LA cops file suit over ticket quotas

As reported by the Los Angeles Police Protective League:

Los Angeles Times

By Patrick McGreevy
Times Staff Writer

A group of Los Angeles police officers in the north San Fernando Valley has filed a class- action grievance alleging that they have been improperly pressured by the command staff to meet quotas in writing traffic tickets.

The grievance was raised by the Police Protective League on behalf of 30 officers working at the Los Angeles Police Department's Devonshire Division.

Hank Hernandez, a lawyer for the union, confirmed Friday that the grievance was filed with the division because of concern that officers were facing potential harm to their careers if they failed to increase the number of tickets they wrote.

"It's an attempt to coerce and threaten officers to get them to write more tickets," Hernandez said.

And we were always told there are no quotas in writing traffic tickets.

Texas Legislators Attack Illegal Immigrants

From the New York Times:

HOUSTON, Nov. 15 — In a sign of rising passions over immigration issues, Texas lawmakers prepared for the 2007 session this week by filing a flurry of bills that would deny public assistance and other benefits to the children of illegal immigrants, tax money transfers to Mexico and the rest of Latin America and sue the federal government for the costs of state border control.

At the same time, a Dallas suburb, Farmers Branch, became the first Texas municipality to enact measures fining landlords who rent to illegal immigrants, authorizing the police to seek certification to act on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security and declaring English the city’s official language.

Many of the bills are unlikely to become law, but, combined with the Farmers Branch action, they have raised questions about whether Texas, where almost a third of the population was listed as Hispanic in the 2000 census, is about to get caught up in the kinds of legal fights about illegal immigration that have occurred elsewhere.

“It’s awful,” said Brent A. Wilkes, the national executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, the nation’s largest and oldest Hispanic rights group. “Texas for a long time has avoided this anti-immigrant hysteria.”

We must remember this is the state that has executed women, children and the mentally challenged.

Rapist to be slapped

Another reason it's good to live in America.

Upset with a police investigation into an alleged rape of a deaf, mute woman, village elders in India took matters into their own hands.

Lacking arrest powers, the elders nonetheless found the man guilty of rape, levied a fine and sentenced him to be slapped in public 51 times.

Police say their investigation is continuing.

Curtains for 'See Clearly Method'

Vision Improvement Technologies, Inc. has been ordered by an Iowa court to pay $200,000 in consumer restitution for consumer fraud.

Exerpt:

The court order resolves a consumer fraud lawsuit filed last year by Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, which alleged that the company could not substantiate claims that the "See Clearly Method" improved people's vision so much that they would no longer need glasses or contact lenses.

The "See Clearly Method" was a kit of manuals, charts, videos and audio-tapes demonstrating eye exercises and other techniques, such as focusing eyes using special charts or props, facing a bright light with eyes closed at a distance of a few inches, covering eyes with hands for sustained periods, and applying hot and cold wash cloths over closed eyes.

The company sold tens of thousands of the kits for about $350 apiece.

"The company made dramatic claims for its product that it could not substantiate," Miller said.

"They represented that consumers who used the method could quickly and easily free themselves of having to wear glasses or contact lenses. They used illegal tactics including exaggerated claims of effectiveness, false implications of scientific validity, and misleading consumer testimonials in advertising," he said.

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Law Denies Benefits to Newborns

Seems that the Deficit Reduction Act, passed last February is being used by the federal government to deny medical care to babies born to illegal immigrants, according to an article in The New York Times.

Exerpt:

Marilyn E. Wilson, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Medicaid program, said: “The federal government told us we have no latitude. All states must change their policies and practices. We will not be able to cover any services for the newborn until a Medicaid application is filed. That could be days, weeks or months after the child is born.”

About four million babies are born in the United States each year, and Medicaid pays for more than one-third of all births. The number involving illegal immigrant parents is unknown but is likely to be in the tens of thousands, health experts said.

Doctors and hospitals denounced the policy change and denied that it was required by the new law. Dr. Jay E. Berkelhamer, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the policy “punishes babies who, according to the Constitution, are citizens because they were born here.”

New Jersey Considers Ban on Aluminum Bats

In an effort to cut down on the possibility of traumatic brain injuries, shattered faces and other injuries during Little League baseball games, New Jersey is considering a ban on aluminum bats.

As one would expect, bat makers, Little League officials and others are against it.

Stephen D. Keener, president and chief executive officer of Little League Baseball and Softball, said rules requiring metal bats be similar to wooden ones have cut injuries to pitchers hit by batted balls. He said Little League had 170 million at-bats last year and 22 injuries to pitchers, down from 145 in 1992.

“If this was in our opinion a safety issue, we should be leading the way on changes,” Keener said. “There is an insignificant difference between the non-wood bats that are used today and the wood bats they are tested against.”

Former major league catcher and Princeton University baseball coach Scott Bradley said banning metal bats would cut participation in youth baseball.

“I think we’re going to take a lot of opportunities and a lot of fun away,” Bradley said.

In our opinion, the prevention of a major injury to a young child is worth the ban.