Friday, September 5, 2014


News Clips For The Day


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/george-w-bushs-daughters-not-165917123.html

George W. Bush's Daughters Are Not Republicans – Yahoo Finance
Business Insider
By Colin Campbell
September 4, 2014

Then-President Bush, left, walks behind daughter Jenna Hager and son-in-law Henry Hager in 2008.

Both of former President George W. Bush's daughters aren't following the family's Republican Party heritage.

Jenna Bush Hager, the younger of the Bush twins, is registered to New York's Independence Party, according to a Daily News reportWednesday. The third party is much maligned in local politics for allegedly duping voters who meant to actually register as "independent."

A spokeswoman for the daughter told the paper that Hager, a correspondent for NBC News, confirmed she made a mistake when she registered.

"Jenna registered to vote in New York soon after her daughter was born, and like all new moms, she was functioning on very little sleep. She mistakenly registered for the Independence Party," said the spokeswoman.

The Daily News also reported that her twin sister, Barbara Pierce Bush, is registered to vote in Texas and is not affiliated with any political party.

The two Bush daughters' voter registrations don't come as a complete surprise, however. They told People magazine in 2010 that they didn't embrace the U.S. political parties.

"I don't really label myself as Republican or Democrat," said Bush.

"We're both very independent thinkers," added Hager.




George W. Bush's daughters have both chosen their own political paths, so Bush must have been a liberal father. Women are not generally as conservative as men in our society. Women are supposed to be more maleable and submissive in conservative homes, but since the Women's Movement they have often turned out to be feisty and independent. The Bush daughters are apparently the latter type of woman. Their mother, though for all I know she may have voted as a Republican, has spoken out on women's issues and certainly does not seem cowed by her husband. For that matter, Bush himself doesn't seem like the tyrant type. Here is an interesting article on Bush and his wife at a women's event in Africa.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/george-w.-bush-taking-care-of-women-is-good-politics/article/2551754

Former President George W. Bush crashed an event for African first ladies, telling them: “If you’re worried about your husbands’ political future, taking care of women is good politics."

Bush spoke after his wife, former First Lady Laura Bush, and current First Lady Michelle Obama discussed advancing opportunities for women and girls in Africa on the third and final day of a summit for U.S. and African leaders.

“There are a few men in the audience whose wives are more popular than they are ... and I’m one of them,” Bush said, as quoted by the New York Daily News.

First ladies from Algeria, Chad, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Mali, Morocco, Namibia, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda attended.

Bush left the event after posing for photos with the first lady of Ethiopia, Roman Tesfaye, and the first lady of Namibia, Penehupifo Pohamba.




As Turkey turned blind eye, ISIS took advantage
By HOLLY WILLIAMS CBS NEWS September 4, 2014, 7:10 PM

ISTANBUL, Turkey - As ISIS has grown, it's used neighboring Turkey, a key U.S. ally, as its staging ground.

For three years, the Turkish government has allowed fighters to stream across its borders into Syria, driven by its desire to topple Syria's dictator, Bashar Al-Assad.

In 2012, CBS News interviewed Mahmoud, a bulldozer salesman from Atlanta, Georgia who returned to his homeland to join the battle against the Syrian regime.

"We come in and out," he said at the time. "The Turkish they are closing eyes, when we cross."

Islamic extremists also took advantage of the Turkish turning a blind eye.

In December, CBS News filmed men crossing illegally into the war zone in broad daylight.

Many militants have been treated in Turkish hospitals, and set up safe houses in Turkish border towns.

And in a Turkish government refugee camp two years ago CBS News met Syrian men who said they regularly crossed back into Syria to fight, and wanted to establish an Islamic state.

The Turkish government says it's never helped ISIS, and considers it to be a terrorist group.

But Hursit Gunes, a member of Turkey's opposition, claims his government has allowed ISIS to flourish because it prefers the group to the Syrian regime.

He even accuses the Turkish authorities of ignoring the militants' lucrative oil smuggling business on Turkey's border.

"That money could be stopped," said Gunes. "The money they get from smuggling could be stopped if the Turkish government and the neighbor countries had decided that they shouldn't get a coin."

A Turkish government official told CBS News 6,000 foreigners are now banned from Turkey because of fears they could slip across the border to fight with ISIS in Syria or Iraq. But he also said that Turkey has a 500-mile-long border with Syria, and it's simply impossible to stop everyone who wants to join the cause of the Islamic extremists.




