MANCHESTER - Parents can learn more about the music their children are listening to at a presentation tonight sponsored by Manchester DARE and the town housing authority. Dan frazell, a Bangor, Maine, police officer will give a presentation titled, "All In The Name of Rock 'n Roll" tonight from 6:30 To 9:30 In the Manchester high school auditorium. Manchester DARE officer Amy Morrotte said Frazell's goal is not censorship of music, but awareness. "He will talk about what parents should know about what's out there and what they can do." [continues 120 words]
VANCOUVER, March 25 (Reuters) - A Canadian photographer accustomed to shooting beautiful women and celebrities such as Noam Chomsky, Oliver Stone and Sarah McLachlan has become intoxicated with a subject that gives new meaning to the phrase "heroin chic." Lincoln Clarkes, 41, is training his lens on the women of Canada's worst drug ghetto, East Hastings Street in Vancouver, eight city blocks of heroin and crack users, prostitutes and pimps and urban decay unmatched anywhere in the country. Clarkes regularly drives his beat-up truck with broken windows several blocks from his studio, past a Chinese elementary school surrounded by a 10- foot (3 metre)-high fence, into the heart of heroin hell. [continues 981 words]
VANCOUVER, - Jane was a psychiatric nurse at Clark Institute of Psychiatry in Toronto for 10 years after she graduated from college in 1973 and embarked on what she thought was a promising career. But Jane, who had been sexually abused as a child, ended up for a time as a patient in the hospital where she worked before she ran away to Canada's west coast. There she found crack. "I came here (Vancouver) in '85 with one girl and had three more. Got divorced. He kept the kids 'cause he had lots of money and was more stable and I came down here 'cause I wanted a fix," she told Reuters on East Hastings street -- the city's drug haven -- her hands buried deep in her long coat. [continues 538 words]
Meriden - The future of one of the state's few long-term drug rehabilitation centers - considered one of the best in the nation - may be in jeapardy now that its plan to move to Meriden has been scrapped. "It's too bad, because I think it's a great program," developer James McGrire said of the Addiction Prevention Treatment Foundation. McGrire had planned to lease part of his downtown building, the former Veterans Memorial Medical Center, to the private nonprofit agency. [continues 346 words]
A top doctor at Nassau County Medical Center who oversaw medical care of inmates at the county jail among other duties was forced out Monday. Dr. Faroque A. Khan, chairman of the department of medicine for 12 years, "is no longer the chairman effective immediately," said Medical Director Dr. Anthony Angelo. The hospital's board of managers voted against renewing Khan's appointments both as chairman of medicine and as an attending physician at a meeting Monday. Angelo and other top officials said supervision of medical care at the county jail was a key issue. Another was Khan's focus on research and academic medicine at a time when the hospital's survival as a public benefit corporation depends on a more consumer-friendly style that will attract middle-class patients with private insurance. [continues 663 words]
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Much to the chagrin of pot-smoking teenagers and adults, Aurora Community Policing Officer Paul Lindley and his partner, Officer Clark Johnson, logged 1,000 miles in bicycle patrols on the far east side of Aurora last year. "We get a lot of marijuana off the bikes," Lindley said. "They have areas where they hide. We are more accessible to them than the patrol cars. We use our senses--sight and smell--to get them." One evening, Lindley and Johnson sneaked up on a group of young people who were drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana. Within five minutes, they had made 32 arrests on charges of underage drinking, marijuana possession and drug paraphernalia possession. Two cars were impounded as a result. [continues 668 words]
I read carefully the editorial titled ''Health Care: Science is needed'' about the medical marijuana study released by the Institute of Medicine. As an activist in this area, I have become intimate with this issue and the history involved. The editorial did little to become at least familiar with the facts surrounding the medicinal use of marijuana. There is some concern with the effect on the respiratory system when marijuana is smoked. However, it was not mentioned that smoking is not the only way to ingest marijuana. [continues 312 words]
Worker comp cases drop for 3rd year SPRINGFIELD, Ill., March 24 (UPI) - The number of worker compensation cases pending before the Illinois Industrial Commission is down for the third straight year. Commission Chairman John Hallock Jr. notes the caseload is about 6, 000 claims below 1995, when it reached a record high. Performance evaluations and temporary hiring of retired arbitrators have allowed for many cases to be resolved more quickly, or to get them to trial in a speedier manner. ``This accomplishment shows we are doing everything we can to address that concern,'' Hallock said. [continues 362 words]
WASHINGTON (AP) The Customs Service is investigating an incident in which a five-man Mexican military unit may have crossed into the United States near San Mogul, Ariz., while in pursuit of drug traffickers, the State Department said Wednesday. Spokesman James P. Rubin said shots were fired in the direction of a U.S. Customs officer. He said the Mexican military commander told U.S. Customs officers at the border crossing that his unit had captured two traffickers and seized a pickup load of marijuana at the border. The commander denied having crossed the border in pursuit of a second truck that escaped into the United States, Rubin said. [end]
WASHINGTON -- Banking regulators, responding to a public outcry over privacy concerns, scrapped proposed anti-money laundering rules Tuesday that would have tracked the transaction patterns of bank customers. The "Know Your Customer" rules were put out for public comment in December by four federal banking agencies. Since then, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. alone has received some 225,000 e-mail messages and letters, nearly all opposing the rules. Privacy advocates, conservative groups, ordinary people and the nation's bankers have complained that the rules would turn every bank teller into a spy for Big Brother. [continues 380 words]
