NM Ranchers Outraged with Border Security: Ranchers in New Mexico's Bootheel near the U.S.-Mexico border are fed up with the lack of security, citing an increase in kidnappings, break-ins and vandalism across Hidalgo County and southeastern Arizona. Lauren Villagran of the Albuquerque Journal reports that the Bootheel area is frequented by drug traffickers from Mexico. Traveling north to move their drugs, traffickers often take ranch hands hostage, load their vehicles with narcotics, force them to drive hundreds of miles and threaten to harm them if they go to the police. The Border Patrol's Lordsburg station, in charge of monitoring the Bootheel area, has been significantly understaffed in recent months, down about 50 agents in a location that is budgeted for 284 agents. Ranchers and other residents are pleading for an increase in agents along the border.
CT Law Would Bar Suspected Sex-Predators From Teaching: New legislation in Connecticut aims to ban a maneuver called "passing the trash," in which a teacher suspected of or known to have engaged in sexual misconduct with a student is able to receive recommendations and jobs at new schools. Michelle R. Smith and Susan Haigh of the AP report that in 2010, the U.S. Government Accountability Office studied 15 cases of K-12 schools that hired or retained teachers with histories of sexual misconduct, finding that 11 of the cases involved people who previously targeted children and six cases discovered that offenders used their new positions to target more children. Excuses for retaining suspected sex offenders included the high cost of firing a teacher and fear of lawsuits if a positive reference wasn't provided. The legislation proposed in Connecticut would require schools to contact a teaching candidate's past employers to specifically ask if the applicant was ever investigated, disciplined or asked to resign over abuse or sexual misconduct allegations. Additionally, a new federal mandate introduced requires states to create policies that make it illegal for schools to help an employee get a new job if they suspect them of abusing children.
FL Gov. Signs New Death Penalty Law: Two months after capital punishment in Florida was put on hold after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state's system was unconstitutional, Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill into law Monday, which takes effect immediately. Steve Bousquet of the Miami Herald reports that under HB 7101, juries in capital cases are required to agree unanimously on the aggravating factors that under Florida law qualify a murderer for a death sentence. It also stipulates that at lest 10 of 12 jurors must agree on a recommendation of death. Previous Florida's law allowed a jury to recommend death by a simple majority vote. Several death row inmates in the state have filed appeals arguing that their death sentences are invalid because the old law that was in effect when they were sentenced was declared unconstitutional. Justices will begin considering the first of those cases this week.
CT Law Would Bar Suspected Sex-Predators From Teaching: New legislation in Connecticut aims to ban a maneuver called "passing the trash," in which a teacher suspected of or known to have engaged in sexual misconduct with a student is able to receive recommendations and jobs at new schools. Michelle R. Smith and Susan Haigh of the AP report that in 2010, the U.S. Government Accountability Office studied 15 cases of K-12 schools that hired or retained teachers with histories of sexual misconduct, finding that 11 of the cases involved people who previously targeted children and six cases discovered that offenders used their new positions to target more children. Excuses for retaining suspected sex offenders included the high cost of firing a teacher and fear of lawsuits if a positive reference wasn't provided. The legislation proposed in Connecticut would require schools to contact a teaching candidate's past employers to specifically ask if the applicant was ever investigated, disciplined or asked to resign over abuse or sexual misconduct allegations. Additionally, a new federal mandate introduced requires states to create policies that make it illegal for schools to help an employee get a new job if they suspect them of abusing children.
FL Gov. Signs New Death Penalty Law: Two months after capital punishment in Florida was put on hold after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state's system was unconstitutional, Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill into law Monday, which takes effect immediately. Steve Bousquet of the Miami Herald reports that under HB 7101, juries in capital cases are required to agree unanimously on the aggravating factors that under Florida law qualify a murderer for a death sentence. It also stipulates that at lest 10 of 12 jurors must agree on a recommendation of death. Previous Florida's law allowed a jury to recommend death by a simple majority vote. Several death row inmates in the state have filed appeals arguing that their death sentences are invalid because the old law that was in effect when they were sentenced was declared unconstitutional. Justices will begin considering the first of those cases this week.
Leave a comment