“As ISIS has grown, it's used neighboring Turkey, a key U.S. ally, as its staging ground. For three years, the Turkish government has allowed fighters to stream across its borders into Syria, driven by its desire to topple Syria's dictator, Bashar Al-Assad.…The Turkish government says it's never helped ISIS, and considers it to be a terrorist group. But Hursit Gunes, a member of Turkey's opposition, claims his government has allowed ISIS to flourish because it prefers the group to the Syrian regime. He even accuses the Turkish authorities of ignoring the militants' lucrative oil smuggling business on Turkey's border..... A Turkish government official told CBS News 6,000 foreigners are now banned from Turkey because of fears they could slip across the border to fight with ISIS in Syria or Iraq. But he also said that Turkey has a 500-mile-long border with Syria, and it's simply impossible to stop everyone who wants to join the cause of the Islamic extremists..

Political enemies and black market oil – plus the difficulty of patrolling its 500 mile border with Syria – “make strange bedfellows”, but public opinion and maybe a push from the US government has caused Turkey to close out those who would travel through its lands to get to Syria. At least Turkey is now operating actively against the flow of ISIS wannabees who have poured through the borders in recent months. That is good. See the following article a coalition forming against ISIS.




U.S. Announces Coalition To Fight Against The Islamic State – NPR
by EYDER PERALTA
September 05, 2014

The United States says it has formed a coalition of 10 countries to help in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq.

The New York Times reports that the coalition will act in two ways: It will support allies fighting against the Islamic State on the ground and it will continue attacking the Sunni militants using air strikes.

Reuters reports that in a meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Wales, Secretary of State John Kerry said the strategy for the coalition was to contain, not destroy, the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

"We need to attack them in ways that prevent them from taking over territory, to bolster the Iraqi security forces and others in the region who are prepared to take them on, without committing troops of our own," Kerry said, according to Reuters. "Obviously I think that's a red line for everybody here: no boots on the ground."

The Times adds:

"American officials are hoping to expand the coalition against ISIS to include as many countries as possible, particularly in the region. Obama administration officials said privately that in addition to the countries that attended the meeting Friday morning, the United States was hoping to get quiet intelligence help about the Sunni militants from Jordan, whose leader, King Abdullah, was participating in the NATO summit.

"United States officials said they also expected Saudi Arabia to provide money and aid for moderate Syrian rebel groups. Yousef al-Otaiba, the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to the United States, said in a statement earlier this week that the United Arab Emirates stood ready to join the fight against ISIS. 'No one has more at stake than the U.A.E. and other moderate countries in the region that have rejected the regressive Islamist creed and embraced a different, forward-looking path,' the ambassador said. The Emiratis, he said, are 'ready to join the international community in an urgent, coordinated and sustained effort to confront a threat that will, if unchecked, have global ramifications for decades to come.'"

The Islamic State, if you remember, caught the international community's attention when it began a brazen and lightning-fast attack on Iraq over the summer. Since then, the group has overtaken several Iraqi cities and has taken responsibility for the beheading of two American journalists.

As the Islamic State moved further into Iraq, the United States began an air campaign against the group.

The newly-formed coalition consists of the United States plus Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Turkey, Italy, Poland and Denmark.




"The New York Times reports that the coalition will act in two ways: It will support allies fighting against the Islamic State on the ground and it will continue attacking the Sunni militants using air strikes. Reuters reports that in a meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Wales, Secretary of State John Kerry said the strategy for the coalition was to contain, not destroy, the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.... the United States was hoping to get quiet intelligence help about the Sunni militants from Jordan, whose leader, King Abdullah, was participating in the NATO summit.... 'United States officials said they also expected Saudi Arabia to provide money and aid for moderate Syrian rebel groups. Yousef al-Otaiba, the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to the United States, said in a statement earlier this week that the United Arab Emirates stood ready to join the fight against ISIS. 'No one has more at stake than the U.A.E. and other moderate countries in the region that have rejected the regressive Islamist creed and embraced a different, forward-looking path,' the ambassador said.... The newly-formed coalition consists of the United States plus Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Turkey, Italy, Poland and Denmark.”

This looks like good progress. I hope to see ISIS becoming more subdued in its march to set up a radical fundamentalist state in Iraq and Syria. Meanwhile, we have yet to arm the Kurds with heavy weapons and ammunition, unless a news article on that subject has slipped past my notice. I hope Obama hasn't forgotten about that.





