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Courtesy of: http://news.msn.com/crime-justice/girlfriends-investigation-frees-innocent-ny-man-from-jail

Vengeful former friends had set Joshua Robles up and landed him in prison, but his girlfriend’s sleuthing efforts eventually proved him innocent.

After eight months behind bars, an innocent Queens, N.Y., man was freed when his girlfriend proved to prosecutors that his former friends had set him up.

Joshua Robles, 40, was charged with sexual assault and armed robbery last August after he allegedly attacked a young woman, the New York Daily News reported.

To attempt to discredit Robles in court, Rodriguez and his son, Jordan, 19, dropped Jordan’s girlfriend off at a telephone booth and told her to call police and tell them she’d been attacked. They then instructed 21-year-old Alexis Hopes to tell officers that her assailant bore a tattooed cross on his face, which would finger Robles.

Robles was arrested and, unable to make bail, spent the next eight months at Rikers Island jail. He was sprung in late April after his own girlfriend tracked Hopes’ Facebook page and showed the Queens district attorney’s office evidence that she was dating Jordan Rodriguez. Hopes broke down in the DA’s office and Robles was released from prison the same day, according to the Daily News.

Both Hipolito and Jordan Rodriguez were indicted on multiple counts of perjury this week.

courtesy http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/20/vermont-assisted-suicide_n_3309210.html

MONTPELIER, Vt. — After years of debate, Vermont became the fourth state in the country Monday to allow doctors to prescribe lethal doses of medicine to terminally ill patients seeking to end their lives.

Gov. Peter Shumlin signed the bill into law at a Statehouse ceremony even as opponents vowed to push for its repeal.

The End of Life Choices law was effective immediately, although it could be weeks before the state Health Department develops regulations in accordance with the new measure.

Vermont Health Commissioner Dr. Harry Chen said he expects doctors to write between 10 and 20 lethal prescriptions a year, with a smaller number of patients actually using the drugs.

He based his figures on the experience in Oregon, the first state to legalize assisted suicide in 1997. Washington state and Montana followed later, with Montana’s coming by way of a court order.

“It’s used by a very small number, but it brings comfort to a much greater number knowing it’s there,” Chen said.

During emotionally charged discussion of the bill, proponents said Vermonters of sound mind who are suffering from terminal conditions should be able to choose when to end their lives. But opponents said the law could be abused and vulnerable people, especially the elderly, could be forced to end their lives.

Shumlin offered reassurances before signing the bill.

“This bill does not compel anyone to do anything that they don’t choose in sound mind to do,” he said. “All it does is give those who are facing terminal illness, are facing excruciating pain, a choice in a very carefully regulated way.”

Some critics of the law attended the bill-signing and promised to seek its repeal.

“We need to be more of a caring, compassionate society, not one that says `take a pill, go away,’” said Edward Alonzo of Burlington. “People don’t have the best of intentions, always, with their family members,” he said.

The Legislature passed the bill last week. A similar measure was defeated in 2007.

“I know from my many years of practice that there are many patients out there that want to have this option available to them, and because it’s a new bill I anticipate that a lot of people are going to ask questions about it,” said Dr. Diana Barnard, a family practice doctor in Burlington who is certified in hospice care.

“I do know there are providers who will be willing to provide the best possible medicine to their patients regardless of what that means, and that includes all aspects of palliative care,” she said.

In its first three years, the Vermont law will resemble the Oregon model, which has built-in safeguards, including requirements that patients state three times – once in writing – that they wish to die. Other safeguards include a concurring opinion from a second doctor that a patient has less than six months to live and a finding that the patient is of sound mind.

In Oregon and Washington, patients who take advantage of the Death with Dignity law use the drug pentobarbital, a barbiturate, that is dissolved in liquid or semi-liquid, said George Eighmey, a board member of the Death with Dignity National Center in Portland, Ore.

The patient doesn’t eat for four or five hours before taking an anti-nausea drug and the lethal drug about an hour after that. It takes about five minutes for the patient to fall into a coma. The average length of time until death is about two hours, said Eighmey.

After July 1, 2016, Vermont will move to a model pushed by some senators who complained of too much government intervention. The new model would require less monitoring and reporting by doctors. But many expect lawmakers may push to eliminate those changes and leave the original model in place.

The Health Department will receive reports of how many people were prescribed lethal drugs. Chen said he expects the process will be covered by health insurance.

Courtesy of: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/05/17/nyc-delivery-man-accused-selling-cocaine-from-pizza-boxes/?test=latestnews

Authorities say a Brooklyn man arrested on drug charges used his job at a pizzeria as a cover as he delivered more than pizza pies.

