Sean Bucci got busted in 2003 for trafficking marijuana. A former high school classmate, a confidential informant working for the federal government, led authorities to Bucci's door. So Bucci decided to get even. He created a Web site called whosarat.com before he went to prison for 12 1/2 years. He featured his "snitch" as "Rat of the Week." The federal court system took notice. His Web site launched a debate about how much access the public should have to plea agreements -- documents that can reveal who is cooperating with the federal government. [continues 1144 words]
Fifth-graders in 14 Davenport schools are learning about drug abuse and violence prevention this year, as they have for many years, from a police officer with the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, or DARE. The program, which faced the city budget ax two years ago, now faces an uncertain future as the small group of volunteers who picked up the pieces wonder where the money will come from next year. So far, they've survived on leftover money, a grant from the Scott County Regional Authority and stipends from schools that chose to keep the program in their buildings. [continues 527 words]
The Bettendorf School District will no longer offer the Drug Abuse Resistance education, or DARE, program to its students, officials said Tuesday. DARE, which was offered in conjunction with the Bettendorf Police Department, is to be replaced with a district-developed effort that officials hope will incorporate a version of some of DARE's more popular aspects. That, Assistant Superintendent Carol Webb said, includes a graduation ceremony. School and police leaders have been talking for more than a year about whether to continue the nationally used program, said Phil Redington, the Bettendorf police chief. "DARE is a good program," he said. "It's lasted 15 years. But the timing is right now to look at other programs." [end]
The tubing, bottles, acid and empty pseudoephedrine packages found during the search of a house in Clinton, Iowa, were enough to make as many as 420 doses, or "hits" of methamphetamine. Four months later, one of the men making meth at the house was driving a car filled with fuel, batteries, acid and coffee filters when he was pulled over. That time, there were enough ingredients in the car to make 255 hits of meth, as the illegal substance is known. [continues 515 words]
Starting this school year, four students per week among those involved in extracurricular activities at Fulton (Ill.) High School will take a drug test. Every student at Alleman High School in Rock Island, as a condition of enrollment in the parochial school, submits a hair sample sometime throughout the school year to test for the drugs PCP, cocaine, ecstasy, marijuana, opiates and methamphetamine. United Township High School in East Moline is thinking of implementing a drug-testing policy. Half of the students at Orion (Ill.) High School stepped into a bathroom remodeled just for drug testing purposes last year to take the test that an increasing number of public and private Illinois high schools are implementing. [continues 650 words]
The lesson Friday at Bettendorf's Lourdes Catholic School was on assertiveness. How do you tell a friend she can't cheat off your test? How do you tell a friend he can't borrow your new bike? How do you tell a friend you don't want to smoke marijuana? Be assertive. Have eye contact. Stand your ground. Bettendorf police officer Kent Keeshan stood in front of Elizabeth Rathje's fifth-grade class and gave lesson No. 7 of the 17-week Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or DARE, curriculum. [continues 608 words]