Are colleges to blame for slackers? – CBS
By LYNN O'SHAUGHNESSY MONEYWATCH September 5, 2014

Many recent college graduates are struggling to become self-supporting adults, and their alma maters deserve some of the blame.

That's the conclusion of a new book, "Aspiring Adults Adrift: Tentative Transitions of College Graduates," written by two sociologists who rocked the higher-education world in 2010 with blockbuster research that concluded that many students were learning next to nothing in college.

Richard Arum of New York University and Josipa Roksa of the University of Virginia became household names in college circles several years ago when their original book, "Academically Adrift," indicted colleges for creating campus environments that coddle and entertain students rather than challenge them. The sociologists concluded that more than one in three college seniors were no better at writing, critical thinking and reasoning than they were as freshmen. In addition, many of the students who did grow intellectually showed only minor progress.

In their latest research, Arum and Roska explored what happened to 1,000 of the 2,300 students they began studying as undergraduates in the mid 2000's. These young Americans graduated from a wide cross-section of four-year schools, including private liberal arts colleges, state universities and historically black universities, making them a representative sample.

The findings are equally depressing, and seem to point to the generally poor educations many young people are getting in college. Among the lowlights:

24 percent of the college graduates in the study sample were living with their parents
74 percent of graduates were getting financial help from their families
Only 47 percent of graduates in the labor market had full-time jobs that paid at least $30,000 a year
23 percent of graduates in the labor market were unemployed or underemployed

The researchers defined underemployed as working less than 20 hours per week or having a job where most employees have not completed at least one year of college. They also found that many recent graduates had difficulty developing stable romantic relationships and that they were not civically engaged.

Arum and Roska lay a great deal of the blame for these grim statistics on colleges, arguing that the institutions have focused on offering fun rather than rigorous academics. In other words, schools simply don't require much from their students beyond making sure that somebody is paying their tab.

"Rather than challenge students who come in with limited academic interests and overly narrow ideas about the purpose of college," the authors write, "we too often ask little in terms of commitment and offer little in terms of direction."

The co-authors suggest that schools can no longer be content with the status quo and instead must "collectively commit ourselves to raise academic standards, design rigorous curriculum program and work to improve instruction, advising and mentoring. This is in the best interest of our students, our institutions and society at large."

Students who thrive

There is some good news in the study.

The students who did work harder in college and managed to improve in their writing and critical thinking skills have fared much better than the slackers. The researchers used a test called the Collegiate Learning Assessment to measure academic growth. Those with higher CLA scores were far less likely to be unemployed, while those with low scores were nearly twice as likely to lose the jobs they did find. Students who bombed on the test were also 50 percent more likely to be stuck in an unskilled job.

Remarkably, these struggling graduates remained upbeat about their future prospects. Ninety-five percent of the graduates said that their lives would be the same or better than their parents.




"Richard Arum of New York University and Josipa Roksa of the University of Virginia became household names in college circles several years ago when their original book, "Academically Adrift," indicted colleges for creating campus environments that coddle and entertain students rather than challenge them. The sociologists concluded that more than one in three college seniors were no better at writing, critical thinking and reasoning than they were as freshmen. In addition, many of the students who did grow intellectually showed only minor progress. In their latest research, Arum and Roska explored what happened to 1,000 of the 2,300 students they began studying as undergraduates in the mid 2000's. These young Americans graduated from a wide cross-section of four-year schools, including private liberal arts colleges, state universities and historically black universities, making them a representative sample.... 'Rather than challenge students who come in with limited academic interests and overly narrow ideas about the purpose of college,' the authors write, "we too often ask little in terms of commitment and offer little in terms of direction.' The co-authors suggest that schools can no longer be content with the status quo and instead must 'collectively commit ourselves to raise academic standards, design rigorous curriculum program and work to improve instruction, advising and mentoring.'... The researchers used a test called the Collegiate Learning Assessment to measure academic growth. Those with higher CLA scores were far less likely to be unemployed, while those with low scores were nearly twice as likely to lose the jobs they did find. Students who bombed on the test were also 50 percent more likely to be stuck in an unskilled job.”