Officials on Thursday announced the arrest of 45-year-old Ramon Rodriguez. They say he had made at least 19 sales of cocaine to an undercover officer since the fall of 2011.

He was taken into custody on Wednesday night after authorities said he sold a kilo of cocaine in front of the Brooklyn pizza store where he worked, using a pizza box as a cover.

Authorities say Rodriguez told officers over the course of the undercover effort that he was breaking away from pizza deliveries to make the drug sales.

There was no information on a lawyer for Rodriguez. He was awaiting arraignment later Thursday.

Courtesy of: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/05/16/minnesota-lakes-reportedly-contaminated-with-cocaine-antidepressants/?intcmp=HPBucket

A veritable hodgepodge of chemicals — including cocaine, synthetic estrogen and antidepressants — have reportedly been found in isolated Minnesota lakes.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that the findings indicate that some contamination has become the norm for virtually all of the waters in the “Land of 10,000 Lakes.” Among the 50 lakes across Minnesota that were randomly selected and tested for 127 compounds, all but three tested positive for varying concentrations of one of more chemicals. Cocaine was found in 32 percent of the lakes, while the insect repellent DEET was found in 76 percent of the waters.

“That was astonishing,” Mark Ferrey, lead researcher of the new report released Monday by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, told the newspaper. “We need to look in the mirror. No matter what we use, it finds its way into the environment.”

Ferrey said the impact of the contaminants on aquatic life and humans is far less understood. A growing number of studies have found that some chemicals, particularly those that resemble hormones, can have a strong biological effect on some species at even tiny concentrations, the newspaper reports.

One experiment conducted in a Canadian lake found that two years after synthetic estrogen was added at a concentration of five parts per trillion — the equivalent of adding five drops to 15 or 20 swimming pools, Ferrey said — the fathead minnow population crashed and its trout numbers began to decrease.

Ferrey said he was astonished that cocaine was discovered in nearly one-third of Minnesota lakes tested, some of which had little human use. Cocaine was the third-most common chemical found, following DEET and Bisphenol A, a chemical from plastic. Ferrey was also surprised to find carbadox, an antibiotic used in swine that turned up in 28 percent of the lakes, including some that had no connection to feedlots or pig farms. Carbadox is also a carcinogen that has been banned in Europe and Canada, Ferrey said.

Courtesy of: http://news.msn.com/us/are-cities-shortening-yellow-light-times-to-make-money

A recent investigation by a Florida TV station claims that shortening of yellow light times is one of the primary drivers that allow red light cameras to be profitable.

An investigation by a Florida TV station that claims Florida is intentionally shortening yellow light times to increase revenue has once again cast a national spotlight on the practice, which traffic safety advocates say is unfortunately widespread.

“It’s difficult to track the data, but we can tell anecdotally — there are people who call us about it and track it,” said John Bowman, a spokesman for the National Motorists Association, a motorists’ rights and advocacy organization that looks at short yellow lights and red light cameras as a cynical way to generate money.

Bowman said there have been lots of challenges to red light cameras all over the country, including in Florida.

According to the Tampa Bay News 10 report, shortening yellow light times resulted in thousands of red light tickets in Florida.

‘I THINK THEY ARE CHEATING THE PEOPLE’

“Just how much is half a second?” asks reporter Noah Pransky in the News 10 video. “It’s not long enough to grab a bite to eat, make a photocopy or even send a text. But half a second is much more significant when you are behind the wheel and the light turns red too fast.”

That half-second cost Floridians $50 million last year, News 10 reported.

The station interviewed Shirley Nagel from Port Richey, Fla., who had to pay $158 after being caught on a red light camera on U.S. Highway 19 this spring.

“I never thought of such a thing, that I was doing anything wrong,” said Nagel, who was fined for entering the intersection about half a second too late in February,

“It’s terrible . . . I think they are cheating the people,” Nagel said.

‘NO MOTIVATION TO TRAP MOTORISTS’

The Florida Department of Transportation’s traffic engineer, Mark Wilson, denies that the yellow light times were shortened to create more citations, telling News 10 that his agency had “no motivation to trap motorists.”

Shorter yellow lights came into the picture in the early to mid-1990s, triggered by changes to federal guidelines and regulations pertaining to yellow lights, Bowman said.

Sometimes, yellow lights are purposely shortened or simply not set to be long enough, he said.

 

“It’s a serious issue and affects traffic safety at those intersections,” Bowman said. “You give people less time to react and stop at that intersection, and it forces them to skirt through, risking an accident and traffic citation.”

