Thursday, February 13, 2014


News Clips For The Day



Insurance brokers reach out to Marijuana Inc. – CBS
By Bruce Kennedy Money Watch February 13, 2014

As political and cultural momentum builds for legalizing marijuana for medical and recreational use, it's created a so-called “green rush” of people trying to cash in on the surge in cannabis-related businesses.

That surge is also creating new opportunities and challenges for a segment of insurance companies -- firms that are now offering policies to marijuana growers, manufacturers and dispensaries in the states where cannabis is legal.

Of course, marijuana remains illegal under federal law. But last August the Justice Department announced it would not challenge state marijuana laws, and just last month Attorney General Eric Holder said legal marijuana business should have access to the banking system, if only out of consideration for public safety.

Bringing legalized marijuana to the masses
Entrepreneurs like Ron Throgmartin, CEO of Diego Pellicer Worldwide, see a bright future in the commercialized marijuana business.
 Nonetheless, it's hard for a cannabis business to get coverage from one of the big insurance companies.

Greenpoint Insurance Advisors, a Colorado-based company that provides business insurance not only to medical marijuana stores, dispensaries and growers, but also to ancillary companies, says in a statement on its website that "The standard insurance carriers such as State Farm, Farmers, Travelers, etc… don’t typically provide coverage for this unique industry."

These insurers are also trying to advise those looking to profit indirectly from the cannabis boom, such as owners of buildings and structures who rent to marijuana businesses.

“All too often landlords will lease space to a cultivator, dispensary or infused product manufacturer and then at renewal time their policy is cancelled,” warns Cannasure, another insurer that serves the marijuana industry. “We have the ability to insure your property and avoid the cancellation process.”
And despite the challenges, some insurers say their cannabis-related ventures is picking up. Mike Aberle, with GP Insurance Brokers in Rancho Cordova, Calif., said his company has been receiving up to 25 applications daily for marijuana-related policies.

America's changing attitudes on marijuana
A new poll shows that for the first time, the majority of Americans favor legalizing marijuana. Colorado and Washington have already legalized it...
 “We offer coverages outside the norm,” he said. “We offer crop coverage. We cover your living plants.”

GP Insurance Brokers also sells everything from general liability to theft insurance to marijuana businesses across the country, with the average premium for a cannabis business owner coming in at around $700 annually.

“We also have several states that are getting ready to pass [marijuana laws],” he noted, “so we’re already accepting their applications so we can start the process.”
That coverage, however, is only for businesses, and does not extend to people who grow marijuana at home.

There's even coverage in the event local law enforcement raids a marijuana business.
“If a state agency or lesser came in and that person was found innocent in the end, we pay,” he said, “because it wasn’t an illegal action.”

But all bets are off, Alberle notes, if the feds decide to raid a cannabis establishment.
“When you talk about federal, you can’t cover federal because it’s illegal,” he said. “We’d all go to jail for insuring an illegal operation.”




It looks like the marijuana industry is gradually developing nationwide and establishing a business framework, rather than just a handful of states offering haven. The Justice Department has decided not to challenge state laws, so maybe there will grow up a patchwork of laws so that most of the states are covered, as with the gay marriage laws.

Personally, I think we could do without a new legal recreational drug, though I feel more open about medical uses especially if they develop it so that it no longer produces a high. I basically disagree with the President that marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol. If you smoke enough of it, it can produce hallucinations and paranoia in some people, and I think scientists need to study progressive brain damage in long-term users. It's dangerous in a different way from alcohol. It would be good to decriminalize it, though, so that people found in possession of a small quantity would not be sent away to prison for long terms, as they are for the harder drugs.




Afghanistan frees 65 inmates from Parwan prison over strong U.S. Objections – CBS
CBS/AP February 13, 2014

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghanistan released 65 accused militants from a former U.S. prison on Thursday despite protests from the American military, which says the men are Taliban fighters who will likely return to the battlefield to kill coalition and Afghan forces. 

The release had been ordered by President Hamid Karzai several weeks ago, after his government took over the prison from U.S. troops. 

The decision had prompted angry denunciations from Washington and strained relations between the two countries ahead of the year-end withdrawal of most international combat troops. U.S. forces in Afghanistan say the men have the blood of international and Afghan soldiers on their hands. 

The prisoners were freed just after 9 a.m. from the Parwan Detention Facility near Bagram Air Field, about 28 miles north of Kabul, prison chief Gen. Faroq Barekzai told CBS News.