Just getting a Liberal Arts degree in college really doesn't prepare the student to fare better in most jobs in the outside world. Business, economics, law, psychology, a teaching degree and training in a specific area such as science, engineering, mathematics (especially accounting), and marketing are directly related to the business world. Writing and thinking skills are basic for management level jobs, but so are a business or law degree. The true liberal arts education is not aimed at working in a corporation, especially one that produces a product for sale, but for teaching, work in a non-profit organization or a professional writing position.

It isn't fair to blame the colleges unless their teachers and curriculum are actually “slackers,” too, in other words, not rigorous enough. Colleges are ranked according to their quality of education, and that's why Yale and Harvard are so difficult for students to enter and succeed there. For all this excellence, they charge much higher tuition, which unfortunately, only well-to-do parents can afford. All colleges allow students to remain enrolled if they are making as low as a 1.33 or D in undergraduate school. Of course, if an employer demands a transcript for a job applicant, the business will see that the student didn't do well, and probably won't hire him.

Besides, many jobs in the business world require a masters in some field, including even teaching now. A four year degree really isn't a good basis for competition in the work world today, and after all, doesn't prepare the student to do anything except teach (in which case he has to have education coursework), work in a personnel department, sales, or a library. Professional librarians have to have a masters degree. College is still a good idea for the liberal arts type, but the student must remember that he will probably need a masters in a clearly defined field which is a direct preparation for a specific job. He also needs to make good grades. It is my opinion that many students are pushed into going to a liberal arts college when what would benefit them more about getting a job is specific training at a technical school – computers, medical assistants over various kinds, paralegal, etc. Students right out of high school do need further education, but the best fit may not be a four year college.





Fast-food worker protests a sign of new union tactics – CBS
By CONSTANTINE VON HOFFMAN MONEYWATCH
September 5, 2014, 8:03 AM

Yesterday's protests by fast-food workers in more than 100 U.S. cities weren't just an effort to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. They were also a demonstration of a tactic re-invigorating organized labor: Showing unions as fighting for all workers, not just their members.

Hundreds of people were arrested Thursday for non-violent civil disobedience during a series of strikes in 150 cities across the U.S. over low wages at fast-food companies including McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King and KFC. Although the effort was funded and organized by the Service Employees International Union, most of the protesters were not members of the SEIU or any other union.

Kendall Fells, a representative of SEIU and organizing director of Fast Food Forward which sponsored yesterday's protests, believes that it's common cause, not membership, that makes a union.

"The definition of a union is simply workers standing together for common change," said Fells. "That's exactly what these workers are doing and that's why they're so successful. The way you have a union is by acting like one."

This is just the latest effort, mostly by newer and smaller unions, to organize people in low-paying, high-turnover jobs that older, more established unions believed couldn't be organized.

"Unions have to focus on low-wage workers," said Stuart Applebaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union. "Those are the people bearing the brunt of economic policies and who have lost most. Unfortunately that is also where much of the work is these days."

One thing SEIU has done is to organize low-wage workers by industry instead of the traditional model of organizing relatively well-paid jobs at individual businesses. It is a tactic that has worked well for the union, which today has two million members mostly working in healthcare, property services and government. Since the 1980s it has successfully organized janitors, security guards, child care providers and others.

But organizing in this case doesn't just mean increasing the number of union members, according to Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think-tank in Washington, D.C.

"They aren't trying to organize it in traditional sense of getting collective bargaining in McDonald's and the other fast food places," he said. "They're doing something different which is to create a movement to have low wage workers demand more in pay and better conditions and that will then carry over to the people they are over to organize."

This "rising tide lifts all ships" approach is a conscious effort to change how the public views unions and what they do. Under the old model of organizing one business at a time it was easier for companies to make the argument that this was just another case of unions trying to get in and make money for themselves. This isolated the unions from the community as a whole.

The new model of campaigns has labor being just one part of a broader coalition within a community, said Héctor J. Figueroa, president of SEIU local 32BJ.

"We should make our campaigns be about what the issue is," he said. "We should put forward that workers are underpaid, working under unsafe conditions, without opportunities and making a general demand regardless of employers that the whole industry needs to take notice and needs to address these concerns."

This change in focus has connected with the public at large. Figueroa says this can be seen in things like Seattle's decision to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hourand in other cities also seeking to set a minimum that is well above the federally mandated $7.25 an hour.

