Sex Offenders Forced To Live Under Miami Bridge

Sex Offenders Forced To Live Under Miami Bridge : NPR

In Miami, a causeway in the middle of Biscayne Bay has become home to one of the county's least desirable populations: sex offenders.

What began a few years ago as a stopgap solution has become de facto public policy. For sex offenders with few resources who want to stay in Miami, there's just one option: an encampment of tents and shacks on the Julia Tuttle Causeway.

The encampment got started a few years ago, when Miami-Dade County, like other communities across the country, adopted an ordinance banning sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of anywhere that children gather.

It's a law that applies not just to sex offenders on probation but also to felons who have served their time — people like 31-year-old Juan Martin. He served an eight-year sentence for exposing himself to a teenaged girl.

After Martin got out of prison in 2006, his probation officer brought him to what at that time was just a small camp of several men and a few tents under the bridge on the causeway. After three years of living here, he's angry. He says, "The state is forcing you to live like an animal."

Right now, 67 people live here. And nearly every week, probation officers drop off sex offenders, recently released, who have nowhere else to go.

Voncel Johnson recently became the first woman who was told she'd have to live under the bridge. She says when her probation officer dropped her off at the camp, it was unexpected and frightening.

"I'm thinking she's bringing me to a three-quarter-way house," Johnson recalls. "But when I got here it was … pitch dark. The first thing I saw was men, and I'm the only lady here. … I broke down.

The fact is, about half the counties in Florida now have an ordinance similar to the one in Miami. There are fewer and fewer places sex offenders can legally live in the state after they are released from prison.

The Columbus Dispatch : Ohio's voting machine glitch exposed

 

The maker of touch-screen voting machines used in half of Ohio's counties has admitted that its own programming error is to blame for votes being dropped in some counties.

The problem can't be fixed before the Nov. 4 election, so Premier Election Solutions and Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner are issuing guidelines to counties for how to avoid the problem.

The Columbus Dispatch : Ohio's voting machine glitch exposed

 

 

This company cannot. be. trusted.  They have proved this over and over again.  First they blame anti-virus software for the loss of votes; then turn around and admit it's their own programming at issue. 

 

There are _open_ solutions out there.  A prime example is http://www.openvotingconsortium.org.  This is a fully open, verifiable, 3 way system which can be audited by millions of technically savvy individuals.  Donate to them, if you've got spare change.

xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - By Randall Munroe

 

(Click image for full version)

Came across this comic today -- this about perfectly sums up the base idiocy of the "AV software caused lost votes" argument coming from Premier/Diebold.  (See Ohio Sues Diebold/Premiere Over Lost E-Voting Votes)

The 5 Most Ridiculously Over-Hyped Health Scares of All Time | Cracked.com

This is the most insightful article I've read all week.  I'm not sure if that's good or bad.... but this article is spot on.

The 5 Most Ridiculously Over-Hyped Health Scares of All Time | Cracked.com

Fears of Internet predators unfounded, study finds

 

WASHINGTON — A lot of parental worries about Internet sex predators are unjustified, according to new research by a leading center that studies crimes against children.

Perhaps this should say "Media FUD" instead of "parental worries"?  I'm hopeful that this is the first step in the end of this particular phase of media fear-mongering; unfortunately this will like be ignored.

The study comes out with a set of information that have individually been reported/suspected for years, but as far as I'm aware, were never performed as a formal study.

In this case, their are 3 studies:

1. 3,000 children aged 10 thru 17, interviewed first in 2000, then again in 2005
2. 3,000 children aged 10 thru 17, interviewed first in 2000, then again in 2005 (2 of the same study!)
3. 612 Interviews with a investigators from a "nationally representative" sample of agencies in the Unites States.

The conclusions, published in American Psychologist (the journal of the American Psychological Association), in a paper titled "Online 'Predators' and Their Victims", by Janis Wolak  & co-researchers, were as follows:

• Sex assaults on teens fell 52 percent from 1993 to 2005, according to the Justice Department's National Crime Victimization Survey, the best measure of U.S. crime trends
• Internet predators don't hit on the prepubescent children whom pedophiles target. They target adolescents, who have more access to computers, more privacy and more interest in sex and romance, Wolak's team determined from interviews with investigators.
• Most Internet-linked offenses are essentially statutory rape: nonforcible sex crimes against minors too young to consent to sexual relationships with adults.
• Most victims meet online offenders face-to-face and go to those meetings expecting to engage in sex. Nearly three-quarters have sex with partners they met on the Internet more than once.
• Only 5 percent of predators posed online as other teens, according to the survey of investigators.
• Usually their targets are adolescent girls or adolescent boys of uncertain sexual orientation, according to Wolak. Youths with histories of sexual abuse, sexual orientation concerns and patterns of off- and online risk-taking are especially at risk.

Here's hoping we can get more facts -- I'd settle for well-supported theories! -- in the near future, instead of more fear mongering from the media.

Good news.. but wait, what about the terrorists and pedophiles!!

 

Reading the news today, I came across this bit, which by itself is pretty good news.  It, if passed, would extend reporter's privilege to federal cases; such already exists for all states, including DC.  It also, as a side effect, would include Bloggers, or anyone else involved in "the regular gathering, preparing, collecting, photographing, recording, writing, editing, reporting, or publishing of news or information that concerns local, national, or international events or other matters of public interest for dissemination to the public".

Anyone regularly engaged in "journalism," which would seem to include some bloggers, wouldn't generally be forced to divulge confidential sources in federal cases under a bill approved Thursday by a U.S. Senate committee.

By a 15-2 vote, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee backed an amended version of the so-called Free Flow of Information Act. Sens. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) cast the "no" votes.

Bloggers land legal shield in Senate panel vote | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

 

But wait, there's more!  You can't simply pass a new law these days; someone has to tie it to terrorism and child porn or child predators:

The Justice Department has argued that the language is far too broad and could endanger national security and criminal investigations. A Thursday Washington Post op-ed by U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald claims the bill would unwittingly protect Iraqi spies posing as journalists and child pornographers who swapped information via the Internet.

Give me a break.  I'm sick and tired of everything being reduced to either terrorism or "protect the children!".  I'd vote for Mickey Mouse for president at this point if I thought he'd govern thru wisdom, and not thru fear mongering.

Ridiculous! Texas Legislature

 

This is shameful behavior from politicians.  Voting for other members, racing to get your vote in place for another member before someone else can get THEIR vote in place for another member... shocking behavior that clearly needs to be blocked against, since those who should be policing themselves, aren't.

Starting at 00:55: "Elkins goes to vote for Merit but Hancock is faster. Elkins heads back to his desk but before he can vote Joe Crabb turns around and beats him to it." Then watch... while Elkins turns around to vote on someone else's desk, Crabb votes on Elkins desk!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG6X-xtVask

Early adopters sour over iPhone price cut - CNN.com

Well what the hell were they expecting? The damn phone was SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS.  Jeez people, everyone knows you buy new tech a few months after release, unless you like to pay a premium. 

Apple stock dropped more than 5 percent after the price cut was announced Wednesday, closing at $136.76, down $7.40. In extended trading, the share price fell another $1.01.

Meanwhile, gadget enthusiasts who snapped up the ballyhooed iPhone before Wednesday are coping with a bitter aftertaste now that it is $200 cheaper within 10 weeks of its introduction.

Early adopters sour over iPhone price cut - CNN.com