Four week old leopard cub @ the Budapest Zoo.
200 sex assault cases pass prosecution deadline before LAPD tested DNA kits
The cases are part of a backlog of 7,000 DNA kits that the department has not tested, according to an audit by City Controller Laura Chick. Police say they don’t have enough money.
By Richard Winton
October 21, 2008
As many as 200 potential sexual assault cases have gone without prosecution because Los Angeles police officials failed to meet legal deadlines to test DNA evidence that might have identified a suspect, according to a city audit released Monday.
The audit was the second critical assessment of LAPD forensic work in as many weeks. A confidential report obtained by The Times last week disclosed shoddy work by the department’s fingerprint experts that had falsely implicated people in crimes.
Chief William J. Bratton said late Monday that he had set up a task force to examine the Scientific Investigations Division, which oversees the department’s fingerprint analysis unit and DNA lab. He said he had asked the FBI and Los Angeles County district attorney’s office to join the task force probe.
“You hired me as chief of police to manage the department day to day. But you also hired me for when a crisis occurs and they will occur,” Bratton said. “When it occurs, the idea is to quickly get in and assess what is wrong.”
According to the audit by City Controller Laura Chick’s office, the LAPD has a backlog of 7,000 sexual assault test kits that have not been examined. Of those cases, 217 are beyond the 10-year statute in which to prosecute the crimes, according to the report.
Each kit, officials say, contains a potential genetic road map to the perpetrator of a crime.
“Sometimes I find problems as city controller that simply defy explanation,” Chick said at a news conference. “It is beyond disturbing that the thousands of victims who have undergone the invasive ordeal of [submitting to] these tests do not even know that their evidence is still untested.”
RNC shells out $150K for Palin fashion
I’m sure that’s exactly where the people that donated to the RNC hoped their money would go.
But then… she did need the help.
[Edited to rehash an old photo, so as to not offend. =)]
Block the Vote
Will the GOP’s campaign to deter new voters and discard Democratic ballots determine the next president?
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. & GREG PALAST
These days, the old west rail hub of Las Vegas, New Mexico, is little more than a dusty economic dead zone amid a boneyard of bare mesas. In national elections, the town overwhelmingly votes Democratic: More than 80 percent of all residents are Hispanic, and one in four lives below the poverty line. On February 5th, the day of the Super Tuesday caucus, a school-bus driver named Paul Maez arrived at his local polling station to cast his ballot. To his surprise, Maez found that his name had vanished from the list of registered voters, thanks to a statewide effort to deter fraudulent voting. For Maez, the shock was especially acute: He is the supervisor of elections in Las Vegas.
Maez was not alone in being denied his right to vote. On Super Tuesday, one in nine Democrats who tried to cast ballots in New Mexico found their names missing from the registration lists. The numbers were even higher in precincts like Las Vegas, where nearly 20 percent of the county’s voters were absent from the rolls. With their status in limbo, the voters were forced to cast “provisional” ballots, which can be reviewed and discarded by election officials without explanation. On Super Tuesday, more than half of all provisional ballots cast were thrown out statewide.
This November, what happened to Maez will happen to hundreds of thousands of voters across the country. In state after state, Republican operatives — the party’s elite commandos of bare-knuckle politics — are wielding new federal legislation to systematically disenfranchise Democrats. If this year’s race is as close as the past two elections, the GOP’s nationwide campaign could be large enough to determine the presidency in November. “I don’t think the Democrats get it,” says John Boyd, a voting-rights attorney in Albuquerque who has taken on the Republican Party for impeding access to the ballot. “All these new rules and games are turning voting into an obstacle course that could flip the vote to the GOP in half a dozen states.”
Just goofy.
Posting our our first video of the baby. Its silly and has no point, but its the first one, so what the hell. 😉
Wow. McCain is such a dick.
I loathe Sarah Palin, but I hate her message even more.