Maj. Nimatullah Khaki, a prison spokesperson, says they boarded a bus to leave the facility, laughing and smiling.

In a statement Thursday, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul called the release "deeply regrettable."

"Releasing these individuals is contrary to Afghanistan’s commitment in our 2012 Memorandum of Understanding to take all necessary steps to ensure that detainees do not pose a continuing threat to Afghanistan, the international community or the United States," the statement said.  "The Afghan government bears responsibility for the results of its decision. We urge it to make every effort to ensure that those released do not commit new acts of violence and terror, and to immediately bring to justice any who do so." 

The U.S. military in Afghanistan released a separate statement, saying the "release of these dangerous individuals poses a threat to U.S., Coalition and Afghan National Security Forces, as well as the Afghan population."

"Insurgents in the group released today have killed Coalition and Afghan Forces. They have killed Afghan men, women and children," read the statement. "More than two dozen of the individuals released were linked to the production or emplacement of improvised explosive devices, the number one killer of Afghan civilians." 

 The detainees' release has been in the works for weeks, and comes as Karzai's government has taken an increasingly hostile tone toward the U.S. ahead of the withdrawal of NATO combat troops at the end of 2014.

Karzai has thus far refused to sign a bilateral security pact with the U.S. government outlining the role of the American military in the country post-2014.
The U.S. has argued for the detainees to face trial in Afghan courts - citing strong evidence against them, from DNA linking them to roadside bombs to explosive residue on their clothing - but Kabul has cited insufficient proof to hold them. 

Karzai has referred to the Parwan prison as a "Taliban-producing factory" where innocent Afghans are tortured into hating their country.

Among those who were expected to walk free Thursday morning were Mohammad Wali, who the U.S. military says is a suspected Taliban explosives expert who allegedly placed roadside bombs targeting Afghan and international forces. The military said Wali had been biometrically linked to two roadside explosions and had a latent fingerprint match on another improvised explosive device, as well as testing positive for explosives residue. 

Others in the group include Nek Mohammad - who the U.S. says was captured with extensive weapons, and a man identified as Ehsanullah, who is claimed to have been biometrically matched to a roadside bomb and who tested positive for explosives residue. 

The U.S. military had formally disputed the prisoners' release, but an Afghan review board had effectively overruled those challenges. 




The torture or aggressive interrogation of prisoners and holding them without trial, the raiding of Afghan homes in pursuit of Taliban – maybe based on misinformation – and the air attacks on suspected Taliban houses are policies that have caused a backlash against US and Western forces. It may also be that Karzai has decided that he is no longer afraid to buck the US pressure to continue the engagement beyond the end of 2014, feeling that the citizens of Afghanistan are behind him. I just hope that the Taliban don't totally take over Afghanistan again, as they always bring in the most stringent of Islamic Laws, and the position of women will be further downgraded. I am worried, but I am afraid we brought it on ourselves.





Amazon, Macy's score low in password security study – CBS
By Dave Johnson Money Watch February 13, 2014

When deciding which web sites and web services to patronize, you probably don’t consider their password security policies. But as a recent study shows, perhaps it’s something you should take into account.

Recently, password manager vendor Dashlane studied what it considered to be the top 100 e-commerce websites, specifically looking to assess their security policies. The resulting report ranked the sites from best to worst, and called out especially bad performers.

Here are some general results:
More than half – 55 percent – of e-commerce sites accept weak passwords like “password” or “123456”.
Also more than half – 51 percent – do not block incorrect entries, even after 10 tries.

Only about 10 percent of the surveyed sites met Dashlane’s criteria for enforcing strong passwords.
Some of the best sites in the Dashlane study were Apple, Microsoft, Newegg, and Target. At the bottom of the list were sites like 1-800-Flowers, J. Crew, Toys R Us, and MLB. And while you as a user can easily work around some poor password policies – even if a site doesn’t require a strong password, for example, you can still create one yourself – some of these sites have policies that are downright dangerous.  1-800-Flowers, J. Crew, and Toys R Us, for example, send you your passwords in plain text via email – that’s downright reckless.

Among the other "notable" sites with low scores were Macy's, Amazon, Overstock.com and Walmart. These sites scored low primarily because they allow more than 10 log-in attempts without locking out the user.

What precautions can you take to protect yourself despite lax password policies at sites you frequent? Here’s a summary of what it takes to keep your passwords secure online:
First and foremost, don’t re-use passwords at different websites. No matter how strong you make a password, if it gets compromised at one site, you don’t want that to unlock other sites as well.