"What has changed is not only the tactics but also the reciprocity and the scale of attention by the public to this kind of campaigns," Figueroa said. "If there had not been the recognition that these people work hard and they deserve better it would have been very hard to get to where we are now. It's the right tactic at the right moment to say at the national level that these workers deserve better."

This is the right moment because much of the public now has different view of their place in the economy than before the financial meltdown.

"What happened with the Great Recession is people began to understand that they should be questioning the economic underpinnings of our society," said Applebaum. "People are more skeptical now of corporate leaders after they saw what happened. They've seen how benefits they took for granted all their lives are disappearing. They lost so much from where they thought they should be that they're willing to stand up."

The unions are also benefiting from other economic factors, like the fact that average wages for most Americans haven't gone up in years and the replacement of benefits like pension plans with things like 401(k) plans which were never designed to be retirement plans.

While all this is improving public opinion of labor unions they have a long, long way to go before getting anywhere near the popularity they had from the 1930s to the 1970s. Right now the unions would likely be happy with a widespread increase in the minimum wage, something that may not be out of reach.

"The odds are certainly getting better and part of the reason is the political climate has changed so that now it's not even considered radical to be thinking about a $15 minimum wage," said EPI's Eisenbrey. "It's changing the landscape and making what seemed extreme or far-fetched a year or two ago now seem completely plausible."




“Yesterday's protests by fast-food workers in more than 100 U.S. cities weren't just an effort to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. They were also a demonstration of a tactic re-invigorating organized labor: Showing unions as fighting for all workers, not just their members. … Although the effort was funded and organized by the Service Employees International Union, most of the protesters were not members of the SEIU or any other union. Kendall Fells, a representative of SEIU and organizing director of Fast Food Forward which sponsored yesterday's protests, believes that it's common cause, not membership, that makes a union.... This is just the latest effort, mostly by newer and smaller unions, to organize people in low-paying, high-turnover jobs that older, more established unions believed couldn't be organized.... One thing SEIU has done is to organize low-wage workers by industry instead of the traditional model of organizing relatively well-paid jobs at individual businesses. It is a tactic that has worked well for the union, which today has two million members mostly working in healthcare, property services and government. Since the 1980s it has successfully organized janitors, security guards, child care providers and others.... This change in focus has connected with the public at large. Figueroa says this can be seen in things like Seattle's decision to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hourand in other cities also seeking to set a minimum that is well above the federally mandated $7.25 an hour.... "It's changing the landscape and making what seemed extreme or far-fetched a year or two ago now seem completely plausible."

I am so glad to see this. For the last twenty years I have bemoaned the near death of the labor movement, and the fact that so many jobs fly under the radar. Office workers are not generally represented by a union, though the OPEIU has been in existence since 1945 according to Wikipedia, and groups like food workers have rarely been represented. I found one union though, the United Food And Commercial Workers International Union – www.ufcw.org/.

This new union trend of leading non-members in actions toward a common cause – uniting low wage workers in strikes – has taken hold partly because wages have risen so very little lately, so that many employed people are not bringing in a full income that will cover their needs. That includes people who used to be “middle class” and are now losing their homes. “'People are more skeptical now of corporate leaders...'” and have been questioning the long-standing economic philosophy which has dominated the cultural scene. “Trickle down” economy is being considered highway robbery as CEOs make increasingly larger amounts of money, while employees who used to think they were doing pretty well have lost their pensions and their wages aren't paying the bills. That's if they still have a job.





Eric Holder Opens Broad Probe Into Ferguson Police – NBC
— Erin McClam and Aaron Mermelstein
First published September 4th 2014

Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday announced a sweeping federal civil rights investigation of the police department of Ferguson, Missouri, citing a “deep mistrust” between officers and the people who live there.

Holder said the investigation would determine whether officers in Ferguson had “engaged in a pattern or practice of violations of the U.S. Constitution or federal law.”

He said that the investigation would analyze police use of force, traffic stops, searches and the treatment of detainees. It will go beyond the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown, by a white officer, Darren Wilson, on Aug. 9.

Four of the department’s 54 officers are black, while the city population is about two-thirds black. State statistics have also shown that blacks in St. Louis County, including Ferguson, are more likely to be pulled over and more likely to be arrested during traffic stops than whites.

Holder said that his conversations with the people of Ferguson, when he visited in the aftermath of the Brown shooting, had shown the pattern of mistrust.