My paternal grandparents emigrated to this country from Russia through Ellis Island. One of the first things they saw when they came to the United States was Libertas, standing in glory on the Atlantic Coast, a gigantic symbol of freedom from oppression, vindicavit in libertatem, and enlightenment.
My maternal grandparents emigrated to this country from the Philippines through Hawaii and settled in Manhattan. Ted’s paternal grandfather came to this country from Spain, his grandmother from Guatemala. They, too, came through Ellis Island. Ted’s maternal forefathers came from Ireland and Scotland, and spread through the South, intermarrying with the Native Americans. All of them came here because of what this country stands for, and because they wanted to build better lives for themselves and for their children.
And here’s Lilith. A RussianFilipinoSpanishIrishScottishGuatemalanNativeAmerican. We live in California, Lilith, her father, and I.
My family did not inhabit small towns in the US. My family lived in Manhattan and Brooklyn, Ted’s in Los Angeles. We’re middle class, with Catholic, Jewish, and Baptist roots. Ted’s father was an entrepreneur, and owned a bar and a taxi company. My parents were teachers. Both of our fathers served in the military, my father during World War II, and Ted’s dad in Korea. All of our parents worked hard, busting their asses, and did their best to instill in us the altruistic virtues of diligence, thrift, respect, justice, and kindness. We’re going to do our best to pass this on to our daughter.
We run a small business, contribute to the flow of the US economy, and pay our taxes.
In Sarah Palin’s world, we’re un-American. Unpatriotic.
By proxy, in John McCain’s world, we’re un-American. Unpatriotic.
Us, and everyone like us.
I’m sick of hearing that strong, positive values are the exclusive province of small towns in red states. I’m sick of my value system, my history, my ethnicity, and my ethics being labeled as un-American. I’m disgusted by the line that the Republican party is drawing in the sand. I’m sick of hearing that I’m not a “real” American, and that everything I am and everything I stand for is contrary to “real” American values. I’m sick of seeing the GOP take a big fucking magic marker to the US map, further dividing us all, making slashmarks through “anti-American” blue states.
You know who’s un-American? Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Nancy Pfotenhauer, Robin Hayes, and all of the other divisive hatemongers, with their warped ideas of patriotism. Being American doesn’t equal being a white Protestant conservative religious nut, and it certainly doesn’t involve a six-pack prerequisite, the desecration of the Constitution, or the villainizing of big cities, blue states, homosexuals, brown and black Americans, or Muslims.
Fuck you, Sarah Palin. You’re unpatriotic and un-American. You’re a blight on this country and a disgrace to everything it represents. Fuck you, John McCain, for selling yourself out, and your country, too, in the process. Shame on you both.
3rd Rock From the Sun was such an awesome show. Oh, how I miss it.
I loved Soap, too.
I need both of those shows on DVD.
Your result for What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test…
Concientious, Fulfilled, and Spiritual
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life. Beginning in Italy, and spreading to the rest of Europe by the 16th century, its influence affected literature, philosopy, religion, art, politics, science, and all other aspects of intellectual enquiry. Renaissance artists looked at the human aspect of life in their art. They did not reject religion but tended to look at it in it’s purest form to create visions they thought depicted the ideals of religion. Painters of this time had their own style and created works based on morality, religion, and human nature. Many of the paintings depicted what they believed to be the corrupt nature of man.
People that like Renaissance paintings like things that are more challenging. They tend to have a high emotional stability. They also tend to be more concientious then average. They have a basic understanding of human nature and therefore are not easily surprised by anything that people may do. They enjoy life and enjoy living. They are very aware of their own mortality but do not dwell on the end but what they are doing in the present. They enjoy learning, but may tend to be a bit more closed minded to new ideas as they feel that the viewpoint they have has been well researched and considered. These people are more old fashioned and not quite as progressive. They enjoy the finer things in life like comfort, a good meal, and homelife. They tend to be more spiritual or religious by nature. They are open to new aesthetic experiences.
Take What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test at HelloQuizzy