Password strength comes from length, not overall complexity. Make it at least 8 characters long, and the longer the better (though many sites limit password length).
Combine upper and lowercase, numbers, and symbols. Also, use less common symbols – exclamation points are so commonly used in passwords that they are factored into password hacking as if they were an ordinary character.

Use a password manager to track your passwords. It’s far better to use a program like LastPass, Roboform, or Dashlane than to write down a password or repeat it for ease of memorization.

If you’re creating a password yourself, refer to a password strength meter to assess its relative strength. Microsoft offers one, for example. Another alternative: Most password managers will generate a strong password for you.

As many security experts have pointed out, pass phrases – long chains of common words – are far more secure than an 8 or 12-character string of letters and numbers. If a site supports it – especially a site that has your financial information – use that instead.

Finally, if you have the option, rely on a site’s two factor authentication. That’s a system in which you need to enter both a password and some other form of security, such as a code that’s texted to your phone. Sites like Google, Twitter, Facebook, and PayPal support two factor authentication when you try to log in on a device that’s different than your usual PC or phone.



Unfortunately, I have used both the WalMart and the Amazon sites, and I do reuse the same password. Actually I have three that I use . I don't want to have to make up something new each time I go to a site and always remember to write it down, though I do have a notebook with names and passwords in it. I was keeping it up while I was looking for a job, but then stopped. Maybe I'll take the advice in this article, though, and do a new word each time. At first I never bought anything online, but I do now. I'll do better from now on.





On Obamacare enrollment, insurers don't share government's optimism – CBS
By Sharyl Attkisson CBS News February 13, 2014

The Obama administration’s most recent tally of enrollees under the Affordable Care Act highlights the wildly divergent views of the program’s success status. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) touted figures released Wednesday as reason for optimism, while others see only warning signs amid the statistics.

According to HHS, enrollment in the Health Insurance Marketplace shot up by 53 percent in January over the previous three months and 27 percent of last month’s enrollees were the highly desirable young adults ages 18-34, who are vital to making the system financially viable. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius issued a press release stating that signups among young adults, nicknamed “young invincibles” in insurance industry jargon, was up 3 percentage points from October through December and outpaced all other age groups combined.

“Nearly 3.3 million people enrolled in the Health Insurance Marketplace plans by Feb. 1, 2014…with January alone accounting for 1.1 million plan selections in state and federal marketplaces,” read a press statement issued Wednesday by Sebelius.
But the rosy portrait shatters under an alternate interpretation by insurance industry representative Robert Laszewski of Health Policy and Strategy Associates.

“They made a big deal about the age results,” said Laszewski after reviewing the HHS numbers. “But the greater challenge for them is the low number of people enrolling. There is no way you can get a good spread of risk with such a small percentage of the total eligible signing up.”

CBS News also received a guarded analysis from a source involved in implementation of the Affordable Care Act who supports Obamacare.

The source said the bump of young invincibles to 27 percent of January enrollees was “progress,” but added “they neglect to point out that they need roughly 40 percent to help achieve a balanced risk pool” necessary under a successful business model.

“3.3 million people is still a relatively small proportion of the population that ‘should be’ interested," added the source, who is not authorized to speak on behalf of the administration and does not wish to be identified.

Laszewski has a strikingly similar analysis and says HHS’s reported number of 3.3 million enrollees exaggerates the true picture. He says that to calculate a more accurate number, one must subtract about 20 percent of the enrollees because they haven’t paid (and so aren’t technically insured); as well as about two-thirds of the enrollees because they were already insured prior to signing up for Obamacare.
“Looking at the total of 3.3 million, netting out the non-pays, and listening to the anecdotal carrier reports, it doesn't look like we have more than a fraction--certainly something less than 10%-- of the previously uninsured,” said Laszewski.
The Obama administration insists the January figures reflect positive movement in the troubled initiative.

“These encouraging trends show that more Americans are enrolling every day, and finding quality, affordable coverage in the Marketplace,” said Sebelius.
Laszewski gave an example of why he disagrees. California and Washington State accounted for about a fourth of the January total with a combined 817,000 enrollees. “However, those two states canceled much more than that as of January 1,” said Laszewski.




I do hope this plan, after so much effort, will succeed. I will continue to collect articles about it as time goes by. What I would like to know is why those who are failing to sign up are doing that. Is it a boycott? Do they simply feel they can't afford to pay for insurance? The only other mandated insurance I can think of is automobile insurance, but the difference is that certain provisions are absolutely mandated – and it has “teeth” in it. You simply can't drive without paying for it. Those who can't pay for it ride bicycles or go by city bus. Actually, homeowners insurance is also required. Luckily renters insurance is not, and I have never paid rental insurance. I didn't have any household disasters either, so I've been okay.