He said that Justice Department officials had also reviewed records, including racial statistics for police stops, before deciding the open the investigation. The Justice Department is investigating the Brown shooting separately, as is a grand jury in the St. Louis area.

The Ferguson mayor and police chief both told NBC News on Thursday that they welcomed the federal investigation.

In Ferguson, within feet of where Brown was killed, one man, Jerdonn Hill, told NBC News on Thursday that he welcomed the federal investigation because he does not trust local investigators to be unbiased.

“I’m not gonna say the whole force is bad,” he said. He said that he had had “a couple of run-ins with a lot of Ferguson officers, but not all of them bad, you know? Not all of them bad.”

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said it had opened more than 20 similar investigations into police departments across the country over the past five years. It said it is enforcing 14 agreements to “reform law enforcement practices at agencies large and small.”



Black St. Louis Suburbs Hit With Ticket Blitz – NBC
BY LISA RIORDAN SEVILLE
First published August 22nd 2014

Long before the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown brought national attention to racial tensions in Ferguson, Missouri, zealous ticketing by a string of similar towns across the north side of St. Louis County had fed friction between the area’s largely white police departments and a growing black population.

An analysis by NBC News indicates that in recent years, Ferguson and other nearby jurisdictions have issued citations for low-level traffic and other violations at a per capita rate as much as a dozen times higher than cities in other parts of suburban St. Louis.

St. Louis County has 90 municipalities within its 524 square miles, and towns with populations as small as 800 people have their own police forces. Given the dense patchwork of towns and police departments, a single short car trip includes the possibility of multiple traffic stops. One seven-mile stretch of Interstate 70, for example, passes through eight different cities that can issue violations.

“If you’re driving to get to highway 70 to go to work, you drive through two to three municipalities, each of which can ticket you and make your life really difficult,” said Thomas Harvey, executive director of ArchCity Defenders, a law firm that represents low-income people in the area and recently released a report on local municipal courts.

Data from the State Attorney General’s Office also shows that per capita, black drivers in the county are 66 percent more likely to be stopped than whites, and more likely to be arrested once stopped. The result, in a section of the county where the poor black population is growing and the older white population is declining, is that much of the interaction between police and the newer residents takes place during traffic stops.

“It’s not just Ferguson, it’s this whole region,” said Harvey. “My clients say that the police officer and the judge and the prosecutor are not on their side, and they are just viewed as a source of revenue."

Running the Numbers

The contrast between the north county towns and other more affluent cities can be stark. Ferguson, a city of about 21,000, filed 11,400 traffic cases in fiscal year 2013. Chesterfield, a largely white city in the western suburbs, filed almost the exact same number -- but is more than twice Ferguson's size.

Cases involving non-traffic ordinances, which range from loitering and trespassing to petty larceny, provide an even starker contrast, with Ferguson filing almost a dozen times as many per capita. Ferguson in fiscal year 2013 filed more than 12,300 such cases, more than any other city in the county, and up from 8,800 in 2009. Chesterfield filed just 2,300 in 2013.

Ferguson is not alone in its approach. Before dissolving its police department last year, Cool Valley, a majority-black city of fewer than 1,200, filed 7,558 non-ordinance violation cases and 1,717 traffic cases that did not involve drugs or alcohol.

In Carleton Park, where blacks now account for about half of the 1,300 residents, the combined total of tickets for both types of offenses rose more than 50 percent between 2009 and 2013 to nearly 7,500. In contrast, officials in the affluent, white western suburb of Ballwin, which has 24 times the population, wrote about 9,000 tickets.

As cities in North County have gotten poorer and the effects of the recession linger, several have had to cut back on services to save costs. But many have seen their collections of fees and fines increase.

Budget documents show that Ferguson City officials expected to bring in about $2.6 million in fines and public safety revenues for the year ending in June 2013, an increase of more than 40 percent from 2010.

The nearby suburb of St. Ann, population 13,000, had lost tax revenue in 2011 when two major retailers moved away. That year police began to crack down on speeders along a stretch of Interstate 70 as part of a program to reduce accidents. It passed an ordinance that allowed the city to levy speeding tickets with fines twice that of state highway patrol. Revenue from the court has shot up nearly 170 percent to an estimated $3.1 million at the end of 2013.

Follow NBC News Investigations on Twitter and Facebook.

