WINCHESTER, Tenn. - The spacious home where the newly wed Rhonda and Jason Holt began their family in 2005 was plagued by mysterious illnesses. The Holts' three babies were ghostlike and listless, with breathing problems that called for respirators, repeated trips to the emergency room and, for the middle child, Anna, the heaviest dose of steroids a toddler can take. Holt, a nurse, developed migraines. She and her husband, a factory worker, had kidney ailments. It was not until February, more than five years after they moved in, that the couple discovered the root of their troubles: Their house, across the road from a cornfield in Winchester, 70 miles south of Nashville, was contaminated with high levels of methamphetamine left by the previous occupant, who was dragged from the attic by the police. [continues 866 words]
WINCHESTER, Tenn. -- The spacious home where the newly wed Rhonda and Jason Holt began their family in 2005 was plagued by mysterious illnesses. The Holts' three babies were ghostlike and listless, with breathing problems that called for respirators, repeated trips to the emergency room and, for the middle child, Anna, the heaviest dose of steroids a toddler can take. Ms. Holt, a nurse, developed migraines. She and her husband, a factory worker, had kidney ailments. It was not until February, more than five years after they moved in, that the couple discovered the root of their troubles: their house, across the road from a cornfield in this town some 70 miles south of Nashville, was contaminated with high levels of methamphetamine left by the previous occupant, who had been dragged from the attic by the police. [continues 999 words]
DOTHAN, Ala. -- The Rev. Kenneth Glasgow, onetime criminal and founder of a ministry called The Ordinary People Society, spent years helping people with criminal records regain the right to vote in Alabama, where an estimated 250,000 people are prohibited from voting because of past criminal activity. Then he discovered that many of them had never actually lost the right. Because of a quirk in its Constitution, Alabama disqualifies from voting only those who have committed a "felony involving moral turpitude." Those who have committed other felonies -- like marijuana possession or drunken driving -- can cast ballots even if they are still in prison, according to the state attorney general. [continues 1121 words]
ATLANTA -- After the fatal police shooting of an elderly woman in a botched drug raid, the United States attorney here said Thursday that prosecutors were investigating a "culture of misconduct" in the Atlanta Police Department. In court documents, prosecutors said Atlanta police officers regularly lied to obtain search warrants and fabricated documentation of drug purchases, as they had when they raided the home of the woman, Kathryn Johnston, in November, killing her in a hail of bullets. Narcotics officers have admitted to planting marijuana in Ms. Johnston's home after her death and submitting as evidence cocaine they falsely claimed had been bought at her house, according to the court filings. [continues 902 words]
ATLANTA -- A narcotics team that shot and killed an elderly woman while raiding her home lied to obtain the search warrant, one team member has told federal investigators, according to news reports confirmed by a person familiar with the investigation who requested anonymity. The officers falsely claimed that a confidential informant had bought $50 worth of crack at the house, the team member, Gregg Junnier, told the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mr. Junnier retired from the Atlanta Police Department last week. [continues 461 words]
The mayor of Jackson, Miss., was indicted on six felony charges Friday after months of criticism and warnings that his unorthodox crime-fighting tactics might put him on the wrong side of the law. Among the counts now faced by the mayor, Frank Melton, are burglary, malicious mischief, illegally carrying a gun and causing a minor to commit a felony. The most serious of the charges against him carry sentences of up to 25 years, said the local district attorney, Faye Peterson. [continues 397 words]
The image is lurid even by today's standards: a young woman kneels on a bathroom floor, head over the toilet, then stands, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "Sound familiar?" asks a voice with muted Welsh vowels. "If so, you may have bulimia. You cannot flush away your problems. It won't go away until you stop gagging your pain and give it a voice." The short animation, narrated by Catherine Zeta-Jones, is part of the "Face the Issue" campaign: seven public service announcements aimed primarily at adolescents and young adults, in which the voices of celebrities like Jennifer Lopez and Kate Hudson address eating disorders, domestic violence and drug abuse. [continues 1052 words]
Even in the experimental days of the 1970's, PCP was a drug that quickly became known for its extremely poor ratio of potential fun to potential risk. Reports of people who leapt from windows, drowned themselves in swimming pools, and committed random murders while under its influence deterred even hard-core drug users, and PCP, known as angel dust, became something to avoid. But it never disappeared entirely, and last weekend when Larme Price, 30, was arrested on charges of fatally shooting four men in bodegas and other small businesses in Brooklyn and Queens in February and March, the police said he told them he had been using PCP, or phencyline, which, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, was developed as an anesthetic in the 1950's. [continues 1008 words]
On a Friday night in Manhattan, with the temperature dropping and the lights of Times Square blurred by drizzle, 52 young people fanned out on the streets of Midtown, looking for trouble. They looked for expired inspection stickers, open beer bottles, double-parked cars and drunks. They prayed for a fight to break out among the crowds on 42nd Street. They were rookie police officers, tugging at their heavy gun belts, hoping for their first arrest. "It's so quiet; the place where they put me is always quiet," complained Sabrina Bella, 25 years old and all of 5-foot-3, including her hat. "It's so hard to even find a parking ticket." [continues 1182 words]
Usually, third-party candidates are the ones who say that they are not treated with the respect they deserve. But in yesterday's debate, it was the third-party candidates for governor who did not take H. Carl McCall seriously when he made a campaign promise that could actually be tested before the election. Mr. McCall, the Democratic candidate, said he would take on any opponent, at any time, in a one-on-one debate - a jibe at Gov. George E. Pataki for refusing to go head-to-head, but also a perfect opening for candidates who complain that their views are not being heard. But the candidates did not bite. [continues 406 words]
