Now that the war in Iraq is won, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton need to turn to the most significant terrorist threat facing the United States. And it's not Afghanistan. It's Mexico. Mexico is creeping closer to becoming a narco-state. President Felipe Calderon is the latest in a series of Mexican chief executives to take on the country's five major drug criminal syndicates. Two years into his campaign, he's been extraordinarily effective. Yet his success against the Gulf cartel, one of the most powerful, has contributed to Mexico's instability. [continues 597 words]
North Carolina has a cop problem. This is how bad it is. Up until this year, when flashing blue lights showed up in my rear-view mirror or rolled down my street, I went through a mental checklist of what I might have done wrong. No more. In light of recent history, if a siren is meant for me, I fear for my safety. I take no joy in writing these words. I admire cops. A nephew is a Phoenix, Ariz., beat cop. When people claim a law enforcement officer has roughed them up, my gut reaction is to think the perps probably deserved it. The guff that patrol officers endure from citizens of every economic class is way beyond what you and I would put up with. [continues 610 words]
(BERRIEN SPRINGS) -- Andrews University has received a $978,000 grant to study illegal drug use by teen-agers as part of a partnership looking at ways to reduce youth substance abuse, university officials announced Wednesday. Andrews is joining in a five-year, $13.6 million national study administered by the University of Illinois at Chicago Health Research and Policy Centers already under way. The study is being done through ImpacTeen, a partnership seeking to reduce youth substance abuse and funded by the New Jersey-based Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. [continues 519 words]