Some officials have been critical of the rash of ticketing in northern St. Louis County. Among them is former St. Louis County Police Chief Tom Fitch. In a blog written before he retired last February, he railed in particular against speed cameras, which some towns have put up along major roadways to slow traffic, or, according to Fitch, “in order to generate as many violations as possible.” The result, he said, was to “feed off some of the poorest people in the St. Louis region.”

But St. Ann Police Chief Aaron Jimenez rejects that claim, saying the enforcement has reduced accidents significantly in recent years. “I’ve said since the beginning if you don’t break the law, then you don’t have anything to worry about,” he said.

"People don’t get the message unless it hurts the pocketbook, and we all know that.”

“Your naysayers are the ones who have gotten arrested for committing crimes, have received traffic violations," he added. "Half of the people who didn’t have attitudes would probably not have received those traffic tickets.”

Representatives of the city of Ferguson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Defenders cite a number of possible reasons for increased ticket writing other than a desire for revenue, like a rise in low level crimes or quality of life complaints. The cities along I-70 that recently implemented speed cameras and enforcement programs say these were meant to address high-speed accidents. In Ferguson, part of the impetus was a desire to improve the quality of life and attract investment. Ferguson ran an aggressive “nuisance abatement” campaign to lure development, according to budget documents.

But the perception among many caught up in the system is that the enforcement is about race and revenue, not public safety.

“It’s all about money -- that’s all they want,” said Antonio Morgan, 28, a resident of nearby Hazelwood who has been in and out of the county’s municipal courts since he was 16. “They don’t protect and serve anymore. When I was a kid, you talked to the police officers. In a black neighborhood, you can’t walk down the street without them pulling up on you. In the white community, they’re not doing that.”

‘A Vicious Cycle’

From his perch as a part-time municipal judge in Overland, a city of 16,000 southwest of Ferguson, Frank Vatterott has watched the opportunity for people to be ticketed grow.

“There’s a lot more regulatory ordinances now that weren’t around before,” said Vatterott, a veteran of 34 years on the bench. “So there’s a lot more opportunity for police to stop people.”

Ordinances range from loitering and storing tires out of doors to assault and petty theft, and many have legitimately violated them. Those with means can generally pay the fine and walk away. But for those in poverty, said Vatterott, a small violation can become web of ticketing, debt, and if people don’t, or can’t, show up in court to pay it, warrants and arrest. Residents can end up with warrants in multiple cities, not to mention a license suspended for failure to pay, making getting to court even harder.

“It becomes a vicious cycle for defendants who are largely poor,” he said. He added that as a judge he has little choice but to issue a warrant when someone fails to show up.

Some cities have instituted amnesty days to help people clear outstanding warrants and begin to untangle themselves from the court. But with more than 40,500 outstanding warrants in Ferguson along as of 2013, many remain enmeshed.

No one claims that tickets in St. Louis County are behind the protests that have sparked national attention. But the longstanding perception that things are unfair in St. Louis County has mattered, said Morgan of Hazelwood.

“When the police treat you unjustly, and nobody hears you, and nobody stands up for you, you get frustrated,” said Morgan. “When an incident happens, now you’re ready to act out. Because you feel this is the only way anybody’s going to hear you.”




“Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday announced a sweeping federal civil rights investigation of the police department of Ferguson, Missouri, citing a “deep mistrust” between officers and the people who live there. Holder said the investigation would determine whether officers in Ferguson had 'engaged in a pattern or practice of violations of the U.S. Constitution or federal law.' He said that the investigation would analyze police use of force, traffic stops, searches and the treatment of detainees..... State statistics have also shown that blacks in St. Louis County, including Ferguson, are more likely to be pulled over and more likely to be arrested during traffic stops than whites.... The Justice Department is investigating the Brown shooting separately, as is a grand jury in the St. Louis area.... The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said it had opened more than 20 similar investigations into police departments across the country over the past five years. It said it is enforcing 14 agreements to 'reform law enforcement practices at agencies large and small.'

There is something basically wrong with giving too much power and too little oversight to anybody. That means office holders in corrupt settings where big money and the “good old boy network” dominate are more likely to work for personal advantage rather than the public good. Sometimes there is simply a need to “shake things up” a little bit. Unexamined power structures tend to become dishonest and unfair over time. The deep south has had a tendency toward these kinds of settings since the abuses of slavery became so deeply ingrown there, and then with Reconstruction the KKK and other white power elements became strong.