Ohio girl's email cry for help leads to rescue – CBS
By Crimesider Staff AP February 13, 2014

CINCINNATI - Children rescued by a sister's email cry for help to a teacher after they allegedly were beaten and tied to their beds, sometimes for weeks at a time, were happy just to be able to pick out their own snacks at the sheriff's department once free, an investigator said.

"They knew that they weren't going back into that environment," said Capt. David Hall of the Scioto County Sheriff's Office. "That we were there to rescue them from that and not put them back in a bad situation."

The email late last month led the teacher to call 911 and after an investigation involving police and children's services authorities led to the arrests of the girl's mother, grandmother and stepfather, Hall said. The three appeared in court on Wednesday.

The children all were beaten and tied to their beds, and the 44-year-old man arrested in the case also is charged with repeatedly raping his stepdaughters, ages 9 and 11, and abusing their 8-year-old brother, police said.

Hall didn't know which of the two girls sent the email but said the children now are in foster care, attend a bricks-and-mortar public school and seem to be doing well.

"I'm sure like most kids she trusted in her teacher that she would get her help," he said. "We don't know if the opportunity was there that maybe no adults were around. Or maybe she just had enough."

The girl sent the email to her teacher at the Toledo-based Ohio Virtual Academy on Jan. 30, Hall said. She asked the teacher to call 911 because she and her siblings were being "tied to the beds and beat," authorities said.

The children later told deputies that they were restrained with ropes and chains for weeks at a time, sometimes longer, and only occasionally were untied to do schoolwork. They also described being forced to take their clothes off to be beaten with belts and paddles, and they had marks and scars to match their stories, Hall said.

Though the children said they were only sometimes allowed to eat and were "very hungry," they didn't appear overly malnourished, he said.

A school administrator said she was proud of the teacher and all the staff at the online school.

At the request of the sheriff's office, the school declined to make the teacher available, saying she was a potential witness in the investigation.

"We care deeply about the welfare and needs of all our students," senior head of school Kristin Stewart said in a statement. "Our teachers are extraordinarily dedicated, highly trained, and have special relationships with their students."

The children's stepfather, originally from the Virgin Islands, has denied the accusations and wasn't cooperating with investigators, Hall said. He's the father of one child in the home, a 2-year-old girl, who was not believed to have been harmed.

Hall said one of the other adults is cooperating and told deputies the children were tied up as punishment "because they were stealing food" at the home in Wheelersburg, a town across the Ohio River from Kentucky, about 90 miles south of Columbus in Appalachian country.

The Associated Press is not naming the suspects to protect the children's identities. All three suspects had their first court appearance on Wednesday, when pleas of not guilty were entered for them. The stepfather is being held on a $1 million bond, while the mother and grandmother are being held on $150,000 bonds.

All are being charged with child endangerment, but Hall said he expects more charges to be filed after a grand jury considers the case.

Hall said the children have been placed in "a very good home with a good family" in southern Ohio.

"They're getting to eat now. They have loving people around them," he said. "They're just little kids. They like to love and be loved, and they deserve all that."



"They knew that they weren't going back into that environment," said Hall. In Florida a few years ago there was a Jacksonville case in which the judge actually put a child back into the abusive home and the child died. There was a great stir about it in the news, but it simply shouldn't have ever happened. It's hard to imagine the depravity of some people, but when they are discovered they should go to prison for more than two or three years and be forced to participate in mental health treatment.

I don't think outright cruelty is natural or mentally healthy. It's a form of mental illness. Unfortunately it may be a very hard-set turn of mind, and if such people can't be influenced to change, maybe they could be committed indefinitely or simply given a very long prison term without parole. Torture is horrendous, especially if the victim is smaller and incapable of an effective self-defense.





Inmates in solitary confinement 7 times more likely to harm themselves: Study – CBS
AP February 13, 2014

NEW YORK -- A first-of-its-kind study found that New York City jail inmates sent to solitary confinement are nearly seven times more likely to try to hurt or kill themselves than those never assigned to it.

The peer-reviewed study, published Wednesday by the American Journal of Public Health, provides empirical evidence of a strong association between self-harm and the place inmates and staff call "the bing." It also backs an argument that advocates and others have long used to criticize a practice that they say is inhumane.