Staking out a far more sweeping position on the Rockefeller drug laws than either of his opponents in the race for governor, Tom Golisano will call today for the laws' repeal, his campaign aides said. Mr. Golisano, the Independence Party candidate, has said as much before, with little fanfare. But now, he will back up his statement by broadcasting commercials that accuse Gov. George E. Pataki of offering a Rockefeller plan that is "not real reform." Campaign aides would not say exactly how much Mr. Golisano, who has already spent nearly $40 million on his bid for the governorship, will spend on the new ad campaign. But, Roger Stone, Mr. Golisano's campaign adviser, said, "Everyone will know his position by the end of the week." [continues 504 words]
In a free-form radio debate yesterday between the two candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for governor, Andrew M. Cuomo accused H. Carl McCall of failing to block an unrealistic state budget and of stopping short of calling for the outright repeal of the Rockefeller drug laws. Mr. McCall insisted he had no power to force a better fiscal plan and said his differences with Mr. Cuomo over the drug laws were merely semantic. But each asked the other to direct most of the venom at Gov. George E. Pataki, whom the winner of the Sept. 10 primary will face on Nov. 5. [continues 907 words]
Gov. George E. Pataki and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver acknowledged yesterday that they had reached a stalemate over revising the state's Rockefeller drug laws, and heatedly disagreed over who was responsible. Each accused the other of lacking the will to act, and each called the other guilty of playing politics. The charges seemed to dampen hopes that a revision of the laws could be achieved this year " a year that advocates of revision had seen as favorable to their cause, given the backdrop of the race for governor and legislative elections. [continues 473 words]
H. Carl McCall looked beyond the coming Democratic primary yesterday and spent the day campaigning against the Republican candidate for governor, George E. Pataki, whom he accused of postponing difficult decisions for the state until after the election. Mr. McCall's Democratic primary opponent, Andrew M. Cuomo, kept after Mr. McCall, saying that he had approved a state budget riddled with inconsistencies and had failed to use his post as state comptroller to invest in New York State. With 22 days to go before the primary on Sept. 10, both Democratic candidates strode into the week with sharpened tactics, as if their televised debate on Sunday had been a suspenseful overture instead of something akin to a polite game of bridge. [continues 848 words]
This 30-second commercial, in Spanish, is the second in H. Carl McCall's campaign for the Democratic nomination for governor. Two Spanish-language television stations, Telemundo and Univision, began broadcasting the spot yesterday. A similar radio commercial is also on the air. PRODUCER GMMB and the MirRam Group ON THE SCREEN The ad opens with Fernando Ferrer, the former Bronx borough president, who mustered what many thought was a surprisingly strong showing in his bid to become mayor last year. As he speaks, a series of biographical images showing the highlights of Mr. McCall's career appear: standing in an Army uniform with his mother, at his swearing-in as state senator. It ends with him in his current position, state comptroller. Scenes of Mr. McCall, the campaigner, follow: in a parade with Mr. Ferrer, with youngsters, walking with an elderly man. Mr. Ferrer, who has been narrating throughout, appears again at the end. [continues 264 words]
Andrew M. Cuomo called for the outright repeal of mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent, low-level drug offenders yesterday, and took his rivals in the campaign for governor to task for not doing more to roll back the so-called Rockefeller drug laws. At a campaign stop in East Harlem, Mr. Cuomo offered an alternative plan for the sentencing of low-level drug offenders, and accused his Democratic opponent, H. Carl McCall, and Gov. George E. Pataki of failing to change the "antiquated criminal justice system." Mr. Cuomo called the existing laws "probably the most personal, the most human manifestation" of Albany's failings. [continues 939 words]
This advertisement, called "Stolen Lives," urges changes to the Rockefeller-era drug laws. It was sponsored by the Center for Policy Reform, an affiliate of the Drug Policy Alliance, and was pulled off the air by two Spanish-language television stations in recent weeks after objections from Gov. George E. Pataki's top aides. PRODUCER Off Center Productions ON THE SCREEN Relatives of people in prison under the drug laws' mandatory sentences discuss their loved ones. "My son is a stranger to his father," one woman says. [continues 249 words]
H. Carl McCall, the state comptroller and a Democratic candidate for governor, yesterday accused Gov. George E. Pataki, his Republican opponent, of hypocrisy and of squelching opposing voices. "On issue after issue, he says one thing in front of the camera, and then when he gets behind closed doors, he does something else," Mr. McCall said during a news conference in front of Mr. Pataki's office in Midtown Manhattan. Mr. McCall's remarks were prompted by a commercial critical of the governor's proposal to change the Rockefeller drug laws. Last week, a second Spanish television station pulled the commercial at the request of the governor's staff. [continues 707 words]
The Spanish-language television station Univision (WXTV) has decided not to resume broadcasting commercials that attack Gov. George E. Pataki for failing to offer substantive changes of the Rockefeller drug laws. The advertisements were pulled last week after an aide to the governor, who is also running ads on the station, called them "blatantly untruthful." The Drug Policy Alliance then changed the commercials to fix a factual error, but a spokeswoman for Univision said the station's lawyers were still concerned that the commercials were misleading. In a statement, the Alliance said the station was "caving to Gov. George Pataki's attempt to squelch free speech." [end]
The city's largest Spanish-language television station pulled a commercial yesterday that had featured family members of imprisoned drug offenders and asked the governor for "real reform" on the Rockefeller drug laws. The ads were taken off the air at the request of Gov. George E. Pataki's senior aides, who called them inaccurate. The incident, coming just as the legislative session was threatening to close without resolving how the drug laws should be changed, illustrates how important Hispanics have become in the re-election campaign of Governor Pataki, who often mentions his fight to reduce the mandatory, lengthy prison sentences in the laws when he addresses a Spanish-speaking audience. [continues 730 words]