Those elements are no longer unchallenged these days, but they are still strong. The deep conflict between whites and blacks has been improved somewhat as some white southerners have changed their attitudes and opinions, but the struggle isn't over yet. Our modern day Tea Party is riddled with racism, though their members aren't all in the south. Many northern areas are racially corrupt, too. The distribution of KKK flyers a few years ago was in a northern neighborhood. Police, whether we like it or not, are more highly influenced by ultra-conservative opinions than the ordinary citizen is, though that is of course the pool from which antisemitism and racism emerge. Christianity at its best tries to instill “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” but it often fails, especially since there are virtually no blacks or Hispanics going to the local Southern Baptist Church. They just don't get to know each other and develop mutual respect and friendship.

I'm glad to see the DOJ going into this, not because I think Ferguson is probably worse than other areas, but because their probe is clearly needed, indeed, across the country in police forces in general. Police brutality has become a complaint in all corners of our country, and to me it is a matter of bad management from the top down. Such police officers should be fired summarily. Some police officers should never have been hired because they are vicious in general, but most are not. The good cops have to battle corruption within the force, public opinion which has turned against police, and they may not get the praise and honor due them for true heroic actions. Some police officers still work within impoverished communities to mentor youths who might go astray, or run into a house afire to pull a victim out. They are heroes.



The NBC article above is about a background of harassing regulations and small time criminal ordinances which are more prevalent in the North County area of which Ferguson is a part. It contrasts the rate of traffic stops and arrests among the blacks and whites, and the overall number of interactions with police that go on there. The following is from the North County located website of Thomas Harvey, executive director of ArchCity Defenders, a law firm that represents low-income people in the area and recently released a report on local municipal courts.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Arch-City-Defenders-Inc/142851010473?sk=info

About

The ArchCity Defenders strives to prevent and end homelessness among the indigent and working poor in the St. Louis Region by providing holistic criminal and civil legal services.www.archcitydefenders.org

Mission

Based on every person's right to equal access to quality criminal defense regardless of income, the ArchCity Defenders provides legal services to those who do not qualify for or are under-served by the services of other legal aid organizations but who nonetheless cannot afford a private attorney. 
Indigent clients frequently face multiple underlying problems such as broken families, unemployment, education and communication deficits, mental illness, and substance abuse that can both outweigh and exacerbate their criminal charges. ACD addresses both the client’s short-term and long-term needs by facilitating access to care and treatment, as well as to legal counsel. 

Dedicated to changing more than the indigent's immediate legal trouble, ACD provides zealous advocacy throughout the duration of the client’s case and, at the same time, aims to assist clients build or transition back to a productive and rewarding life, lawfully participating in and improving our community. If we truly are committed to living together, social, racial, cultural, and monetary barriers to happiness must be overcome. 

Company Overview

ArchCity Defenders, Inc. ("ACD") is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to providing the best possible legal counsel to the homeless and the poor facing state and municipal prosecution; we also provide civil representation and coordinate services aiming to remedy or mitigate our client's mental illness, substance abuse, and other disabilities or disorders. Our clients—the homeless and otherwise forgotten poor—do not qualify for the services of other organizations, are under-served by the existing overwhelmed public defender systems, and are unable to afford private counsel. Through a dedicated staff of attorneys teamed with social service providers and other members of the community, ACD aims not only to resolve any immediate legal issues our clients face, but also to maintain a working relationship with each client and help them transition into a full and rewarding lawful life in their community.

Description

Find out more about recent events with ArchCity athttp://archcitydefenders.tumblr.com/

General Information

"The ArchCity Defenders are engaged in an exemplary, and often thankless job, of defending the voiceless and powerless in the criminal justice system. As a former public defender, I know how difficult the work can be and I salute those who continue the fight for justice and fairness in our legal system. It is the highest form of advocacy."

- Prof. Charles J. Ogletree, Jr.
The Jessie Climenko Professor of Law at Harvard Law School


Awards

2013 Atticus Finch Award Honorees - Missouri Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys (MACDL)
2012 Spirit of Justice Award Honorees - Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis (BAMSL)
2011 Excellence in Pro Bono Award - Saint Louis University School of Law
2011 Pro Bono Wall of Fame (Co-Founder and Attorney, Michael-John Voss)
- Missouri Bar Association
2010 Diamond Level in Pro Bono Hours (Co-Founder and Attorney, Michael-John Voss) - Missouri Bar Association