NOT GUILTY!!!

NEW YORK - They waited for hours, singing spirituals, praying and chanting for justice. In a flash, the crowd gathered outside a Queens courthouse Friday erupted in anger and grief.

Men cursed and shouted. Women wailed and covered their faces. "Oh, no! No!" they yelled as word spread that three police officers had been cleared of all charges in the 50-bullet shooting that took Sean Bell's life on his wedding day in 2006.

Trent Benefield, a friend of Bell's who was wounded in the hail of gunfire, staggered down the courthouse steps with a look of angry disbelief on his face, a friend's arms tightly wrapped around his shoulders.

"Not guilty. Not guilty. It's real," Benefield said, while dozens of people wearing Bell's face on hats, T-shirts and buttons burst into sobs.

Angry supporters of the Bell family shouted at police officers and journalists outside the courthouse, but within an hour the crowd of about 200 people had settled down and dispersed. Despite some pushing and shoving in the crowd, no arrests were made.

The protests were muted compared with past verdicts where officers were cleared in police shootings of black men, perhaps a result of improved race relations and the complicated nature of the Bell case. Bell was black, but so were two of the three officers charged in the shooting, including the one who fired the first shot.

Civil rights leaders demanded a federal investigation, but supporters of the officers said justice had been served.

"How do I spell relief? N-O-T G-U-I-L-T-Y," said Michael Palladino, president of the Detectives Endowment Association, a police union.

Racist letter writer pleads not guilty

A man suspected of writing racist letters to blacks, including a U.S. Supreme Court Justice a and a major league baseball player pleaded not guilty in federal court Thursday.

David Tuason, 46, is charged with two counts of transmitting threatening interstate communications and six counts of mailing threatening communications. He is being represented by a public defender.

The FBI says Tuason wrote threatening letters over two decades, often targeting black men who were seen with white women. The letters dating back to the late 80s, seemed to stop in the early 90s, but started again later that decade.

FBI agents found Tuason a few months ago when he started sending messages via e-mail instead of U.S. mail, authorities said.

According to the indictment, Tuason sent a letter to the Supreme Court on July 25, 2003, addressed to an associate justice of the court referred to in the indictment as "CT." Clarence Thomas' wife is white.

In the letter, which contained several racially derogatory remarks, the writer threatened to blow up the Supreme Court building, and wrote that "CT" would be "castrated, shot or set on fire ... I want him killed."

Tauson also sent threatening letters to shortstop Derek Jeter.

The judge ordered Tuason held without bond, pending a pretrial hearing for May 6 and a trial date June 2.

Snipes sentenced

A federal judge has sentenced action star Wesley Snipes to three years in prison on tax charges.

The sentenced was the maximum under the law, which U.S. prosecutors had recommended for the star of the “Blade” movie series. He was found guilty in February of failing to file tax returns for 1999-2001, in which the government said he owed $2.7 million. Prosecutors had requested three years, one year for each of Snipes’ cinvictions of willfully failing to file a tax return.

Snipes’ lawyers offered three dozen letters from family members, friends and even fellow actors Woody Harrelson and Denzel Washington attesting to his good character. They argued he should get only probation, because all three convictions were misdemeanors and the actor had no previous criminal record.

The actor was acquitted on two felony charges of filing false claims and fraud in seeking millions of dollars of refunds in other tax years.

But prosecutors had urged the court to impose a stiff penalty on the actor nonetheless, because of his notoriety and the potential of a high-profile case to deter tax crime nationwide.

Snipes’ lawyers, in calling for leniency, had contended that he was convicted only of three misdemeanors and said the government’s tax loss in his case amounted to less than $400,000.
The actor’s attorneys said the government’s sentencing guidelines aren’t fair for tax convictions like his.
-The Associated Press and Reuters

Snipes’ co-defendants, who were convicted on the felony fraud and conspiracy charges, will also be sentenced. Eddie Ray Kahn faces up to 10 years behind bars, while Douglas P. Rosile could be jailed five to six years.

Back in Effect

Hey guys,
Sorry for the two month break. I wish I had a good excuse, but I really don't. But I got a new computer, journalistic zeal and a bunch of free time (don't know for how long but I'll take it). So I'm back in effect ready to give you the days news and other stuff I find interesting.

News from a different source

Good news for those who like a cocktail with their dinner (maybe even lunch), according to Medpage Medical News, blacks have a much lower incidence of alcohol abuse than whites. Here's what Zalman S. Agus, MD Emeritus Professor at University of Pennsylvania Medical School, had to say:

Blacks are 40% less likely than whites to develop alcohol abuse and Hispanics are half as likely as whites to develop generalized anxiety disorder.

