civil disobedience through peaceful protest. Together we can change the course of hate in American history!

 

On May 29th, Arizona Protests

HB 1070 and SB 1097

Phoenix, Arizona!

 

CHIRLA helps sponsor this day in history!

Coalition for Humane Immigrants Rights Las Angeles

 

 

In looking at the top postings in a google search I was surprised to find the majority of the articles in support of the anti-immigrants rights movement!  Conservative talk radio like the Shawn Hannity show and Dan Kaplis show (in Denver, CO.) constantly bash immigrants and Comprehensive Immigration Reform ( CIR ).

 

Many of us in the Reform Immigration For America (RIFA) movement believe we must waken the conscience of fair minded people.  We do that by informing them of the plight of immigrant families that come here.  We do that by talking about what happens when we deny driver’s licenses to undocumented workers=they can’t get insurance and we can’t identify them; what happens when a family is ripped apart, dad sent to Mexico and mom and the kids left here.

 

What happens when unscrupulous employers take advantage of undocumented workers; what happens as in Arizona when a young girl is sexually molested and cannot approach the police for help because the entire family could be deported; what happens when a person is mistreated in an immigration detention facility and dies; what happens when an immigrant goes to immigration court and is not advised he has a right to legal counsel even though he does, and when the government is not required to give him all of the evidence it has against him! 

 

What happens when the laws are turned on you?  Your Miranda rights are at stake!  Basic justice and decency are at stake.  Children’s futures who might go to school and break the chain of poverty or who might be left on the streets, lured into gangs and end up in prison are at stake.

 

Racial profiling is wrong no matter how it is justified!

 

Come join the National Day of Action protests to let people know you stand up for justice and you won’t allow mistreatment and racial profiling in our country!  It does not matter what race you are or your ethnic background.  Every voice counts, every body=a voice, come be counted, come be part of history!

 

May 29th, Phoenix Arizona

and other cities throughout the nation!

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