Daily Archives: July 1, 2007

Open thread 7/1

July 1, 20071:05 a.m.

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Open thread | Comments (57)

Wait till you see these family jewels . . .

July 1, 20071:02 a.m.

Here is author James Bamford, an expert on U.S. intelligence agencies, to NPR’s Liane Hansen, on how the CIA’s recently released “family jewels” secrets about its activities 25 years ago might compare to the secrets the CIA is harboring now:
“Well, it’s ironic, you know. Usually the horror stories back in the ’70s, everybody was aghast at what was happening. This was the whole creation of a congressional committee, joint committees to look into all this stuff. And now, looking back, it seems so minor compared to what the CIA is doing today. They have a whole section here on how the CIA held a Russian defector in a jail that was created by the CIA, a mini-prison for this person on CIA property for two or three years. Now you have the CIA keeping people in prisons all over the world, in secret prisons. It talks about the mail-opening that was done by the CIA, reading letters going from the United States to and from Russia, and also China. And that was an outrage at the time. But today the intelligence community is reading hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of e-mails of Americans.”
And we’ll have to wait 25 years to find out just how bad it was?
posted by Randy Scholfield

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under U.S. politics | Comments (22)

SRS cool to call to extend investigation deadline

July 1, 20071:01 a.m.

Sedgwick County officials wanting to extend the 72-hour deadline for investigating reports of child abuse and neglect may not get help from the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.
James Burgess, presiding judge of Sedgwick County’s juvenile court, and others blame the deadline for the dramatic rise in children placed in foster care in Sedgwick County this year, because officials are erring on the side of safety. But SRS secretary Don Jordan told The Eagle editorial board that he wasn’t sure he would support extending the deadline; it depended on the legislative proposal. He also wasn’t sure that the need for more investigators and resources was any worse in Sedgwick County than elsewhere in the state.
Jordan said that Sedgwick County needed to “find a new equilibrium” and a new way to operate in investigating abuse reports — which he thinks can be done. “I just see it as a challenge that we have to face,” he said.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Crime | Comments (15)

Partnerships good way to fight blight

July 1, 20071:00 a.m.

Last year, city officials listened to northeast residents’ concerns about gangs and blight in the Beat 44 area bounded by Hillside, 13th, Hydraulic and 21st.
To their credit, they recently launched the StopBlight Action Response Team. Instead of just issuing fines for code violations, team members — including police, housing inspectors and other city staff — walk the beat and work with residents to haul off trash and clean up blight.
This model “community policing” approach understands that broken windows invite crime and that stakeholders can achieve a lot more by working together.
Sounds like a promising start.
posted by Randy Scholfield

By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Crime | Comments (27)