 "We've always tracked all acts of self-harm but what we didn't know was, 'What are the variables associated with that self-harm?'" said Dr. Homer Venters, an assistant health commissioner who heads health services for the city's jails and was one of the study's main authors. "We do see that solitary confinement itself is a predictor of self-harm."

The study examined 244,699 incarcerations in the city's jail system between January 2010 and January 2013 and found that there were 2,182 acts of self-harm, 103 of them potentially fatal. While 7.3 percent of incarcerations included a stint in solitary confinement, 53.3 percent of self-harm acts - and 45 percent of potentially fatal ones - happened there, the research revealed.

The study concluded that inmates assigned to solitary were 6.9 times as likely to harm themselves, even after controlling for variables such as length of jail stay, race and serious mental illness. Inmates who are 18 years old or younger and are diagnosed with serious mental illness accounted for the majority of the self-harm acts, the study found. And many inmates hurt themselves in an effort to avoid time in solitary, earning them the nickname "bing-beaters" by correctional staff, the study found.

New York City's Department of Correction has taken steps in recent months to limit the use of solitary as a punishment, but it can still be doled out punitively when inmates break certain rules, seriously assault someone or attempt to hurt themselves. It also can be used to isolate unruly inmates and as a form of protective custody. 
Suicide is the most common cause of death in U.S. jails, according to the Department of Justice, accounting for 35 percent of the 885 inmate deaths in 2011, the most recent year for which data was available. There were three suicides in city jails last year, according to the city Department of Correction.

 Common methods of self-harm ranged from relatively minor acts such as cutting skin with plastic utensils to cause bleeding to potentially fatal acts such as ingesting toxins or tying something around their necks, Venters said. Other acts included banging their heads against the wall and setting cells on fire.

Some inmates harm themselves while in solitary in an attempt to get out, as did one who stuck a deodorant canister so far into his rectum that it had to be surgically removed, the study found.

Inmates who harm themselves also affect a jail's finances, the study found, with every 100 acts resulting in about 3,760 hours of additional time for corrections officers who must take them to hospitals and provide 24-hour suicide watch.
Solitary cells are generally about 6 feet by 8 feet, with metal or cinderblock walls containing a bed and combined toilet and sink. The cells are closed off by a large, solid metal sliding door that sometimes has a small panel for inmates to look out and a slot through which inmates are handcuffed and delivered meals.
Dr. Ernest Drucker, a Columbia University epidemiologist who was one of the peer reviewers, called the study the "largest, most comprehensive" look at the use of solitary that he was aware of.

He said the research says "something meaningful about what happens to individuals in large numbers in a system that's ostensibly meant to hold them in detention while due process goes forward but in fact places them in more danger."

Some advocates have called for the abolishment of the use of solitary as a punishment, and lawsuits challenging the use of prolonged solitary confinement have been filed in California and elsewhere.

Alexis Agathocleous, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, represents inmates in solitary in California state prison.
"I think what this study and the other studies about solitary are pointing to is a growing understanding that this practice has a devastating toll on prisoners and does not comport with basic standards of decency," he said. "The social science is quite clear: Even in short periods, solitary confinement can have a significant effect on a person's psychological well-being ... and poses a serious problem from a human rights perspective."

On Rikers Island, a 10-facility lockup on a 400-acre island in the East River that houses the majority of city inmates, officials in December eliminated the use of solitary for seriously mentally ill inmates. Schizophrenic, bipolar and other seriously mentally ill inmates instead get assigned to two new dormitory-style units called Clinical Alternative to Punitive Segregation.

"In recent years the Department of Correction has taken many steps to minimize its use of punitive segregation," a department spokesman said in a statement, adding that it will continue to "explore alternatives and modifications to punitive segregation that do not compromise the safety of inmates, staff and visitors."

The Board of Correction, which has an oversight role over the department, has begun the lengthy process of changing city laws governing how solitary is used for the seriously mentally ill and adolescent inmates.




I am glad to see that there are people within the corrections system who really care about the well-being of prisoners, and that this issue of isolating prisoners is being changed, at least with young or mentally disturbed people. That is the problem with the jailing of the insane – they need treatment, but in most jails they don't get it. That's why I always sympathize with people using the insanity defense. I don't think a person who has committed a crime should get off without being incarcerated in some form, but I would rather see long term hospitals for the criminally insane take those prisoners rather than a prison. Of course they shouldn't be put back out on the streets to repeat their crimes, even in a hospital setting where they may be deemed “cured” and released. If they become cured, they should have to go to a prison to finish serving their term.