One of the main challenges is that the engineering guidelines put out by the federal government regarding yellow lights is fairly broad and vague, Bowman said, which leaves cities with the flexibility to set their own.

“Federal guidelines say that it should be between three and six seconds long, and so what a city can do is the city can set their yellow light times at three seconds and say, We are complying with federal guidelines,” Bowman said. “In reality, the faster the traffic is moving through the intersection, the longer the yellow light needs to be.”

Bowman pointed out that although three seconds would be sufficient for a car traveling at 25 mph, cars moving at 40 mph would need to have a yellow light time of four and a half seconds.

“Any shorter and it will increase accidents at that intersection,” he said.

Just as News 10′s investigation concluded, the National Motorists’ Association also believes that the motive behind shortening yellow light times is purely profit-oriented, so that both cities and camera companies can profit.

Cities that were caught shortening yellow light times in the past include Chattanooga and Nashville, Tenn.; Dallas and Lubbock, Texas; Springfield, Miss.; and Union City, Calif., where red light cameras have been especially controversial.

”Red light cameras can only remain profitable at poorly engineered intersections,” Bowman said. “Once an intersection is fixed, the money dries up quickly. And once the money is gone, the cameras disappear.”

Bowman said a certain formula is used to determine what the yellow light time should be. It involves plugging in the speed someone is traveling, the number of seconds for reaction time and several other factors. The formula is set by the Institute of Traffic Engineers and is widely accepted.

“You have to gauge your yellow light times according to the speed people are traveling at the intersection,” Bowman said. “The actual travel speed can be seven or 10 miles higher than what is posted.”

Courtesy of: http://now.msn.com/paul-gardener-and-chad-leakey-allegedly-broke-into-an-occupied-police-car

A high IQ isn’t required for a career in petty crime, but two criminals were clearly short a few points when they reportedly attempted to break into an unmarked police car, with two uniformed cops inside. After opening the back door, it apparently dawned on geniuses Paul Gardener and Chad Leakey that they were climbing into a cage in a police car. The Tempe, Ariz., cops swiftly arrested them, allegedly confiscating a baggie of meth and some mail they seem to have been bright enough to steal too. The pair have been booked into the Maricopa County Jail, where they should be able to find some easy reading material.

Courtesy of: http://news.yahoo.com/lightbox/image-provided-bullitt-county-detention-center-shows-may-photo-113934025.html

MOUNT WASHINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Authorities in Kentucky have charged a man who officers say had an overnight feast in a closed supermarket outside Louisville.

The manager of a ValuMarket says he found 57 empty whipped cream cans in the garbage when he arrived Monday morning. WAVE-TV (http://bit.ly/15HQ8k7) in Louisville reported 30-year-old Trevor Runyon was charged after he was found in the ceiling of the store.

Surveillance video from the store showed that Runyon cooked and ate six steaks, washed them down with beer and then topped off his meal with shrimp and birthday cake.

Police say Runyon slipped into the store and hid while employees closed it for the night.

Bullitt County Detention Center records show Runyon is from Shepherdsville, Ky. It wasn’t clear whether he has an attorney.

Courtesy of: http://news.yahoo.com/man-attacked-alligator-while-fleeing-deputies-191550938.html

Courtesy of: http://news.yahoo.com/ore-smokejumpers-skydive-illegal-pot-garden-232005342.html

Courtesy of: http://news.msn.com/crime-justice/singer-arrested-in-calif-murder-for-hire-sting

Heavy metal band frontman Tim Lambesis was arrested after detectives received information that he had solicited someone to kill his estranged wife.

OCEANSIDE, Calif. — The lead singer of Grammy-nominated heavy metal band As I Lay Dying was arrested Tuesday in Southern California as authorities said he tried to hire an undercover detective to kill his estranged wife.

Tim Lambesis, 32, was arrested at a retail business in Oceanside, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.

The statement said detectives received information Thursday that Lambesis had solicited someone to kill his wife, who lives in nearby Encinitas. A task force from several law enforcement agencies quickly launched an investigation that led to the arrest.

The department would give no further details on the investigation.

As I Lay Dying formed in San Diego in 2000 and has released six albums including 2007′s “An Ocean Between Us,” which reached No. 8 on Billboard’s charts. A track from the album was nominated for a Grammy for top metal performance.

It was not clear whether Lambesis had hired an attorney, and a phone message seeking comment left at a number listed in his name was not immediately returned.

According to its website, the band is scheduled to tour the country with several other metal acts starting later this month.