Alleged Yemeni Terrorist Charges Cockpit on Flight to SF: San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Henry K. Lee reports a Yemeni immigrant allegedly tried to break into the locked cockpit of American Airlines Flight 1561 bound for San Francisco this past Sunday evening. On Tuesday a judge ordered him held without bail on the grounds he was a threat to the community. Prosecutors say Rageh Ahmed Al-Murisi, who previously lived in California and New York carried no luggage. He had $47 in cash, valid and expired documents from New York and California, and two postdated checks. One witness claims Al-Murisi yelled 30 times, "Allahu akbar" (Arabic for "God is great") as he charged toward the cockpit and rammed the door with his shoulder. Several flight attendants, a retired police officer, a retired Secret Service agent, an off-duty pilot, and an Olympic shot put champion were able to subdue the alleged terrorist. Ahmed Almoraissi, cousin of Al-Murisi, said his cousin was not a terrorist and has worked as a math teacher in Yemen, where his wife and children live: ""He's a very normal guy. He has no intention of
hurting nobody. I don't know what happened on the plane. It doesn't make
sense." Al-Murisi is charged with interfering with a flight crew and yesterday was deemed a threat to the community and ordered to be held without bail.
NYC Announces New Cellphone Alert System: AP writer Samantha Gross reports the U.S. government and local authorities will soon be able to reach people directly on their cellphones to warn them of imminent danger. The Personalized Localized Alerting Network, or PLAN, technology was approved by Congress in 2006 under the Warning Alert and Response Network Act. The emergency alert system will be used for critical messages from the president, information for life-threatening situations, and Amber Alerts to warn the public about missing or abducted children. The system is expected to launch by the end of the year in New York City and Washington, D.C., and will eventually spread to most if not all U.S. cellphones in the upcoming years as people exchange their old phones with new devices containing a special chip that will allow them to receive the messages. Every wireless carrier is expected to participate and people will receive the messages free of charge. Wireless carriers may permit cellphone users to opt out of receiving notifications from local officials regarding Amber Alerts, but no one will be able to refuse incoming presidential alerts. Officials say the PLAN technology will allow the alert messages to take precedence over regular phone calls or text messages and even in emergencies when the system's capacity is overloaded, the alerts will still go through. Messages will appear on the front screen, instead of in a text message inbox, and will arrive with a distinct ring and possible vibration.
Jerry Brown channels Dirty Harry: Do you feel lucky?: SF Chronicle writer Debra J. Saunders has this so-titled piece on the "two Jerry Browns" that inevitably emerge on the issues of crime and public safety. Saunders writes that during a recent telephone conversation with the Governor, he "sounded more like his old self, a left-wing talk-show host of the 1990s, than the tough-on-crime Oakland mayor and state attorney general who followed." Saunders opines that Brown's latest move, signing a bill that calls for transfer of nearly 40,000 felons from state to local custody, may prove beneficial for a limited category of criminals, but gambles significantly with California's public safety: "The question is, to paraphrase not Brown, but Dirty Harry: Do you feel lucky?"
11th Circuit Considers Challenge to Juvenile LWOP: The 11th Circuit is considering whether sentencing a juvenile murderer to life in prison without the possibility of parole constitutes cruel and usual punishment, reports the AP. Kenneth Loggins was convicted of killing a hitchhiker at the age of 17. He was originally sentenced to death, but his sentence was reduced to life after the Supreme Court ruled a juvenile cannot be executed. His attorneys are now urging the court to expand their ruling in Graham v. Florida to include juveniles convicted of homicide offenses.
NYC Announces New Cellphone Alert System: AP writer Samantha Gross reports the U.S. government and local authorities will soon be able to reach people directly on their cellphones to warn them of imminent danger. The Personalized Localized Alerting Network, or PLAN, technology was approved by Congress in 2006 under the Warning Alert and Response Network Act. The emergency alert system will be used for critical messages from the president, information for life-threatening situations, and Amber Alerts to warn the public about missing or abducted children. The system is expected to launch by the end of the year in New York City and Washington, D.C., and will eventually spread to most if not all U.S. cellphones in the upcoming years as people exchange their old phones with new devices containing a special chip that will allow them to receive the messages. Every wireless carrier is expected to participate and people will receive the messages free of charge. Wireless carriers may permit cellphone users to opt out of receiving notifications from local officials regarding Amber Alerts, but no one will be able to refuse incoming presidential alerts. Officials say the PLAN technology will allow the alert messages to take precedence over regular phone calls or text messages and even in emergencies when the system's capacity is overloaded, the alerts will still go through. Messages will appear on the front screen, instead of in a text message inbox, and will arrive with a distinct ring and possible vibration.
Jerry Brown channels Dirty Harry: Do you feel lucky?: SF Chronicle writer Debra J. Saunders has this so-titled piece on the "two Jerry Browns" that inevitably emerge on the issues of crime and public safety. Saunders writes that during a recent telephone conversation with the Governor, he "sounded more like his old self, a left-wing talk-show host of the 1990s, than the tough-on-crime Oakland mayor and state attorney general who followed." Saunders opines that Brown's latest move, signing a bill that calls for transfer of nearly 40,000 felons from state to local custody, may prove beneficial for a limited category of criminals, but gambles significantly with California's public safety: "The question is, to paraphrase not Brown, but Dirty Harry: Do you feel lucky?"
11th Circuit Considers Challenge to Juvenile LWOP: The 11th Circuit is considering whether sentencing a juvenile murderer to life in prison without the possibility of parole constitutes cruel and usual punishment, reports the AP. Kenneth Loggins was convicted of killing a hitchhiker at the age of 17. He was originally sentenced to death, but his sentence was reduced to life after the Supreme Court ruled a juvenile cannot be executed. His attorneys are now urging the court to expand their ruling in Graham v. Florida to include juveniles convicted of homicide offenses.
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