With her husband Marc in jail, Jodie Emery, a Green Party candidate in the next federal election, will inherit his cannabis empire During the months while he awaited news of his extradition to the United States, parades of well-wishers regularly marched through Marc Emery's Cannabis Culture Headquarters in Vancouver. They wound their way to the modest office at the rear of the Hastings Street store, in search of the infamous crusader for the legalization of marijuana. Marc greeted them all, and offered most a trophy: a photo of themselves doing a bong hit with the Prince of Pot. He would produce an oosik-sized instrument, pack it with potent BC bud, and orchestrate the snapshot with a practised patter: inhale, smile, shoot! [continues 985 words]
The U.S. Border Patrol helped aim the gun that killed Esequiel Hernandez Jr. near the Texas-Mexico border. That's the conclusion of a scathing report on the 1997 shooting by U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio. Smith's 249-page report concluded that the surveillance mission was poorly conceived and hastily planned. The young Marine who killed Hernandez was untrained and misinformed. And there was shockingly little communication between local Border Patrol agents and the Marines ostensibly working under their supervision. "The Marines' unreadiness was compounded by a lack of training and support from the Border Patrol," Smith said in a prepared statement. "For example, the Marines were not told that innocent civilians in this part of the country often carry weapons and are wary of intruders. ... The Marines were not told that their observation post was located near a number of family homes, including the Hernandez home. They were not told that Hernandez regularly brought his goats to the Polvo Crossing area." [continues 179 words]
On the day he died, Esequiel Hernandez Jr. took his goats to the river. He led them from their makeshift pens of wire and branch, then shooed them down the dusty lane. They wandered past the ruins of the Spanish mission, through the abandoned U.S. Army post, and down a stony bluff to the Rio Grande. When he reached the crest of the bluff, Hernandez stopped. Behind him lay the mud-red adobe homes and melon-green alfalfa fields of Redford, Texas. Before him stretched the Chihuahuan desert, Texas' vast gravel backyard, speckled with squat greasewood bushes and whip-like ocotillo plants. Except for Hernandez, whose goats brought him here late each afternoon, the residents of the little oasis rarely ventured into this no man's land. [continues 2947 words]
con't Pt. 2 Wrong Place, Wrong Time In fact, they didn't need to be there -- at least not in May. A decade's worth of federal statistics prove it: More than 85% of all illegal drugs entering the United States arrive via official Ports of Entry monitored by the Customs Service. Most come concealed within legitimate cargo. Nearly 100% of all heroin shipped to the United States last year flowed through official ports, according to federal estimates, and 99% of the methamphetamine tumbled through those same ports. [continues 3378 words]
The El Paso-based professor explains how "complex international issues such as undocumented immigration and illegal drug trafficking are reduced to one-sided, domestic border-control problems, and framed as threats to national security, which in turn require strong law enforcement, or even military responses." Even as Banuelos was struggling to prepare his team for mission JT414-97A, U.S. Rep. James Traficant, D-Ohio, was pushing a 1997 bill that would have put 10,000 troops on the U.S.-Mexican border. Traficant reintroduced the troop plan this year, and tore a page from Dunn's book when he said on the House floor: "The border is a national security issue, and, by God, the Congress of the United States better start securing our borders." The House passed the Ohio congressman's amendment in June, along with proposals for bigger fences, fancier technology and more agents along the border. The Senate nixed the Traficant plan, but moved to swell the ranks of the Border Patrol from 6,200 to more than 20,000 agents. [continues 2880 words]
Part 1: On the day he died, Esequiel Hernandez Jr. took his goats to the river. He let them from their makeshift pens of wire and branch, then shooed them down the dusty lane. They wandered past the ruins of the Spanish mission, through the abandoned U.S. Army post and down a stony bluff to the Rio Grande. When he reached the crest of the bluff, Hernandez stopped. Behind him lay the mud-red adobe homes and melon-green alfalfa fields of Redford. Before him stretched the Chihuahuan desert, Texas' vast gravel backyard, speckled with squat greasewood bushes and whip-like ocotillo plants. Except for Hernandez, whose goats brought him here late each afternoon, the residents of the little oasis rarely ventured into this no-man's-land. [continues 3663 words]