These are among the few surprises in a major study of the incidence of such disorders, reported Bridget Grant, Ph.D., of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and colleagues online today in Molecular Psychiatry.

The study showed that compared with whites, the odds ratio for blacks developing new cases of alcohol abuse in a year was 0.60 with a 95% confidence interval from 0.34 to 0.95.

For Hispanics, the odds ratio for generalized anxiety disorder was 0.5 with a 95% confidence interval from 0.27 to 0.91.

But in general, the risk of developing substance use, mood, and anxiety disorders doesn't vary much along racial or ethnic lines, the researchers said.

Dr. Grant said the analysis of data from the second wave of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions attempted to tease out not only incidence, but also risk factors for a host of DSM-IV conditions. These included such challenging problems as major depressive disorder, alcohol abuse and dependence, and generalized anxiety disorder.

Knowing the risk factors, she said, will mean that physicians can begin to develop interventions that will prevent disease.

One promising finding is that many disorders are linked temporally -- a patient who develops one has an increased risk of developing the second.

"This study helps clarify the risk of future disorders posed by chronologically primary disorders," Dr. Grant said.

The first wave of the survey, in 2001 and 2002, interviewed 43,093 Americans. The second wave attempted to re-interview those participants and had a response rate of 86.7%, reflecting 34,653 interviews.

The researchers reported one-year incidence rates per 100 person-years at risk. Among other things, they found the one-year rate of new cases of:

-alcohol abuse was 1.03 per 100 person-years while the rate for alcohol dependence was 1.72. -drug abuse was 0.28 and drug dependence was 0.32.
-major depressive disorder was 1.52.
-bipolar I and bipolar II were 0.53 and 0.21, respectively.
-panic disorder was 0.62.
-social phobia was 0.32.
-specific phobia was 0.44.
-generalized anxiety disorder was 1.13.

Incidence rates of substance, mood, and anxiety disorders were comparable to or greater than rates of lung cancer, stroke and cardiovascular disease.

The study found that some disorders appear to precede and increase the risk of others, Dr. Grant said. So, for example, people with generalized anxiety disorder are at increased risk for panic disorder or social phobia, she said. Borderline and schizotypal personality disorders predicted most incident disorders. Substance use disorders did not predict any incident mood or anxiety disorder.

Incidence rates were significantly greater (P<0.01) among men for substance use disorders and greater among women for mood and anxiety disorders except bipolar disorders and social phobia.

Interestingly, younger age was a risk factor for almost all categories, Dr. Grant and colleagues found.

For instance, those ages 20 through 29 were twice as likely to develop major depressive disorder than those 55 or older. The odds ratio was 2.0 with a 95% confidence interval from 1.19 to 3.41.

Bell supporters going to Feds

Supporters of Sean Bell plan to take their case to Justice Department if the police officers accused in his shooting death are acquitted.

Awaiting verdict from Queens Supreme Court Justice Arthur Cooperman, Bell's family and friends gathered Monday along with members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for a rally at Caanan Baptist Church in Harlem.

"There will never be justice for me. In my heart, there never will be, because I'm always going to hurt," said Bell's father William. "So how can I get justice?"

Sanford Rubenstein, attorney for the shooting victims, said that he will bring his case to the federal government if that's what is needed to get justice.

"We are aware of the fact that the federal government is monitoring this trial," said Rubenstein. "And in the event there is no conviction, certainly we will request the federal government, the U.S. attorney, to look at this case with a view towards civil rights violations."

Lawyers for the accused detectives claimed at the trial that the officers opened fire because they thought their lives were in danger. There is precedent for a federal civil rights trial. Officer Francis Livoti was acquitted of killing Anthony Baez in 1994 -- but was later found guilty in a federal trial.

Cooperman will render his verdict Friday.

Ohio Governor wants state troopers fired

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland asked the state highway patrol to fire two troopers involved in a racist prank involving a costume that resembled Klu Klux Klan attire.

Trooper Craig Franklin was pictured on Jan. 20 wearing a white cone on his head, a white paper mask and a white cloth. Trooper Eric Wlodarsky forwarded the cell phone photo.

Strickland said Tuesday the behavior by the troopers from the Sandusky post could not be tolerated.

The state's public safety director had recommended firing. However, a union contract provision had allowed them to stay on the
job if they maintained a clean record for two years.

Strickland did not address the contract provision in his news release.

Wlodarsky told an investigator there was no malicious intent behind the picture, while Franklin apologized and said he was embarrassed.

Remembering MLK

Today is the 40th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. He stood for non-violence but was taken down with a bullet by his enemies. here's a clip of his last speech. Enjoy, reflect, learn.