A Los Angeles Times article on the challenge of prosecuting pornography cases when X-rated materials are everywhere included two cautionary thoughts that apply in Sedgwick County, where a second porn-related grand jury recently brought obscenity charges against five businesses:
“This is the only crime you don’t know you did until the jury tells you you did it,” said Ira Isaacs, a Los Angeles film distributor and producer indicted in July on federal obscenity charges.
“The only people forced to look at this stuff are the jurors in the obscenity case,” added Mark Kearnes, a senior editor of Adult Video News.
Interestingly, the article link anti-smut groups’ dissatisfaction with the Justice Department to last year’s firing of U.S. attorneys and this year’s resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Meanwhile, the Operation Southwind group in Wichita, plans to see if local Halloween stores are displaying obscene costumes. A Johnson County grand jury recently ruled that four costumes were obscene.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Another cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq: The Army has had to offer bonuses of up to $35,000 in order to retain key younger officers, many of whom have been leaving the service because of the lengthy and repeated war-zone tours, the Washington Post reported. The Army projects a shortfall of about 3,000 captains and majors for every year through 2013.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Are you having trouble keeping up with the religiosity of the presidential candidates? Don’t worry. Beliefnet.com has a tongue-in-cheek “God-o-Meter” to help you keep track. It assigns a zero-to-10 rating (with a low score considered “secularist” and a high score a “theocrat”) based on such measures as the rate of God-talk and its effectiveness. “Saying God wants a capital gains tax cut doesn’t guarantee a high rating,” the Web site explains.
As of Wednesday, the candidate with the highest score (nine) was a Democrat — Barack Obama. Two other Democrats — Bill Richardson and Hillary Clinton — and three Republicans — John McCain, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney — had the next highest score (eight). Sam Brownback and several other candidates scored a seven. The candidate with the lowest rating (three) was Democrat Chris Dodd.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
OK, this might not come as a shock: Under the Bush administration, the Environmental Protection Agency has sharply reduced its criminal cases against polluters. New investigations, prosecutions and total convictions are all down by more than one-third, according to a Washington Post article.
This good-cop approach has emboldened polluters, say critics.
Eric Schaeffer, who quit as EPA’s director of civil enforcement in 2002, said agents in the field are capable and committed, but “they lack the political support they used to be able to count on, especially in the White House.”
The government did reach a record $4.6 billion settlement this week with American Electric Power Co. related to acid rain. But that lawsuit began in 1999 and was driven in part by state attorneys general.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Sam Brownback confirmed Wednesday that if he finishes out of the top four in the Iowa caucuses in early January, his presidential campaign will be finished. “That is correct. I need to finish in that group to move on forward,” he said during an online chat for the Washington Post. That won’t be soon enough for some including Des Moines Register columnist David Yepsen. After the Iowa Poll found Brownback in eighth place, having slid from 5 percent in May to 2 percent now, Yepsen said Brownback “may want to think about heading back to Kansas.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
No jokes here about Derby’s designation designation by U.S. News & World Report as a “Best Place to Retire” (49th place), just three months after Family Circle counted it among America’s “10 Best Towns for Families.” Derby stands out among American suburbs for being less a bedroom community than a full-service city that just happens to be next to Wichita. With 20,000 residents and a high quality of life and leadership, Derby is due congratulations — and imitation.
Posted by Rhonda Holman